When Ariana Madix steps in front of the camera for her People StyleWatch cover shoot, Beyoncé’s “Diva” blasts through the speakers. And while she’s spent the last 11 years of her life on one of the most high-octane Bravo shows, starred as Roxie Hart on Broadway’s Chicago and landed a hosting gig on Love Island USA, Madix is anything but a diva.

Since her debut on Vanderpump Rules in 2013, Madix has been reborn. Eleven seasons, countless standoffs, one sandwich shop, a revolving door of friends and frenemies and one of the biggest cheating scandals to ever hit reality TV (you know, the one that rhymes with Schmandoval) later, she’s found a new level of confidence that’s manifested in her career. But to hear Madix tell it, her road to success wasn’t paved by drama, sensational headlines or even a cheating ex.

“It’s funny, because it probably seems like things happen for me overnight if you didn’t know me or you weren’t close to me,” she says of her recent wins. “When it comes to my team, I’ve had the same manager since before I was ever on Vanderpump Rules, and we’ve worked our butts off for almost 15 years.” 

“While things maybe weren’t playing out in the public eye, there were always balls in the court,” she adds. “I’ve never had anyone else as part of the focus of what I want to do with my life.”

That team is busy cheering her on during her PSW shoot in Los Angeles. She laughs and jokes with her glam squad — her hairstylist, Clayton Hawkins, holds a bedazzled blow dryer as a wind machine and her makeup artist, Afton Williams, touches up her gloss as she mouths the words to the hot girl anthems playing on shuffle. 

“I feel – at almost 40 – like my true self,” she says. “I’m surrounded by such amazing friends and family. It feels really good to be in a position where I’m able to do what I love and make a living doing it. Being in this business for many, many years, it’s taken a long time to get to that point, and I feel really lucky.”

The No. 1 Girl in The Group

In March 2023, Vanderpump Rules fans were rocked when news broke about Madix’s partner of nine years, Tom Sandoval, having an affair with her friend and co-star. When it comes to how she looks back at the event that shook the pop culture zeitgeist, Madix has one simple and final response – “I don’t.”

“I hate that name too,” she says of the infamous “Scandoval” moniker. “That word has never come out of my mouth.” 

“Even when someone said it to me in regards to something I was wearing, I never said it back,” she adds, referencing her iconic season 10 reunion look featuring MONOT’s crop jacket and cutout long pencil skirt, which many fans have called her “revenge dress.”

In November 2024, Bravo announced VPR would be rebooting its cast with fresh faces after an explosive season 11 finale, a production break and months of speculation. At the time, a source told PEOPLE that the network felt they needed to move on with a new group because there were “so many fractions” among the cast.

“Everyone was still stuck in their feelings and refusing to bend. The network felt there was no path forward with the group in that capacity,” the insider added.

Either way, “I don’t think I was ever going to go back to Vanderpump Rules. That’s the first time I’ve ever said that publicly, but I was never going to,” Madix reveals.

“It just didn’t feel right. Not in any sort of rude way, not in a professional, ‘We don’t need this,’ not in a, ‘I’m too good for this’, but it just didn’t feel right,” she explains. “If I did go back, I wouldn’t have been able to do the job that would make a good show. And so it just wasn’t going to make sense, the story didn’t make sense.”

During that break, Madix prioritized her mental health. She feared that returning meant she would put herself back in a situation that could negate all the healing she focused on. 

“I was never really made for reality TV,” she says. “I don’t think I’ve ever been what makes ‘a good reality star.’ I think in some ways that’s what has made me a good reality star. But that being said, I think that a lot of times I got in my head.”

The television personality admits there were times she worried she was too “boring” or “ugly.” 

“That type of dialogue, I was having it in my head constantly filming nearly every scene, unless maybe I had a glass of wine,” she admits, adding, “that’s just not a good way to be.”

“I’ve also learned that maybe that’s not the best setting for me, and it’s not a setting that really allows me to be myself. And when you’re not being yourself, you get yourself into situations where you’re saying or doing things that you don’t really back or believe in.”

She Razzles, She Dazzles

After Madix made her debut on Dancing with the Stars in September 2023, she felt a shift.

“When Dancing with the Stars came around, every week I was able to connect more and more to the side of myself that is a performer and is an artist and loves to express myself through my body, through performance, through music, and so inner healing was happening outwardly.”

The opportunity allowed her to show not only the world, but herself that performing brought her happiness and was her true great love.

“I felt like I was healing every week with every dance because I was able to express myself,” she explains. “I had forgotten this side of myself because I had stopped believing that I was going to be able to do what I wanted to do.”

After placing third on the dance competition show, Madix flew to New York City where she made her Broadway debut as Roxie Hart in Chicago in January 2024. Her portrayal of the iconic character broke box office records, with her first week earning the show its highest-grossing non-holiday performance week.

She became the unexpected breakout star of Broadway, so much so that she returned for a second run in August of the same year. 

Through it all, Madix was thinking of her late grandmother, one of the “major losses” she felt in 2023.

“I had a poster of her that my uncle gave me in my dressing room at Chicago, and so every night before I went out, before I started my song, “Funny Honey,” I would be up on that ladder and I would look up into the stage light and just think of my grandma.”

“She’s someone who I always looked up to and so I do things for her,” she continues. “I was like, ‘I’m going to do it for my grandma. I’m going to pick myself back up.’ I had decided that I was going to try to just do the best that I could, to be everything that she always wanted for me.”

And so she did, in March 2024, Madix bought her own property in the Hollywood Hills. 

She keeps it stocked with batteries, pens and toilet paper – iykyk – but she’s still working on making her house a home.

“It’s funny, because my first night in that house wasn’t until a while after I had gotten it. I was in New York when I got the house,” she says. “It’s interesting, trying to fill a house takes so long. It’s been nice, it’s been good.”

An Off-Camera Romance

Madix has reclaimed her narrative and is “in charge of my own destiny” – partly because of her never-ending drive to be better and partly because of the support she’s gotten from her boyfriend, Daniel Wai.

After meeting at a mutual friend’s wedding in Mexico, the couple took their budding romance to Coachella where they were seen packing on the PDA in April 2023. By May 2023, a source told PEOPLE that Madix was already “falling in love” with Wai.

“He’s taught me that the things that I perceive as imperfections or flaws are non-existent to him,” she says with a smile. “There’s things that I’ll say like, ‘I hate this about myself, I hate that about myself,’ and without him ever hearing me say that, or him even knowing, he’ll be like, ‘Man, I love this about you.’” 

“He’s taught me not to focus on those things because someone who loves you doesn’t even see that. And if they do see it, they think it’s amazing about you,” she adds of his empathetic nature.

According to Madix, Wai is the “most beautiful person” who has the “most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen.”

The couple are still navigating a bi-coastal relationship, with Madix based in Los Angeles and Wai working as a fitness coach in New York City. While they don’t have plans to move in together any time soon, the duo has hit their fair share of relationship milestones – including Madix spending the holidays with his family.

A Hot New Bombshell

Madix’s star power continues to rise. 

From Dancing with the Stars to performing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the former reality star will soon be enroute to Fiji where she’ll be hosting the upcoming season of Love Island USA.

Since landing the coveted gig, Madix has taken the opportunity to unlock a sexier and bolder side to her sense of style. Though she gives most of the kudos to her stylist, Emily Men, the “real philosophy” behind her fashion evolution has been to “just go for it.”

“Whatever it is, go as far as possible. Let’s find the most this thing that could possibly be,” she says of her glam looks. There were a few options she thought she’d “never wear” but now that she’s shed some insecurity around her sense of style, “I don’t think I could ever go back.”

“For so many years I was afraid to go too far, do too much, and now I feel like it’s so much more fun for me,” she says. “It’s like costumes in a way, getting to kind of channel characters, and it’s really fun.”

Madix admits that her personal everyday style is “really all over the place” but mainly goes with whatever “feels good.”

In her Vanderpump Rules days, she could have “never afforded” a stylist. Without platforms like TikTok and other community-based social media apps, she often struggled to find something that was both trendy and felt right on her body.

“I could have never been able to go somewhere and just wear whatever I want,” she recalls, adding of her working relationship with Men, “We get to do things that I think, back then, I wouldn’t have had the access to or the confidence [to wear] either.”

“There was a point in time in my life where I was in a situation where I was very regularly being told of all the things that were wrong with my body. I think that that put me in a space where I was like, ‘I can’t wear that, I can’t wear that,’” she continues. “It has to be this, because if it’s showing this part of my body, that’s gross to everyone.”

“Is it flattering?” was once a question that haunted her decisions.

Now? 

“F— flattering, wear something fun, wear what you like!” she says with an exasperated laugh.  “No one’s body is gross. It doesn’t matter. It’s not about size, it’s just about confidence and it’s about how you feel.”

Madix’s unapologetic attitude towards her fashion choices also extends to her everchanging hair color.

“I change my hair so often because I get bored really easily. I go from really long to really short or darker to lighter a lot,” she says, adding that she’s always wanted to go red but hasn’t found the right moment. 

“There’s still time between now and the next season of Love Island [USA] to change it a few more times!” she muses.

Over the years, she hasn’t shied away from cosmetic procedures either – including a “very minimal laser” and injectables like chin filler.

“I’ve started doing Botox more in the last few years,” Madix says. “I did it a long, long time ago, and I really hated it. I think it was just the wrong placement, the wrong everything. I don’t have any right now, but I’ll probably go back and get some.”

She admits, however, that the maintenance behind injectables is hard to keep up with.

“I’ll do something once and then I won’t do it again for a really long time. And then people will be like, ‘Why does she look different?’ I’m like, ‘Because this bitch cannot maintain!’”

Betting on Herself

Later this year, Madix heads to Fiji for season 7 of Love Island USA – a gig she hopes to continue “as long as they’ll have me.” 

As she looks forward to what’s next, Madix has a few bucket list items she’d like to cross off her list.

“I would love to return to Broadway, whether it’s this year or next year [or] any year, I just love being on stage. I love performing, I would love to be doing more of that,” she says. “It’s really fun and it’s really fulfilling for me, and I love being able to do that.”

When it comes to Something About Her, the sandwich shop she opened with her former VPR costar Katie Maloney, the two have “lots of things in the works,” including plans for fun parties and different events they’d like to throw there.

“It’s been really fun. It’s really nice to have a place to go, it’s lovely when we get to meet people who come in,” Madix says, sharing that she and Katie are also open to expanding the business to a new location, with the right investor.

As for what else the next decade will bring, Madix says she remains committed to maintaining her peace. 

“I would love to feel just pure contentment in my life. 10 years from now, I will be almost 50, and hopefully my health is intact. That’s really all I can ask for, because anything can happen at any time, and I feel like we’re always constantly reminded of that.”

“If I can just be happy and healthy, I think I’ll be in a good place,” she smiles.