Scheana Shay Shares Theory on Timing of Raquel’s Tell-All

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Scheana Shay doesn’t want to hear about Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss‘ affair “saving” Vanderpump Rules any longer.

After Raquel, 28, made the suggestion on Bethenny Frankel‘s podcast, Just B With Bethenny, last month, Scheana, 38, took to her own podcast to deny any such thing as she also labeled Tom Schwartz, 40, as their “cover-up” and suggested that Emmy voting prompted Raquel to speak out following months of silence.

“You’re not coming back to the show, you want to change your name, you don’t want to be in the spotlight, you don’t want to come back to L.A., you don’t want to be a part of this friend group, and you don’t want to speak to Tom Sandoval anymore,” Scheana began on the September 1 episode of Scheananigans, via Us Weekly. “But what is also interesting is that I notice — and this could be a total weird coincidence — but the day the interview came out [there was] Emmy voting the next day.”

As Pump Rules fans may have heard, the Bravo reality series was nominated for two Emmys weeks ago, including Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program and Outstanding Picture Editing for an Unstructured Reality Program.

Because Raquel’s interview with Bethenny came out around the same time, Scheana suspected Raquel may have been trying to “hurt” the series’ chances at winning.

“I don’t know that they were trying to hurt something with Vanderpump Rules, but that was just a weird coincidence,” she said.

As for what ended their relationship for good, Scheana said it was that exact podcast.

“Up until [Raquel’s podcast appearance], I still haven’t blocked her or anything like that. I had been waiting to hear from her because I felt like it would have been a much different conversation now after her getting out of this [mental health] facility,” she shared.

Scheana even said she “would have heard [Raquel] out” if she had spoken differently.

“But now that podcast was the nail in the coffin,” she stated.

In another moment from the Scheananigans episode, Scheana addressed Raquel’s comments about her and Sandoval’s sordid affair saving Pump Rules.

On Bethenny’s podcast, Raquel had told the Real Housewives of New York City alum, 52, that the series’ executive producer, Alex Baskin, “went on record” and said the show was going to be canceled if it wasn’t for “Scandoval.” However, as Scheana noted on her own podcast, the affair “did not happen on the show.”

“This was not a part of season 10,” she stated. “It was a secret from season 10. It was something that they literally tried to cover up with Schwartz. This was not a storyline, so if you wanna say this was a whole thing to try and save the show, who was gonna tell production that this was the plan? Because no one knew.”

At that point, Scheana’s guest, friend Janet Caperna, who is expected to be part of the Pump Rules spinoff, confirmed it was actually Ariana Madix, 38, who brought the news of the affair to producers.

Vanderpump Rules season 11 wrapped production on September 1 and is expected to premiere on Bravo sometime later this year or early next year.