Raquel Leviss has broken her silence in her first interview since the bombshell cheating scandal that shook the cast of Vanderpump Rules.
On Wednesday (16 August), the 28-year-old reality star opened up about her affair with castmate Tom Sandoval on the Just B with Bethenny Frankel podcast. Leviss - who now goes by her birth name Rachel - made many shocking revelations during part one of her sit-down with the Real Housewives of New York City alum, including the claim that Sandoval recorded their sexually explicit FaceTime call “without [her] consent”.
In March, it was revealed that Leviss and Sandoval had engaged in an eight-month long affair while the restaurateur and bar owner was still in a relationship with his partner of nine years, Ariana Madix. At the time, it was reported that Madix had discovered the affair when she found a NSFW video of Leviss on her then-boyfriend’s phone.
During the podcast, Frankel inquired about the notorious video that launched #Scandoval. “So you’re FaceTiming Tom - you’re in New York and Tom is in LA - you’re masturbating, and he’s recording you, and you don’t know that you’re being recorded?” the Skinny Girl founder said, to which Leviss replied: “Correct.”
Leviss explained that she had been in New York City on 1 March doing press for the show’s 10th season when she decided to FaceTime Sandoval. “I decided to be adventurous and look at the adult section on the TV, and Tom and I FaceTime a lot, so it turned into something more of an intimate FaceTime,” she recalled. “I expected to have privacy in that moment, so that happened.”
Leviss went on to claim that she was unaware Sandoval had screen-recorded their call until Madix sent her two videos she found on his phone later that night, along with a text message that read: “You’re dead to me.”
“That’s how I knew that [Madix] knew,” she told Frankel. “And then also, that’s how I found out that I had been recorded without my consent, so of course all of these emotions came flooding over me.”
When asked whether the contents of the video were “graphic,” Leviss said that the clip was “not something [she] would ever want [her] grandma to see”. She also explained how “scared” she was that the video was “going to be leaked,” so she “felt pressured in that moment” to tell Madix the truth about her affair with Sandoval.
Soon after the infidelity made headlines, her lawyers sent a legal letter warning the Vanderpump Rules cast against the distribution of the video, which they claimed was recorded “illegally without [her] knowledge or consent”.
Her lawyers cited a California law against revenge porn, which makes it a crime to invade someone’s privacy by disseminating “nonconsensual pornography”. While the legal letter reportedly demanded that anyone in possession of the recording promptly delete it from their phones, according to Page Six, it did not state that Sandoval recorded it.
In addition to Leviss’ bombshell claims about the video that started #Scandoval, the former beauty pageant contestant confirmed that she will not be returning for season 11 of Vanderpump Rules, which began filming on 28 June. She also claimed that she has not received additional compensation for the critical success of Vanderpump Rules, which scored its first two Emmy nominations that season.
“The network is running to the bank with this scandal, and I haven’t seen a single penny,” she told Frankel, later adding: “I feel like I’ve been portrayed as the ultimate villain. My mistake I made on camera lives on forever.”
While Leviss admitted that she “caused [Madix] a lot of pain” in the wake of the scandal, she clarified that she and Madix “were not best friends” at the time of the affair, and rather that’s “the narrative that is being written for [her]”.
Although she previously issued an apology “for [her] actions and choices” following the infidelity, Leviss doubled-down on her decision to engage in a romantic relationship with Sandoval while he was still dating Madix. “I would not be involved in this affair, secrecy type of situation if I thought that there was longevity in this relationship between Tom and Ariana,” she told Frankel. “The people closest to them could see that their relationship hasn’t been what they portray on camera.”
After the 10th season wrapped filming in March, Leviss checked into a two-month stay at a mental health facility in Arizona. She sought “mental health and trauma therapy” treatment at The Meadows.
In May, it was announced that Leviss and Sandoval had called it quits just two months after news broke of their affair. A source told Entertainment Tonight at the time that “Tom and Raquel broke up,” while Page Six reported: “Raquel dipped out. Sandoval is not the one for her.”
Despite multiple reports that the two had split, a source told People that their relationship status hadn’t changed because they “were never a couple” in the first place. “Tom and Raquel never put a label on their relationship to begin with,” they said. “After their affair was exposed and the blowback they received, they said that before defining things, they needed to take time to address the issues in their own lives that drove them to this in the first place. And that’s where things still are.”
The Independent has contacted representatives for Tom Sandoval for comment.
