Credit: Instagram, Faye’s Vision/Cover Images
Raquel Leviss is shutting down Tom Sandoval in a big way.
After the Vanderpump Rules star, 40, who she engaged in a months-long affair with amid season 10, reached out to her on her birthday, sending well-wishes and telling her he missed her, Raquel, 29, confirmed she’s blocked him while shading her one-time flame and thanking her fans and followers for their kind messages on her special day.
“Thank you for the [birthday] wishes,” Raquel wrote in the caption of a photo of herself in a flower garden on September 12.
As fans of the Pump Rules alum may have seen, Raquel returned to Instagram for the first time since her three-part podcast interview with Bethenny Frankel, 52, over the weekend, sharing a video clip of herself enjoying a greenhouse at a farm and teasing her upcoming podcast in a series of comments.
Although Sandoval didn’t weigh in at the time the post was initially shared, he appeared on her page on Tuesday morning, where he offered a public statement to her.
“Happy Birthday Rachel, I really hope [you’re] finding peace and happiness. Miss [you] friend,” he had written in a comment.
But after seeing the message from Sandoval, who she unfollowed last month, Raquel quickly blocked him and confirmed doing so with a post shared to her Instagram Story.
“Ok bye!” she shaded as she revealed Sandoval will no longer have access to her page.
While Raquel’s return to Pump Rules was said to be up in the air earlier this summer as the rest of the cast went into production, she confirmed on Just B With Bethenny that she would not be returning for the new episodes.
“I refuse to not respect myself on that level where I would endure that emotional abuse any longer,” she said. “I can’t do that to myself. They want me back [but] I know that other people on the cast are more important than I am so I don’t even think that I would get a redemption arc… I also know that I wouldn’t be able to share all of my story. Whatever I share gets condensed to five minutes max.”
Raquel also admitted that production’s failure to meet her salary demands impacted her decision to walk away.
“I asked for equal pay with [Sandoval] and [Ariana Madix, 38] and for them to reimburse me for my treatment expenses, but they refused to pay me equally,” she shared. “I was considering going back if I was going to be paid equally because I feel like when you pay your employees I think it really shows how much you value them.”
Vanderpump Rules season 11 is expected to premiere on Bravo later this year or in early 2024.
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