Blabbing About: Friendship Breakups
Inspired by the Vanderpump Rules Reunion Part 3
I’m the first to admit that I get teary about nearly anything, but the final part of the Vanderpump Rules Season 11 reunion really got me.
It got me for plenty of reasons — watching Ariana and Sandoval finally let it out, watching Schwartz and Katie get emotional with one another, etc. But the real thing that hit me like a ton of Lisa Vanderpump’s Villa Rosa bricks was the friendship breakup.
Similar to many of you reading this now, I’ve also gone through a couple friendship breakups in my life and there is simply no other feeling that compares to the heartbreak of losing what once was a near and dear friend. I felt Ariana realize in that moment that she lost Scheana and Lala as friends, and you could see the hurt in her heart seeping through her tears. The part that made it even worse? Lala legitimately didn’t care. And to go through a friendship breakup and feel like the other friend doesn’t care that it’s over is even worse.
We all know reality TV isn’t a natural way to live life, so having them all watch these conversations back and see conversations between people that would normally be kept private certainly makes for a mess. But there’s one thing you can’t deny, and that’s, at one point, these people were genuinely friends. You can see it in the montages — they all went through this weird way of life together and some came out better for it, and others simply didn’t (or haven’t yet).
Watching Lala say that she doesn’t care to lose Ariana or Katie as friends felt like a punch in the gut. But having that living and breathing reminder on film is probably going to be extremely important for Ariana and Katie in the future as they navigate this friendship loss. Having the visual proof of someone coherently saying that they don’t want to be your friend anymore is more than anyone could need to move on and say good riddance.
But having that proof doesn’t make it any easier. Even at 30 years old, I still get flashes of hurt when I think about friendship breakups I went through over 10 years ago in college. And even at 30 years old, I’ve realized being an adult comes with more of these breakups than you would think. Not all of them are as dramatic as some, but having the courage to move forward from a friendship that no longer serves you is a very strong skill to have, and it takes a lot of guts.
If you’re going through it now or still get sad about one from the past, just remember to look at it how Katie looked at her relationship with Schwartz:
