Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix will make an appearance on Love Island this summer.

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Ariana first hinted she would be making an appearance on Love Island's upcoming fifth season, which premieres July 18 on Peacock, via a cryptic TikTok post on Saturday, July 8.

"Islanders: ready to shake things up? Don't worry, I don't bite," Ariana captioned the video, which showed her lip syncing the words to a popular audio clip from the show.

Ariana's fame skyrocketed when she made headlines in March because her then-boyfriend of nearly a decade, Tom Sandoval, got caught having a six-month affair with her former best friend and Vanderpump Rules co-star Raquel Leviss.

In the TikTok video clip, Raquel was rocking a lime green bikini top with black sunglasses, gold hoop earrings, and her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail.

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Ariana's fans celebrated and congratulated Ariana on the news, with one person writing, "[I'm] so here for this."

Some fans guessed Ariana would be replacing actress Sarah Hyland as host of Love Island's fifth season given she's currently dating fitness trainer Daniel Wai and would therefore seem unable to participate as a contestant.

However, a source told The New York Post's Page Six that was not the case.

"Ariana is not the host," the source claimed of the Vanderpump Rules star.

On Tuesday, Peacock confirmed Ariana will not compete as an Islander and will instead surprise Love Island's Season 5 cast with a special guest appearance during the second week of the season, which will once again be hosted by Sarah.


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The Vanderpump Rules star is also a busy woman who just confirmed last week she'll be competing on Season 32 of Dancing with the Stars this fall.

Ariana will also be starring on Vanderpump Rules' upcoming eleventh season, which began filming on June 28. But Raquel Leviss' future on the show remains uncertain in the aftermath of "Scandoval."

Raquel is still checking her mental health at a treatment facility following her affair with Tom.

Ariana and Tom had been dating for about nine years when the scandal came to light in March, and news of the betrayal ultimately ended Tom and Ariana's relationship that same month.

"Raquel is currently in talks about returning for the next season of Vanderpump Rules. However, she hasn't decided whether or not she wants to come back to the show," a source told Us Weekly in late June.

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Raquel's treatment, which she began in April, was reportedly designed to help her "learn the basis of her decisions and to grow from her mistakes with the hope of making better choices and becoming a better person."

Despite being subjected to backlash and shaming, Raquel filmed Vanderpump Rules' three-part Season 10 reunion before checking herself into rehab.

Bravo executive Andy Cohen joked about -- and later apologized for -- how Raquel seemed "unemotional" and heavily medicated at the time of the reunion.

According to Us, Raquel is very apologetic for having slept with Tom and for hurting Ariana.

Raquel even previously expressed how she hated being secretive and so deceitful, sneaking around with Tom even around the time Ariana's grandmother passed away.


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Looking back on her decade-long romance with Tom, Ariana shared with Glamour magazine in June, "I feel like I'm someone who craves intimacy outside of just penetrative sex, and that was something that I was deprived of for so long."

"As women, we might bring something up a bunch of times and then we just stop," Ariana continued.

"That's where I was at. I was like, 'I cannot keep nagging this man to want to come home and spend time with me.'"

Ariana went on to vent about how "so many men" in general feel "entitled" to a woman's body.

"[They act] entitled to sex because you're in a relationship with them," Ariana said. "I am not your Fleshlight. I spelled out what I needed, but hello. It's a two-person situation."


Ariana broke her silence about her breakup with Tom on NBC's Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in May and revealed, "We do not interact on any level."

While Ariana and Tom are still living in the same $2 million Los Angeles home, temporarily, Ariana said they only communicate through "go betweens" and that her family "hates" him and Tom is "dead" to her brother.

Ariana also previously told Raquel that she's "dead" to her and their friendship is over. Ariana said Raquel seems "lost and empty" and she doesn't know who Raquel is anymore.

When asked what it would take for her to forgive Tom and Raquel, Ariana bluntly announced, "That's not happening."

But Ariana was able to move on from the scandal with the help of Daniel, whom she began dating in April.

While Ariana played coy about her love life on Watch What Happens Live, she teased to viewers, "I'll just say that I am very happy and very satisfied."


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A source recently told Us that Ariana is "definitely open to seeing where things go" with Daniel but she "isn't totally ready to jump into a serious relationship."

Meanwhile, Tom told TMZ in late April that he was "really happy" to see Ariana doing so well.

After all, an insider source claimed to Us on March 3 that Tom and Ariana had been "having problems for a while." The insider claimed the pair's relationship "only came to a breaking point" the day prior to their split on March 1.

But Tom claimed he officially broke up with Ariana on Valentine's Day in February.

Tom also shared on the April 11 episode of the "Howie Mandel Does Stuff" podcast how his romance with Raquel started with a "magnetic" kiss last summer.

"I felt something that I hadn't felt in so long emotionally," Tom explained. "The feelings were something very, very strong."


Tom claimed that he had attempted to break up with Ariana once he realized he had strong feelings for Raquel.

"Like many relationships, it felt like it became more of like a best friends, family [thing] -- sometimes roommates," Tom continued.

"There were a lot of ways where the relationship was just lacking the intimacy, the connection. We would travel more by ourselves than we would together. I would go to weddings by myself."

Tom said he was seeing and FaceTiming with Raquel "as often" as he could," even though that "sounds horrible."

"And Ariana didn't even notice because that's just how separate our lives were," Tom claimed. "I had to actually tell her, 'How have you not noticed how distant I've been lately?'"

Ariana apparently believes Tom even had sex with Raquel in one of their guest rooms while she was sleeping in their bed.














About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.