Raquel Leviss ‘ashamed’ of ‘very deceitful’ Tom Sandoval affair


The second part of the Vanderpump Rules three-part season 10 reunion just aired and while there were definitely big chunks of non-Scandoval filler, there were some very relevant discussions. We got to see Andy Cohen’s one-on-one interview with Raquel Leviss after seeing him speak to Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval last week. Raquel still seems oddly happy about the whole situation, but she did at least say some of the right things to Andy, including that she was “very deceitful” and is “ashamed” of the affair. I’ll believe it when she’s able to talk about it without grinning and giggling.

Before Raquel Leviss joined the ‘Vanderpump Rules’ reunion, tension got so thick between Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix that Tom Schwartz popped a Xanax in front of cameras, his castmates and Andy Cohen.

During part 2 of Vanderpump Rules’ season 10 reunion, Raquel Leviss confessed to feeling “ashamed” of her “very deceitful” affair with Tom Sandoval, while she was accused of “blaming” their costar Ariana Madix.

On Wednesday’s episode, fans finally saw the 28-year-old pageant queen’s one-on-one pre-interview with Andy Cohen.

She told the Watch What Happens Live host, 54, about the beginnings of her affair with the Schwartz & Sandy’s co-owner: “Things started getting more romantic after this girl’s trip that I went on.”

When asked if Sandoval, 40, “made you feel special,” Raquel said, “Yeah, he made me feel heard and seen. And those are feelings that I haven’t really felt maybe ever the way that he was seeing ever.”

“How did you envision that this was going to play out with Ariana, did you think that there was a path forward for the two of you?” wondered Andy.

Admitted Raquel, “I think I was living in my own little reality hoping that it would work out.”

When discussing the “many signs” Ariana ignored when it came to Sandoval and Raquel’s secret affair, which ultimately ended the couple’s nine-year relationship, Andy noted: “It’s interesting because Tom said to me that he felt like … ‘Maybe she knows but she’s in denial about this somehow.”

“It seemed that way,” Raquel claimed. “She never pressed about it. She never confronted me about it. From what I know what Tom has told me, she didn’t question him too much about it just believed like at face value what he would tell her.”

“That kind of sounds like you’re blaming her,” Andy said.

“At the time, I think that was my mindset,” she explained. “And I now I know that she really did want to know, and it was very deceitful. I’m very ashamed of it.”

Andy then asked how the conversation between Raquel and Ariana, 36, after Sandoval’s ex found out about the affair.

“It was a lot of pain that I felt from her,” recalled Raquel. “She begged me to tell her when it all happened. And at this point we were going to tell her, we just wanted to get our story straight, basically because he felt like it would hurt her if she knew how long this has been going on.”

Andy interjected, “So by getting your story straight, you were going to maybe truncate how long it had been going on or something?” Raquel acknowledged that was the plan.

“I told her the truth,” Raquel continud. “And she said, ‘Thank you for telling me because Tom would have never told me the truth.'”

[From People]

So far everything Raquel says and does just makes her look worse. As Andy pointed out, she did sound like she was blaming Ariana for not being more suspicious of the affair. Whether that’s an original idea or one that was fed to her by Tom — after all, he thought Ariana could have followed him to see he wasn’t at Schwartz’s — doesn’t matter. The pair of them are basically blaming Ariana for… trusting her partner of nearly a decade and her close friend of many years. It’s gross! And the thing is, Ariana was suspicious, but not of Raquel. In another interview, Ariana admits to asking to see Tom’s phone and to checking his phone’s location from his iPad. She was probably suspicious he was having one-nighters with randos instead of a sustained affair with a member of their friend group. Anyway, Tom at least knows he has to appear as if he feels bad — and he probably feels bad for himself if not Ariana — but Raquel didn’t seem to get that memo. She still seems to lack remorse, almost like she’s happy about the whole thing, despite learning and confronting Tom about the fact that he and Ariana were still intimate and he didn’t really try to break up. But Tom’s mask is starting to slip too, he had a tantrum about not being able to coach Raquel privately and even called Ariana “MF-er” on the main stage. Next week with all three of them on the main stage is going to be a banger for sure.

Photos are screenshots from YouTube/E! News and Bravo

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12 Responses to “Raquel Leviss ‘ashamed’ of ‘very deceitful’ Tom Sandoval affair”

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  1. shanaynay says:

    Personally, I told see any remorse. She and he are both snakes in grass.

  2. Southern Fried says:

    You’re right! Rachel does seem happy about it all. She’s missing a chip along with both Toms.

  3. Jayna says:

    She showed zero emotion about Ariana or anything really. At least Sandoval is showing emotion: lots of tears for himself. LOL But in the one-on-one conversation with Sandoval and with Andy, nada. I swear I got the chills from how devoid of emotion she showed after listening to all of her former friends talking about her, Scheana crying and betrayed, and on and on. The eyes showed it all and nothing there. Just rehearsed words.

    • Jayna says:

      Edit” one-on-one conversations.” Pleural. I didn’t mean it to look like I was talking about a one on one between Andy and Sandoval. I was talking about the two separate conversations Raquel had: The one-on-one conversation with Andy and the conversation in the trailer with Sandoval.

  4. Slush says:

    What is crystal clear is Rachel is as dumb as a box of rocks.

  5. AmyB says:

    Sandoval and Raquel are both pathological liars, and complete narcissists – only selfishly caring about themselves and their need for validation, and destroying everyone else in their path with their disgusting behavior.

    But there is something seriously off with Raquel’s effect. Her lack of emotion, lack of remorse, and odd stoic reactions are disturbing. Scheana is pouring her heart out over the hurt she feels over the betrayal of her friends, and Raquel had NO reaction. This girl has serious psychological issues, IMO. Her reactions to this scandal/affair revelations are not normal. At least Sandoval shows some emotion, albeit mostly anger and gaslighting but still, he doesn’t look like a deer in headlights. They are two horrible, wretched people who deserve each other.

    I have seen people speculate that their affair has gone on much longer (perhaps going as far back as to Raquel’s engagement with James) and this could be the reason she ended things with James. Given these two snakes, I can believe this.

    • DaniB says:

      I read similar speculation – that she do her part and broke it off with James, but he never ended things with Ariana, and that’s why she seemingly went after Schwartz – not as a decoy, but to make Sandoval jealous.

  6. Turtledove says:

    It is amazing to me how many cheaters use the exact same playbook. I follow a site for betrayed spouses, because I am one, sadly, and while everyone’s core story varies- there are certain things that 99% of the cheaters do almost identically. It’s chilling.

    What is interesting here is that Raquel is blaming Ariana for not figuring it out! I am not sure that I have seen that one before. It is extremely common for the cheating partner to blame their betrayed spouse for the affair. But usually that is a matter of “you didn’t do x and so I had to cheat on you to get my needs met.” Affair partners may believe that the betrayed spouse “deserves” to be cheated on due to whatever shortcomings the cheater has told them. But it’s amazing to me that Raquel is blaming Ariana.

    Also, what difference does it make whether Ariana “should” have figured it out sooner? The issue at hand is the affair, not whether Ariana did or didn’t figure it out soon enough. Deflection is strong with this one.

    Also the whole “we wanted to get our stories straight” because even once Ariana discovered the affair, they didn’t want her to know the actual full TRUTH. Even then, she isn’t giving the courtesy of the full truth. That is something that a lot of betrayed partners struggle the hardest with, it isn’t JUST the cheating, it is all the lies and deception that had to happen to make the physical act of cheating possible. Thinking about all those lies can be worse than the act itself. And it can make you crazy to realize that you only know a very small kernal of the truth and that your partner is holding everything else back. In my case, I know enough to know my marriage is over, but what I know is maybe 3% of it. And more importantly, It’s what he was willing to admit. So god knows what I know is not even the worst of it.

    I am lucky though. He didn’t cheat with my friend. And she lives on the other side of the country. I will hopefully never have to see her in person. (Though she did get ahold of my # and text me once, I didn’t reply and she never did again) I can’t imagine going through this so publicly. I hope Ariana ends up in an amazing situation after all this.

  7. Andrea says:

    Everyone is commenting about Raquel’s lack of emotion and to be honest, I was raised with a loud, aggressive, abusive mother and thus, I enter all situations rather calmly rather than appear to be the unhinged one, which is what I viewed as a child with my mother. I had a now ex friend come after me at a restaurant in front of our friends, loudly shouting and calling me names, and I just sat there and made her look like the fool, didnt stoop to her level. I’ve broken up with bfs before and havent shown much emotions either because some of my exes were abusive or emotionally unstable and didnt now how they’d react, so I tried to be as calm and firm as possible. I wonder if Raquel is like this having dealt with James for 5 years or perhaps she was coached by Tom to not react (Ariana mentioned he coaches his gfs on what to say and how to appear). I doubt I would show much emotions if I were Raquel because I am always fearful of people’s reactions and bracing myself as I had to with my mother growing up. I wonder if her reactions are learned behaviors too.

    • Turtledove says:

      Good point Andrea. People do respond to stressful conditions differently. I don’t think most people would judge an average person for this so harshly, this is being called out more bc of the show and the crazy drama of it all.

      People might be overly invested in seeing her emote because of the topic too. People “want” to see her act a way because of the matter at hand. We expect anger, defensiveness or remorse and she is just sitting there cool as a cucumber. Maybe that comes naturally to her for any of the reasons you said…or maybe she is purposefully being as blank as possible to avoid as much embarrassment as she can at this point.

      I am not sure how I would react to a tv interview that discussed the worst thing I ever did. Her reaction would be picked apart no matter what, but at least “calm” is better than screaming or crying. (Or at least, I would feel that way in her shoes)