Rachel “Raquel” Leviss (left) and Tom Sandoval.Photo:Steve Granitz/FilmMagic; Elyse Jankowski/Getty
Steve Granitz/FilmMagic; Elyse Jankowski/Getty
Rachel “Raquel” Levissis still dealing with the ramifications of her andTom Sandoval’s cheating scandal a year later.
PEOPLE has reached out to Sandoval’s rep for comment.
“It took me a while to process Tom recording me without me knowing,” Leviss admitted during the episode, adding that the situation “was so chaotic.”
The former Bravo star said she considered herself to be in “survival mode” at the time and unable to process what was happening.
“It wasn’t until I had my one-on-one trauma therapy session in The Meadows that I was able to really start decompressing what he did and how he violated a personal boundary," she said, referencing themental health facilityshe stayed in the months following Scandoval, where she sought voluntary treatment.
Rachel “Raquel” Leviss at BravoCon 2022 in New York City.Cindy Ord/Bravo via Getty Images
Cindy Ord/Bravo via Getty Images
“I remember telling him on the phone after processing it, ‘I don’t think that I will be able to forgive you for this,'” Leviss recalled. “And then, you know, a week later, he’s trying to get me to hire his lawyer and fire my lawyer.”
“He had a slip-up and he said, ‘The last thing that we need you to do right now is go rogue,'" she claimed of their interaction, which seemingly inspired the title of her podcast.
The reality star joked that she’d even had fantasies where she would call the musician and use his words against him.
“I did art therapy, and I painted out that in conversation and I had this fantasy of calling him and being like, ‘I’ve gone rogue’ and just hang up the phone and kind of like, do that power move,” she said. “And my therapist was like, ‘Well, well, we’re not gonna do that.'”
From left: Rachel “Raquel” Leviss, Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix on ‘Vanderpump Rules’.Nicole Weingart/Bravo
Nicole Weingart/Bravo
Later in the podcast, Leviss discussed the intimate recording that Sandoval allegedly recorded without her permission.
“How he took that video without my consent was out of my control, and there was nothing that I could do in that moment," Leviss claimed. “But then I also think back, like, ‘Well, I shouldn’t have been doing anything with him anyway.’ So then it’s a piece of self accountability, and forgiving myself for that.”
“Ultimately, that’s the place where there’s so much shame and it yields pain, obviously, with a violation,” she explained. “But mostly shame … it’s a private thing you don’t want people to know about first of all, and then second of all, it’s just an intimate moment.”
Leviss and Sandoval inspired the term “Scandoval” in March 2023 when the two costars were exposed for having amonths-long affair. At the time, Sandoval had been in anine-year relationshipwith Madix, Leviss’ costar and friend.
From left: Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Sandoval, Tom Schwartz, and Rachel “Raquel” Leviss at the ‘Vanderpump Rules’ reunion.Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty
Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty
This resulted in multiple cast members seeing the content, andLeviss’ attorney sending out lettersto her costars saying the video was recorded “illegally” and “without the permission” of Leviss.
Anyone in possession of the footage was asked to delete it from their phones, the cloud or “any other manner or method in which the recording may exist,” per her attorney.
She said the events led her to seek help in a facility while “Bravo, Evolution, and the cast milked the interest her excoriation had peaked. Leviss — whosedeparture fromVanderpump Ruleswas confirmed in August 2023 — also claimed she “suffered in silence” as a result of the fallout while other parties involved with Scandoval reaped “unseen levels of public recognition and professional opportunity.”
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Vanderpump Rulesairs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. All episodes can be streamed on Peacock afterwards.
source: people.com
