Raquel Leviss is finally sharing her side of the “Scandoval†affair — and she did it with one of the people who knows reality TV best. Speaking for the first time since the Vanderpump Rules reunion, Leviss did an an interview with former Real Housewife and current reality-TV unionizer Bethenny Frankel for both of her podcasts. And she started with a quick reintroduction: It’s Rachel now, after a post-affair therapy exercise about writing her name helped her “come back to my roots.†(Leviss went to a mental-health treatment facility after the VPR reunion, both to get away from the “vitriol online†and because she “knew that I had more work to do.â€)
But Leviss isn’t just reintroducing herself — she’s here to talk about her seven-month affair with castmate Tom Sandoval, which occurred while he was publicly dating another castmate, Ariana Madix. In a conversation full of therapyspeak and monologues on reality TV from Frankel, Leviss said she was drawn to Sandoval out of “love addiction,†which she described as “where you confuse intensity for intimacy.†“It explains why I couldn’t stop seeing this person, but it also doesn’t excuse the fact that it happened, but now I know better,†she told Frankel, who never watched VPR before Scandoval. Later, Leviss added that she “believed†she was in love with Sandoval during the affair, but since realized they just had a “connection†over their shared experience of the show. “I now look back on it and see that I was not in love with him,†she said. “I also don’t believe that he truly was in love with me either.â€
Leviss was apologetic throughout the conversation, opening by talking about “the hurts that I’ve brought to a lot of people.†But later, she admitted she doesn’t expect Madix — who she clarified she never spent time with outside the show — to forgive her. “I think once trust is broken with somebody, from personal experience, it’s really hard to come back from that,†Leviss said. “I am remorseful, I do recognize that I’ve caused her a lot of pain and there was a lot of secrecy, deception.†However, she did go on to criticize Madix’s anger toward her at the reunion. “My nature is very kind and forgiving and understanding of other people, so the concept of me being the ultimate reality-TV villain just blows my mind,†Leviss said. “The way that she spoke to me at the reunion — I feel like it was uncalled for.â€
Leviss also spoke about her actual friend on the cast, Scheana Shay, who let Leviss live with her after Leviss’s breakup with James Kennedy. Leviss countered the “narrative that she was the sister I never had,†explaining that she “did pay rent†while living with Shay, as well as watch her mercury-pumped cat and work on her podcast. “It’s just unfortunate that she’s trying to create this narrative that I’ve taken advantage of her, when I feel like I did contribute,†Leviss said. She doubled down on her allegation that Shay physically assaulted her, claiming that she was pushed against a wall and still has a scar from being “socked†in the eye.
The conversation was the first of a two-part episode that also included a lot of reflection on the behind-the-scenes of VPR and being on reality TV. For example, Leviss claimed that she confronted Sandoval on camera about recording an intimate moment on FaceTime without her consent, and he admitted to it. “But then after that scene wrapped, he said, ‘Why did you say that? Why did you say that on camera? You made me look bad,’†she recalled. “And I was like, ‘Well, because that’s what happened.’†She alleged that Sandoval then boycotted filming in order to get the editing rights to that footage and have it removed. According to Leviss, Sandoval also told her during negotiations for season 11 that he was offered a producer credit for the upcoming season. “I think he was being rewarded for the Scandoval of it all,†she said. “To me, that’s just kinda gross, because it makes me skeptical. Like, was this really just something that was fabricated for this end result?†She further suggested that Kristen Doute was offered a spin-off in order to keep her from speaking about her past relationship with Leviss’s ex, James Kennedy. (Bravo responded by stating that Doute was cast because she’s in the friend group featured on the show.)
Leviss has yet to say whether she’s returning to VPR season 11, but has already laid out many reasons not to in the interview, including by stating that the past season of the reality show felt like she was “selling my soul.†And that’s not even to mention this zinger from Frankel: “It’s my understanding that you get paid, in a year, less than my interns get paid.†Maybe Leviss has a future at BStrong?
This post has been updated.