Vanderpump Rules’ Raquel Leviss Speaks Out for 1st Time After James Kennedy Split: Details Her Exit Strategy, Where They Stand

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Vanderpump Rules’ Raquel Leviss Speaks Out for 1st Time After James Kennedy Split: Details Her Exit Strategy, Where They Stand

Speaking her truth. Raquel Leviss opened up about her split from James Kennedy for the first time on Friday, January 7, sharing details about when it was truly over between them. “My intentions with this podcast are not to bash James in any way,” the 27-year-old Bravo personality told Vanderpump Rules costar Scheana Shay on the Friday episode of her “Scheananigans” podcast. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.” The SUR employee, who announced her split from Kennedy, 29, in December 2021, noted that she’s currently in therapy and has been working on herself since the pair called it quits. Leviss and Kennedy got engaged in May 2021 after five years of dating. While the pair didn’t officially break up until the night before they filmed the season 9 reunion special for Vanderpump Rules on December 3, she was having second thoughts about the relationship earlier in the year. In fact, the model explained that after the British TV personality had a strange reaction to a comment her dad made over Thanksgiving in November 2021, she really started to pull away. [sendtonews type="float" key="2H0PizrAlS-2835213-14453"] “The future of Thanksgivings and Christmases and holidays was looking like it was going to be either James or my family. Especially like if we had a baby, James would make my parents out as like the not good grandparents and kind of put that in their heads,” Leviss said on Friday. “Foreseeing this future and what it was all coming down to [I realized] I don’t want that.” She added that the thought of separating herself from her mom, who she described as a true “mama bear,” amid her then-fiancé’s issues with her parents was too much. “It just kind of broke my heart,” the West Coast native explained on the podcast. When it came to the breakup itself, Leviss said she was pleasantly surprised by Kennedy’s reaction. “He was calm. He was listening to me. I was preparing for the worst, and it was the best possible outcome, I guess, that it could have been,” she recalled. “Because he really did listen to me and was understanding of where I was coming from. He respected my decision. He was like, ‘If your heart isn’t in it anymore then I understand. we need to go our separate ways.’” Scroll down for more podcast revelations from Leviss following her and Kennedy’s split: [podcast_block]

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Breakup Teaser

“When I heard Randall [Emmett] and Lala [Kent] broke up, I was surprised but then also a little relieved for her,” Leviss told Shay, explaining that Kent calling off her own engagement in the fall of 2021 gave her some clarity. “Then I felt this feeling, not of jealousy, but envy knowing that she’s going to be OK. She’s going to be perfectly fine without Randall.”

Just a few days later, Leviss said she got a call from another friend telling her that she was getting a divorce. The news, which Kennedy somewhat overheard, was another sign for the former pageant queen — and made her then-fiancé a little nervous about their own fate. After she got off the phone, Leviss remembered Kennedy saying, “Why do I feel like we’re next?”

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Exit Plan

“It was kind of at Thanksgiving where I realized that I didn’t want to be in this relationship anymore,” Leviss revealed. “Because James does have a history of acting out and being angry, my mom and I were both concerned that he wasn’t going to have a good reaction when I told him. So I wasn’t planning on saying anything until he went out of town. He doesn’t even know this. My mom advised me to pretend like everything is fine.”

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When She Knew It Was Over

“There wasn’t one thing exactly [that led to the split],” she explained. “James has always felt like my parents haven’t embraced him into the family the way that he wanted to be. I found myself making excuses for him [after an argument he had with my dad]. It was getting to the point where my family and him were not meshing well.”

Leviss recalled keeping up appearances the week of Thanksgiving when the pair went to Disneyland with pals Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval. “I felt like I had to put on an act for that, just to make sure that I was safe,” the TV personality continued. “Disneyland just isn’t as fun when you aren’t in love with the person that you’re with anymore, so it wasn’t my favorite experience. I’m so happy that Ariana and Tom came.”

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The Actual Breakup

The former Miss Sonoma County pointed to a moment when the duo were watching episodes of Vanderpump Rules ahead of filming the season 9 reunion as a catalyst for the split.

“[We watched] the scene where Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz were having their breakup and James laughs and he’s like, ‘Why couldn’t I have a funny story line?’ And I was like ‘Seriously, you could have if you wanted to,’” she recalled. “He’s like, ‘What the hell does that mean? … Tell me what you mean by that.’ I told him, ‘Well, you have control over your actions and you decided that you were going to make whatever story line about, not that it was about me, but it wasn’t supporting me emotionally the way that I needed to be supported.”

After explaining herself, she remembered Kennedy admitting that he didn’t know she felt that way, but Leviss proceeded to call off their relationship. “The conversation just kept going and it was like word vomit,” she continued, noting that she told him that she couldn’t keep it in any longer. “So I just told him, ‘My heart isn’t in it anymore. I don’t appreciate the way that you treat other people. it’s not how I treat other people. And a piece of me dies inside each time you mistreat somebody.’”

Although the DJ asked if there was anything he could do to change her mind, and asked for a second chance, it was too late. She told him, “I gave you another chance. And that led us here,” to which Kennedy replied, “OK, I see it in your eyes. It’s over.”

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The Reunion Reflection

The Sonoma State University alum remembered panicking and having anxiety about the Vanderpump Rules reunion coming up that week since the split was so fresh.

“[It was] gut-wrenching because I was so horrified that I might say something — speak my mind, where it wasn’t going to put James in a good light,” she remembered. “I was like, I need to be honest with him before this happens because the last thing I want to do is blindside somebody.”

Leviss revealed that the former couple had second thoughts about talking about the split on TV, but ultimately, they chose to speak their truths. “We weren’t even sure that we were going to address it at the reunion, because we're, like, ‘Maybe it’s best to just pretend everything is fine,’” she said on the podcast. “But once we pulled up in the car, we were like we need to tell Bill [Langworthy], the producer], we need to tell production what’s going on.”

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Trust Is Super Important

Leviss recalled on Friday that a producer once asked both her and Kennedy during a joint interview whether they trust each other. When Kennedy shared his answer, Leviss remembered being taken aback.

“James said, ‘No, I do not trust Raquel,’” she claimed, adding that it made her feel like “crap” to hear that. “I’ve given him the benefit of doubt so many times and I’ve trusted him to go play at shows and he’ll always come back. He wouldn’t have that same trust for me,” she said. “If you don’t have trust, it’s not going to last.”

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Where They Stand

“We are still speaking occasionally. We are still friendly with one another. We still follow each other on Instagram and like each others’ posts,” the California native said. “My goal would be to maintain a friendship with him because he was my best friend for so long and it’s really difficult to just cut that off and pretend it never happen. Because it did happen.”

She added: “We spent so much time with each other and he was the love of my life at one point, but more than that he was my best friend and we shared everything together. We are going to try our best to be friends.”

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What Her Dream Guy Looks Like

“I do want somebody who treats someone with kindness and respect. I also want someone with a good sense of humor. Someone who gets along with my family. Someone who can provide for me emotionally,” Leviss said, noting she’s not ready to date just yet. “Someone who is confident in my relationship and doesn’t get jealous. Jealousy is such an ugly personality trait because it stems from insecurity. I want someone in my life who aspires to do better and be better.”