Lala Kent didn’t listen to Raquel Leviss‘ tell-all with Bethenny Frankel — but she still has plenty of thoughts.
During the Wednesday, August 23, episode of the “Give Them Lala” podcast, Kent, 32, addressed Leviss’ announcement that she wouldn’t be returning for season 11 of Vanderpump Rules.
“It is a travesty that she didn’t end up coming back. She should have come back. I think she would have been very surprised,” Kent shared. “And instead she went and did this [podcast with Bethenny] and she was manipulated yet again.”
Leviss, 28, made waves for several comments about the aftermath of her months-long affair with Tom Sandoval during a recent appearance on Frankel’s “ReWives” podcast.
“Ariana and I were not best friends. We were acquaintances who became friends through the show. She’s always been somebody who’s been very sweet to me,” Leviss said of Ariana Madix, who had been dating Sandoval for nearly a decade when Leviss started seeing him. . “She would stand up for me and encourage me to pursue whatever I was, I don’t know … pursuing. And that was all great — but we never had, like, a deep conversation that I would have with a best friend.”
She continued: “I just got wrapped up in this and wasn’t thinking clearly. But we were not best friends. The alliances — I called these people my friends because I really did believe that they were my friends. … Not just us together — no. [If we were best friends], we would, I don’t know, go out to dinner just the two of you or shopping or lunch.”
Leviss’ comments about Madix were among the “blatant lies” that Kent took issue with. “There were things that she was then saying that were not perspective. It was a flat out lie and I can’t imagine you believe what you are saying,” Kent said.
The Give Them Lala author pointed to a specific claim Leviss made about how she was praised for bringing drama to season 10. According to Leviss, she was called “reality TV ratings gold” by Kent, Katie Maloney and Kristina Kelly during their infamous Las Vegas trip.
“That never happened. Raquel that night after she said, ‘It’s a good thing you don’t have a man,’ went to her bedroom. She went to sleep and the next morning when she comes into our room and feels embarrassed is the first time we had seen her,” Kent detailed. “There was no we came into her room and told her she was reality TV ratings gold. This never happened and this isn’t perspective. This is fact. No one every said this to you.”
Earlier in the podcast episode, Kent questioned Leviss’ decision to share her truth with Frankel, 52, who isn’t a regular Vanderpump Rules viewer.
“I saw this all the time that there are going to be moment where out voice is all we have. We have all been able to go on a platform — whether it is our own or someone else’s — to share our side of any story. Raquel absolutely has that right and I am happy that she finally got to take advantage of a giant platform to tell her story,” she continued. “I only saw clips and what I gathered from it is Bethenny completely exploited that girl yet again.”
Kent went on to say that it was “really sad” to see how Frankel approached the conversation.
“I don’t think that reality TV is for everyone. It is a very intense environment. If you are not mentally tough as f—k, it can break you. It definitely can,” she added. “Now to say that Raquel was a victim of something, I don’t know. What I do know is you made a decision to sleep with your best friend’s partner of 10 years. You didn’t need to do that. No one was forcing you to do it and no one asked you to do that. It felt like Bethenny was really trying to push her in a certain direction.”
Frankel has addressed backlash for the three-part interview, including claims that the RHONY alum used Leviss.
