Credit: MBS/MEGA, Brandi Benton/startraksphoto.com
Rachel “Raquel” Leviss opened up about what led her to end her relationship with Tom Sandoval on the latest episode of her podcast.
As she looked back on a package she received from her now-ex-flame during her months-long stint in a mental health treatment center, the Vanderpump Rules alum, 29, shared how Sandoval, 41, insulted her and proved he did not love her while also labeling him a “narcissistic a**hole” who targeted her with “love-bombing” amid their sordid affair, which began amid season 10 in 2022.
“When I was at The Meadows, Tom and I would send letters to each other. So I got a big package. There [were] three items in there, a friendship lamp, where you tap it and it changes colors, bluetooth-connected, one lamp per person and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s actually a really cool gift.’ And then the second thing that was in that box was an Us magazine and we were on the front cover in a little square on the top right and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. I’ve always wanted to be on the cover of a magazine. I didn’t think it was gonna be like this. But, still cool.’ And then the third item that was in there was a letter,” Raquel revealed on the February 10 episode of Rachel Goes Rogue.
After saving the letter for later, Raquel ultimately began reading it and came to a big realization.
“I started feeling sick to my stomach because the letter was so insulting to me and the work that I was doing at this treatment facility. He was basically saying, ‘In all the years that I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you so dependent on a place,’” she recalled. “And he was trying to convince me to leave The Meadows and come back to him.”
According to Raquel, she knew she wasn’t ready to leave treatment at the time and expressed to Sandoval that she didn’t “think [she was] safe to [herself]” if she left at that point.
“He tried to convince me to leave anyway. And that’s when I really knew that this person does not love me. And this is a love bomb tactic to try to have this control over me,” she noted.
While Raquel initially wanted to reach out to Sandoval to explain why she was no longer interested in pursuing a relationship with him, her therapist advised her against doing so.
“So I just didn’t call him again, and I blocked his number. And, you know, some people would consider that ghosting. And I think he was hurt by it because, you know, he didn’t get any closure,” she explained.
During another segment of the podcast, Raquel spoke of two narcissistic a**holes she dated in her 20s.
“I fell in love with one narcissist a**hole, and after that relationship ended, after five years of being in that relationship, I fell into the hands of another narcissist a**hole,” Raquel shared, seemingly referencing Sandoval and James Kennedy, 32, whom she did not name.
While looking back at her romance with the first partner mentioned, Raquel confirmed the man had told her he loved her just one week after they met. And although their long-distance relationship included fireworks and excitement at its start, things ultimately took a turn due to the way he would treat other people and the inappropriate manner in which he would speak to her.
Moving on to Sandoval, Raquel said, “In that situation, I felt like he was really giving me this undivided attention. I was able to express my emotions and he could really understand what I was saying, and it seemed like it was on a deeper level than what I experienced before, and everything else went out the window, all my morals went out the window, and he became like the most important person to me, and you know, we would go on trips together and stuff like that, and I consider that like a form of love bombing.”
“I think that there’s like a part with living in the fantasy, and I don’t know, for some reason, whenever I’m dating guys like this, they become the most important person to me,” she admitted.
Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.
