Raquel Leviss shared that Tom Sandoval had a plan on how to unveil their romance after he broke up with Ariana Madix.
“He was saying, ‘Look, people hated Ariana in the beginning, and then they realized we were sticking together,’” Leviss, 29, claimed on the Thursday, January 25, episode of her “Rachel Goes Rogue” podcast. “We weren’t going anywhere and so they had to accept it and they ended up loving her and it could be the same for us.”
Sandoval, 40, and Madix, 38, started dating in 2014 shortly after he called things off with Kristen Doute. Sandoval and Madix were together for nearly a decade until they broke up in March 2023 after it was revealed he was having an affair with Leviss.
“I think in his mind, he’s gotten away with it before [so] he could get away with it again,” Leviss said, referring to the murky timeline of Sandoval and Doute’s breakup. “I think I was just naive and wishful thinking that this could work out the way I wanted it to because ultimately at that time I did want to be with him. I was hoping for the best I guess.”
Leviss revealed that she was the one who pushed Sandoval to tell Madix the truth. At the time, the Vanderpump Rules cast had already wrapped up filming season 10 but still had the reunion special to tape.
“I was like, ‘We need to tell Ariana before the reunion. We can’t go into the reunion with her not knowing.’ Because I [felt] like that just really really wouldn’t be fair [to] her,” she shared. “The one thing that we got hung up on, he did not want her to know when it first started and I don’t see the point in lying about those things because isn’t it much better to just be upfront and honest and tell the truth?”
While Sandoval was seemingly hesitant to come clean, Leviss confessed there were a “few instances” where she almost told Madix herself. However, Leviss believed the news should come from Sandoval.
“I told Tom, ‘Maybe I should tell Ariana,’ and he was like, ‘No no no no no. You’re not going to tell Ariana.’ OK, then you’re going to tell Ariana,” Leviss said. “I was waiting on him to tell her. It was my duty to tell her, yes, I know that. But I felt like it was his responsibility with him being in that relationship with him to tell her and break up with her.”
After taping the season 10 reunion special in March 2023, Leviss checked herself into a mental health facility. Five months later, Us Weekly reported that Leviss had cut off contact with Sandoval. She also ultimately decided to not return to Pump Rules for season 11.
