Credit: Bravo
Rachel “Raquel” Leviss isn’t so sure that Tom Sandoval didn’t mastermind “Scandoval” in an effort to remain relevant on Vanderpump Rules.
During the latest episode of her podcast, Raquel, 29, admitted to questioning her former flame’s motivation behind their months-long affair, reacted to rumors claiming she spent time at a spa and not in therapy after the scandal broke, and clapped back at claims of failing to take accountability for the role she played in the demise of Sandoval’s nine-year relationship with her co-star and now-ex-friend Ariana Madix, 38.
“I definitely didn’t mastermind this. I think I fell into the situation and just didn’t know how to handle it,” Raquel explained on the January 29 episode of Rachel Goes Rogue, pointing instead to Sandoval, 41.
“The thought has crossed my mind, like, ‘Did Tom mastermind this?’” she wondered. “He is known to self-produce and all he has is this show and the success of the show equals longevity in his career. He’s over 40 now and this is his life. This is his main income. When we did have conversations about how is this going to play out, he said one of the pros is that we can be together next season.”
Although Raquel made it clear that she couldn’t say for sure that Sandoval was “the mastermind behind it,” she confirmed he “had his motivation.”
“That really escalated the situation whereas if it wasn’t a TV show and we weren’t all filming, I don’t know if it would be like this,” she explained.
Shortly after news of her affair with Sandoval first broke, Raquel checked herself into a months-long treatment program in Arizona. However, many questioned if she was really there.
“My privacy was violated when somebody in the trauma therapy center, we were in the same group, I think she accidentally texted a friend, saying, ‘Oh you wouldn’t believe who was in the Meadows with me. Raquel from Vanderpump Rules.’ And that got screenshotted and sent out to the press. And then stories started circulating,” Raquel recalled. “‘Oh no, she’s not at a mental health facility. She’s not at a treatment center. She’s at a spa. And she’s at this place called Miraval in Arizona.’ So people were like ‘Raquel’s at Miraval with Tom Sandoval.’”
Looking back at the controversy surrounding her whereabouts, Raquel said it felt like there were updates “every single hour of every single day,” which were further fueled by her Pump Rules co-stars’ allegations — and Bravo’s silence.
“Other cast members were saying that I was [at a spa] and NBC, Bravo, and Evolution, the production company that produces Vanderpump Rules, all knew that I was actually at the Meadows and there was paperwork to prove it. They did nothing to prevent that rumor of me being at a spa from flourishing. In fact, they actually perpetuated it by bringing it on to Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live,” she revealed. “Andy said I must have been highly medicated at the reunion because I had no emotion, and so I guess Andy Cohen was prompting his guests, asking them, ‘Do you think Raquel is actually at a mental health facility or is she actually at a spa,’ and just further perpetuating that rumor that I was at a spa even though they actually knew for a fact that I was not.”
Raquel went on to shade those who report on her podcast without listening, saying, “There’s stuff that I’m revealing that people higher up don’t want you to know. So do your due diligence and listen to the whole podcast.”
Also on her latest podcast episode, Raquel responded to those who have accused her of not taking accountability.
“Look, there’s two separate instances here. There is the affair and the cheating and the lying. There’s another part where I have been assaulted and harassed and threatened and my life had become completely unmanageable and so out of my control that it has impacted me in a way that I couldn’t even fathom,” she explained.
“And you can be two things at once,” she continued. “You can be a perpetrator where you are making these mistakes and taking accountability for those actions, and you can also be a victim of manipulation, a victim of assault, a victim of harassment, and both of those things can happen to the same person at the same time. I’m doing my very best to take accountability. I’ve done everything that I possibly could to change my behavior and learn from my mistakes. I’m not trying to play the sympathy card so that you guys can forgive me for my past indiscretions. That’s not my motive. I’m just putting this all out there so you guys can be more educated on the choices that I made and the reasonings behind them and how this has impacted my life and how I’m moving forward to be a better person and hopefully make change.”
Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
