The “Vanderpump Rules” Season 10 reunion came to its conclusion Wednesday, with Raquel Leviss finally taking the stage to address her role in the Scandoval cheating scandal.
If you haven’t been following the drama, Leviss and original cast member Tom Sandoval began secretly hooking up while Sandoval was still with his longtime girlfriend, Ariana Madix. Madix and Leviss were also best friends at the time, but no longer as you’ll read below.
But the biggest revelations came from a taped confessional with Leviss six days after the reunion, where she admitted she and Sandoval had colluded to lie to their castmates at the reunion. In order to clear her conscience, she finally came clean and shared some startling truths.
Raquel comes clean about Scandoval timeline
Throughout the reunion, Sandoval had repeatedly said he and Leviss only hooked up once in the fall after a boys night that she joined.
But Leviss confessed in her 1:1 interview that it was more than “one time”: the duo hooked up again at castmate Scheana Shay’s wedding in Mexico; and most devastatingly, at Sandoval and Madix’s shared home while Madix was out of town attending her grandmother’s funeral.
She added that she and Sandoval decided to lie to minimize the hurt, but that she was wracked with guilt.
Tom Sandoval’s offensive t-shirt comment
Sandoval said that a lack of physical intimacy was why he began cheating on Madix with Leviss.
When Madix reminded him that they were intimate after the first time he slept with Leviss, Sandoval sarcastically replied, “She kept her t-shirt on.. It was really hot.”
Sandoval’s misogynistic, body-shaming comment infuriated his castmates, including Lala Kent, who replied, “You’re such a f–ing d–k.” Added James Kennedy, “You’re f–ing disgusting.”
Even Sandoval’s best friend Tom Schwartz couldn’t come to his defense. “Dude, don’t say that,” Schwartz advised.
“There is something that Tom Sandoval says tonight on the ‘Vanderpump Rules’ reunion that is going to upset every woman in America,” host Andy Cohen teased on his SiriusXM show before the episode aired. “The category is ‘Things straight guys should never say about women.’”
It seems Madix has the last laugh though; she’s selling a t-shirt with a clapback response that we can’t post here.
Raquel Leviss and Tom Sandoval declare their love for each other
While there were multiple media reports that Leviss and Sandoval had broken up by the time the first part of the reunion aired, during filming the duo declared their love for each other — in front of Madix — when prompted by Cohen.
“Yeah,” Leviss nodded when Cohen asked if she was in love with Sandoval.
“”I’m sorry. Yes,” Sandoval replied after a long pause.
“Honestly, that’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard,” Madix responded to their declarations. “This is a joke.”
Ariana Madix breaks down
Madix kept her composure for most of the reunion, occasionally directing an angry comment at her ex-boyfriend and former best friend.
She became emotional after being asked what the support of her castmates and fans meant to her, revealing that she lost eight pounds after learning of the affair because she was so distraught.
Sandoval, in turn, broke down after seeing the pain he caused her.
Lala Kent gets checked
Leviss tried to downplay her cheating by calling out castmate Lala Kent’s past infidelities. While Kent admitted to cheating with Leviss’s ex James Kennedy, she was adamant that she didn’t know her ex Randall Emmett was still legally married and with his wife when they got together.
The word “mistress” seemed to particularly trigger Kent, who said Emmett lied to her about his marital status. However, production rolled footage from several years back when Kent described herself as a “home-wrecker” and a “mistress.”
A “secrets revealed” episode will air on Bravo June 14.
Peacock, the streaming home of Bravo, will exclusively stream “Vanderpump Rules: Pumped Up Edition,” a first-of-its-kind extended version of the three reunion episodes and a supersized version of “secrets revealed” on Thursday, June 15. The uncensored extended versions will feature additional never-before-seen footage of the Bravo offerings exclusively on the streaming platform.
