Raquel Leviss shared the biggest way Tom Sandoval betrayed her and why she dropped charges against Scheana Shay, who allegedly assaulted her after discovering her affair with Tom. She also slammed Scheana for being “hypocritical,” claiming she still hasn’t admitted “what happened that night.”
Though Raquel dropped the charges and a temporary restraining order, Scheana has continued to speak negatively about Raquel, even when the Vanderpump Rules star was being treated in a mental health facility.
On her Rachel Goes Rogue podcast, she said she has “clarity” concerning her relationship with Tom – and she was largely “emotionless” at the reunion after Tom coached her about “sticking to the story” he created.
“The last five minutes of season 10, you see me break down because I want to come clean and I’m still holding things back because I don’t want to betray Tom because he is the one person I have left,” said Raquel, via PEOPLE. “In my world, it seemed like he was the only person. He got me. He understood me. He was there for me in all of this time — or so I believed.”
Raquel said she told her therapist that she “betrayed Tom by telling this truth.”
“And my therapist was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa — but didn’t Tom betray you first?’” she added. “[Sandoval] asked me to lie when he knew that I wasn’t a good liar and I expressed to him that I don’t like lying. He put me in a really bad position with my friendships, and this placement of being on this international reality TV show [meant] that my reputation was on the line.”
Raquel then questioned why he fostered their relationship while she was still grieving her broken engagement to James Kennedy.
“He knew I was going through this heartbreak, and I’ve heard him say on his interviews ‘Oh, Raquel really was coming into her own.’ And that’s what attracted him to me,” explained Raquel. “[But now] I’m like, ‘You a–hole. You could have just let me be. Like, let me live. Why can’t you cheer me on as a friend?’”
According to Raquel, this is Tom’s pattern.
“I think that Tom uses Ariana [Madix]’s mental health against her, and it’s very manipulative and messed up,” she stated. “I think he could have gone about [our relationship and their breakup] in a much more mature way. But who knows if he’s even capable of that.”
But the “biggest way” he betrayed her, said Raquel, was “filming me without my consent.”
She was referencing the intimate video Ariana discovered on Tom’s phone, which ultimately led to Scandoval.
“I can see the impact the show had on my decisions, the impact that my trauma and my connection with Tom had on those decisions, and my trust in him and betraying myself in that process,” she said. “I’ve been able to see a lot clearer now. That’s what I needed. I needed that space to gain that clarity.”
On the same podcast, Raquel addressed why she dropped the assault charges against Scheana. She said she felt “guilt” when Scheana shared how the temporary restraining order affected her.
“But Scheana assaulted me,” said Raquel, via @bravosnarkside on Instagram. “And there are consequences to your actions. If anyone knows that, I know that.”
Raquel feels it’s “hypocritical” of Scheana to say Raquel needs to “take accountability” for her actions when Scheana “still won’t admit what actually happened that night.”
But Raquel said she understands Scheana has reasons why she won’t, as Scheana wants to protect her daughter and family.
“Because her husband Brock had some domestic violence case be [brought] up on the show in the past,” she said. “He already had a lot of backlash and scrutiny from that.”
Raquel believes they may be worried that Scheana’s assault would “jeopardize” their parenthood, and she felt so “emotionally charged” because she was going into “survival mode.”
“In that moment I did not do anything to deserve a punch in the face,” said Raquel. Though she admitted that her past actions were wrong, she said it didn’t justify Scheana.
Raquel said she’d planned on keeping the restraining order in her back pocket to use only if Scheana lied about the incident or continued to speak negatively about her.
According to the star, Scheana was trying to get Raquel to drop the restraining order, and Scheana was “relieved” at the reunion when Raquel gave her the paperwork saying it was dropped.
But things apparently changed when Scheana sent a photo of it to her lawyer – who allegedly said it was fake. Then Scheana got mad again and purportedly made a “spectacle” going to the court and speaking to the press about it.
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