Tom Schwartz is clearing up rumors he’s dating hairstylist Jo Wenberg after divorcing Katie Maloney.
“Jo is a badass hairstylist. … I think she’s a beautiful soul,” the “Vanderpump Rules” star, 40, told Us Weekly Wednesday during a joint interview with Tom Sandoval at their Hollywood bar, Schwartz & Sandy’s.
During this week’s episode of the Bravo reality show, Schwartz told Scheana Shay that he had been up until 4 a.m. “hanging out” with Wenberg, who has consistently worked with the cast since 2015.
However, he denied ever hooking up with her.
“We’re not living together and we’re not dating either, but she’s just someone who I appreciate on a deep level and she’s a really cool human being, and we’re just hanging out,” he told the outlet of his current relationship with Wenberg.
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Schwartz’s conversation with Shay, 37, about Wenberg was captured by Bravo cameras in July 2022. But that December, fans speculated the two might be more than friends after being spotted in footage of Raquel Leviss’ Instagram Stories from a concert in Los Angeles.
Schwartz — who entertained a brief fling with Leviss, 28, as well during production for Season 10 — told Us Weekly that he is in no way ready for another relationship after his split from Maloney, 36.
“I just got out of a 12-year relationship. I cannot be in a committed — I can’t dive back into another relationship,” the Schwartz & Sandy’s co-founder explained.
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“It wouldn’t be fair to the other person ‘cause I’m kind of consumed with, like, business and my family and I’m kind of falling in love with myself all over again.”
Schwartz and Maloney announced their breakup in March 2022 after five years of marriage and more than a decade together. They finalized their divorce the following October.
Maloney explained on a recent episode of “Pump Rules” that Schwartz’s dedication to his new bar was partly to blame for their demise as a couple.
“I’m trying to be excited for Tom, but this bar has a very complicated history,” she said in a confessional. “It put a massive strain on our relationship. It just was a lot more of a presence in my life than I thought it would be, without me having say over it.”
The “You’re Gonna Love Me” podcast host elaborated, “All of the marital issues and arguments and everything we were having has now just been personified. This bar was the other woman in our marriage.”
“Vanderpump Rules” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.