She’s ready to move on! Nearly four months after Raquel Leviss and James Kennedy called off their engagement, she has dipped her toe back into the dating pool.
“Last night I went out for drinks with Peter [Madrigal], and it was just a fun little time,” Leviss, 27, told Vanderpump Rules costar Katie Maloney during a Friday, April 1, appearance on her “You’re Gonna Love Me” podcast. “I figured this would be a good opportunity for me to just get back out into the dating world because I haven’t had an official date since the breakup. So, when he asked me to go grab drinks with him, I was like, ‘OK, sure.’”
The California native added: “Let’s not get carried away. It was one friendly date, but no one else has asked me out on a date. So, this is literally the first person who asked me out on a date, and I said, ‘Why not?’ It’s good practice after 5 years. … It is scary, but it [is] also invigorating.”
Leviss and the England native, 30, started dating in 2016 before getting engaged in May 2021. The pair announced their split the following December while filming the season 9 reunion of Vanderpump Rules.
“After these 5 wonderful years we had together, we decided we have two different goals and made the decision to call off the engagement,” Leviss wrote via Instagram at the time. “We love each other very much, but we aren’t in love anymore. We want nothing but the best for each other so please keep any thoughts positive. Sending Love.”
Less than three months after their split, the model moved on with girlfriend Ally Lewber. Leviss, for her part, was focused on her healing before diving back into dating.
“Raquel tries to just focus on herself and not what her ex has been up to. She even unfollowed him on Instagram,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in March. “The breakup was very emotional for her so she’s truly on the path of recovery and getting back into a healthy state of mind.”
The reality TV star — who joined the Bravo series in 2016 as her relationship with Kennedy began — opened up to Maloney, 35, about learning her ex-fiancé had a new love.
“I am judging you if you have a girlfriend after your engagement has been broken off. Like literally how many months? Like one month? Four weeks after the engagement was broken off, James has a new girlfriend,” Leviss told the Utah native, who filed for divorce from Tom Schwartz last month, during Friday’s episode. “That’s not news to anybody but I am judging you if you have a girlfriend after your engagement has ended in a one-month period. It is quick. It’s fine, though.”
She continued: “I am not judging too hard because I was the one who ended things, and we all cope with breakups differently. But I do feel like being single isn’t a bad thing. It is a great time to relearn who you are and heal from your past traumas and to figure out what you really, really like.”
