Bravo fans who continue to watch new episodes of Vanderpump Rules with a fine-tooth comb amid Scandoval need to be tuning into the Never Before Scene episodes.
Ahead of the new installment of the series on Wednesday, April 19, the network aired last week’s episode, which documented Scheana Shay’s August 2022 wedding, with additional scenes — including a clip of Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss in a hot tub.
In the clip, the trio posed for a pic before Ariana, 37, who was topless, joked, “It looks like we’re a throuple. It looks like we’re in a throuple on a romantic vacay.”
Sandoval, 40, subsequently called the snaps “cute.” In another deleted scene, Raquel praised the TomTom co-owner and Ariana for supporting her at a pageant amid the fallout from her split from James Kennedy earlier that year.
“It was, like, the best support system in the world,” Raquel gushed before Ariana said she was “robbed of the crown.”
The former beauty queen added, “It wasn’t meant to be, honestly, because I wouldn’t be acting the way that I am if I was Miss California.”
Viewers now know that Sandoval and Raquel had kissed prior to Scheana’s wedding, marking the beginning of the affair that led to the end of his nine-year romance with Ariana.
“We just kissed. It was magnetic,” he recalled on the “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast on April 11. “I felt something that I hadn’t felt in so long emotionally.”
Sandoval added that his feelings for Raquel were “very, very strong” as they continued to spend time together.
“Those feelings that I had started to take over in a sense. Logic went out the window,” he said. “Because I wasn’t experiencing that [with Ariana] — I hadn’t experienced that [before].”
During Wednesday’s episode of the reality show, James’ girlfriend, Ally Lewber, became the first person to imply something might’ve been happening between Raquel and Sandoval.
“Last night at Lala [Kent]’s apartment, I was grabbing my stuff and we were leaving and chatting. That is when I mentioned that I saw Sandoval and Raquel dancing together at The Abbey after [a] See You Next Tuesday [event at SUR],” she told the cameras. “I personally wouldn’t be comfortable to have my boyfriend out at 1 a.m. with girls. But everyone is different. I thought it was kind of weird that it was 1 a.m. and we were like, ‘Where is Ariana?'”
Katie Maloney subsequently hinted at the speculation during a fight with Sandoval at the end of the episode, which filmed in late August 2022 to early September 2022. “You get a lot of joy out of Raquel as well,” she said after he accused her of enjoying Raquel’s drama with Oliver Saunders and his estranged wife, Samantha. “You go to The Abbey together at one o’clock in the morning.”
Sandoval got defensive, responding, “Dude, what the f—k are you even saying? Get the f—k out of here, man.”
In real-time, Ariana didn’t learn about the affair until March 1. Sandoval, who claimed she “turned a blind eye” to the signs of his connection with Raquel, told Howie Mandel that he ended things with his longtime partner in February, but she was “in denial.”
Vanderpump Rules airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
