Raquel Leviss is back on the ‘gram. The Vanderpump Rules alum made her first non-promotional social media post since the fallout from Scandoval.
“I’ve been dreaming of a place like this 🌻,” Leviss, 28, captioned clips of herself enjoying a flower farm and learning to make floral arrangements via Instagram on Saturday, September 9. She smiled at the camera while walking through an idyllic greenhouse at golden hour.
Prior to her latest video, she’d only been back on social media to promote her appearance on Bethenny Frankel‘s “ReWives” podcast, her single interview since the Pump Rules reunion. “Thank you @bethennyfrankel for offering a space to speak so openly about everything,” she wrote last month while keeping comments turned off.
On her Saturday post, Leviss’ turned comments on and was inundated with messages of support. “I think it’s time to leave her alone. Everyone makes mistakes,” one person wrote while another added, “Despite everything that has happened, you deserve to be able to move on and live a happy life.”
Us Weekly confirmed that Leviss and Tom Sandoval‘s duo’s affair led to Sandoval’s split from girlfriend Ariana Madix after their 9-year relationship.
Both Sandoval and Leviss apologized via social media statements in the weeks following the affair going public. “I want to first and foremost apologize to everyone I’ve hurt through this process. Most of all, I want to apologize to Ariana,” he wrote. “I made mistakes, I was selfish and made reckless decisions that hurt somebody I love. No one deserves to feel that pain so traumatically and publicly.”
Meanwhile, Leviss said that she was “speaking to a counselor” in the aftermath of the scandal. “I have sought emotional validation through intimate connections that are not healthy without regard for my own well-being, sometimes negatively affecting others and often prioritizing the intimate connection over my friendships,” she wrote via Instagram on March 8. “I am taking steps to understand my behavior and make healthier choices.”
In a second post, she explained that she wasn’t ready to comment on the status of her relationship with Sandoval. “Knowing how many people we hurt, I need to understand my choices and learn to make better ones. I need to take care of my health, work on self growth and take time to be OK with being alone,” Leviss wrote. “I care for Tom and I don’t want to label anything or predict what lies ahead. Right now I need to heal.”
She later deleted both posts.
Leviss checked into a mental health facility after the spring Vanderpump Rules reunion and received treatment for 90 days. In her first post-treatment interview on Frankel’s podcast last month, Leviss seemingly confirmed that she would not appear in VPR season 11 and opened up about how counseling helped her understand her own toxic decisions.
“It took me a while to accept, but I learned about love addiction and it’s a real thing. It’s where you confuse intensity for intimacy,” Leviss explained. “And those chemical changes in the brain are the same chemical changes that happen when you take drugs. So, it is addictive, and it explains why I couldn’t stop seeing this person, but it also doesn’t excuse the fact that it happened. But now I know better.”
Prior to her relationship with Sandoval, Leviss was engaged to Pump Rules costar James Kennedy. After five years together, the duo called it quits in December 2021.
