Chrishell Stause is not exactly loving Tom Sandoval’s approach to his “Traitors” game.
Sandoval made headlines with his mistakes during season 3 of The Traitors, notably naming Stause as a potential Traitor—a move that Chrishell found absurd.
“I thought it was ridiculous,” Chrishell, 43, told Us Weekly regarding Sandoval’s hasty accusation.
“I just felt like of all the people and all the minds at this table, do we really think Sandoval solved the puzzle in 0.5 seconds of leaving the room? No.”
Sandoval’s decision to name Chrishell immediately backfired, as she noted it ended up benefiting her.
“I felt like he was so loud and so wrong. It really felt like whoever he says [the Traitor] is, we probably know it isn’t. So I think it helped in my case, to be honest,” she added.
The tension between the two escalated during the first roundtable banishment meeting, where Chrishell accused Sandoval of targeting her due to her closeness with his ex-girlfriend, Ariana Madix.
“He’s terrible [at playing the game]. To be honest with you, there was no other reason for him saying my name,” she said.
“He just said it so blatantly that he knew I was a Traitor. Of course, he’s going to act like, ‘Oh, I really was just playing the game.’ To me, it felt personal and you probably can’t change your mind at this point.”
Chrishell clarified that she did not seek Ariana’s advice before the show, despite Sandoval’s controversial past, including his public split from Ariana in 2023 following an affair.
Rumors of a feud between Sandoval and Chrishell surfaced in November 2024 after she notably left him out of promotional photos.
Explaining her strategy, Chrishell said, “It was to make friends and lay low. You don’t want to really even make the edit that much in the beginning. My name was being brought up at the very first roundtable. I went in with the best of intentions and had to throw that game plan away.”
Chrishell admitted that Sandoval’s actions forced her to change her approach.
“I had to go with what I could, which was to really defend myself and make sure people felt like I was a Faithful,” she explained.
“But then if you do too good of a job, you’ll be up for murder. So I knew I had to get a shield and then I had to defend myself at the roundtable. At that point in time [after Sandoval named me], my game plan was shot.”
