Pump Rules Star Tom Sandoval Explains Raquel’s Name Change

Credit: Wes Eddy/startraksphoto.com, Instagram/Rachel Leviss

Tom Sandoval is speaking out about Rachel “Raquel” Leviss‘ decision to return to her legal name, “Rachel.”

Following a recent episode of Vanderpump Rules season 11, Sandoval, 41, and the cast sat down to discuss Raquel’s name change, with Sandoval explaining what prompted it, Katie Maloney, 37, and Ariana Madix, 38, wondering why it was news, and Lala Kent, 33, denying Raquel’s past claims of the group “weaponizing” her legal moniker.

“[I found out] at least a month prior, maybe like two months. I’d known for quite a while,” Sandoval revealed of Raquel going back to the name Rachel on the February 27 episode of the Pump Rules: After Show. “I know when she was named Rachel, it’s because there were other Rachels in her class, and she always liked the name Raquel, and her mom had always wanted to change her name, and her mom’s mom, grandmom, whatever, would never allow her to do so, so her mom allowed her to do that.”

According to Sandoval, Raquel, 29, chose to return to her legal name in an effort to move on from the scandal surrounding their months-long affair.

“She maybe wanted to distance herself from what we had done. But I think just owning her name and being proud of it,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Katie asked, “That is your name, isn’t it? It wasn’t like…. Groundbreaking.”

And Ariana agreed, confirming, “That’s her name.”

After then stating that she believed Raquel was “taking her power back,” Lala asked Scheana Shay, 38, “What was the reasoning for it?”

“That we were weaponizing her legal name against her and this was her and this was her way to take her power back,” Scheana replied.

But Lala didn’t agree that she and her castmates had used Raquel’s legal name against her.

“We weren’t weaponizing her name. It was all in good f*cking petty fun,” she clarified. “You f*cked up. You literally conditioned us to call you Raquel for many years. That would be like me [saying], ‘Everyone must call me Lauren now,’ and then being like, ‘And you calling me Lala is weaponizing,’ and, ‘That’s not who I am anymore.’ It’s like, no, these people have known you as that name for many years.”

James Kennedy, 32, weighed in as well, saying he felt Raquel was “reinventing herself” with the name change.

“Out with the old and in with the new!” he declared.

But whatever the case, Scheana is sticking to “Raquel.”

“Raquel just rolls off the tongue easier, so Raquel she is,” Scheana stated.

Also on the Pump Rules: After Show, Sandoval looked back on Lala and James’ behavior at the season 10 reunion, saying the two of them were like barking dogs.

“I think it was the way they were at the reunion like two barking dogs that won’t stop barking,” he recalled.

Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.