Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney finalized their divorce in October 2022, but not all of his Winter House costars are convinced he’s moved on. “I do think he is still in love with his ex-wife,” Malia White, who stars alongside Schwartz, 41, on season 3 of Winter House, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, November 21, about Schwartz cutting off his romance with costar Katie Flood during the Bravo hit. Flood, however, isn’t convinced that Schwartz’s reservations toward her on Winter House were pegged to his so-called love for Maloney, 36. (Flood and Schwartz sparked a vacation flirtation on the Bravo series, but he pumped the brakes because of his awareness over how it may affect his ex-wife.) “I don’t think it’s that,” Flood, 31, exclusively told Us on Tuesday when asked if Schwartz’s hesitation with her was because of his “love” for Maloney. “I think he’s done a lot of things in that relationship [with Katie] that he knows put her through a lot, and I think in his mind he was like, ‘OK, this is going to be on TV. She is going to see it.’”
Flood noted that they shot Winter House in Colorado Springs, Colorado, shortly after Schwartz filmed season 10 of Vanderpump Rules. During that season, which aired this past spring, Schwartz revealed he kissed costar Raquel Leviss after his divorce, which hurt Maloney. (News broke in March that Raquel, 29, also had an affair with Tom Sandoval while he was dating their castmate Ariana Madix.) “They’d obviously filmed Vanderpump [Rules] a couple of months prior and we obviously saw what happened last season. So I think that was in his head,” Flood continued. “He was trying not to disrespect [his ex-wife] or do something to her.” Chelsea Lauren/Getty Images Schwartz’s choice to be extra cautious about Maloney’s feelings led to drama between him and Flood, who he instantly connected with upon arrival at the winter chalet. “It’s funny, I really don’t know the point where it changed,” Flood told Us of her chemistry with Schwartz, noting that their “cute little grocery trip together” included an in-depth chat that seemed to kick off their flirtation. “One thing that really stuck out to me, he was very honest about where he was at, what he had done,” she said. “He spoke about his marriage. He spoke about things that maybe weren’t the best things that happened in his marriage. So he was really open from the get go, and he also never threw Katie under the bus to me.”
The Below Deck Mediterranean star recalled finding it “really attractive” that Schwartz was so honest. “He’s cute and he has this really likable energy. It was just like a little crush,” Flood added. Despite their sweet start, Flood and Schwartz hit multiple roadblocks while pursuing a vacation romance. The biggest hurdle was Schwartz’s inability to overlook the fact that both Flood and Maloney had the same name. (They also share the same middle moniker, Marie.) “Honestly, at the start, I didn’t really mind it. We were all very aware of what he was going through. There was a lot going on in every single area of his life, so I was trying to really hold space for that and be mindful to him and have courtesy towards that,” Flood confessed to Us, revealing that Schwartz’s issues with her name eventually took its toll. “But it definitely gets [to] a [breaking] point, and it just sucked a little bit.”