Not the same as it was? Lala Kent is weighing in on speculation that upcoming episodes of Vanderpump Rules have been revisited by editors amid Raquel Leviss‘ affair with Tom Sandoval.
“I may get in trouble for saying this,” the Bravo personality, 32, began in an Instagram Story video on Thursday, March 9, while laying down with daughter Ocean, 23 months. “But I’m gonna say it anyway. I heard … people are talking about how editors of VPR probably went back through and, like, tweaked things to kind of, like, align with what happened. Not true.”
According to Lala, the rest of season 10 hasn’t been touched in the wake of the cheating scandal. “What you guys are gonna see this season — before we obviously know what we know now — was very much going to be the story line of … you know who. With or without what just happened in the last week.”
The Utah native added: “Nothing was reedited. This was the story. You’re just gonna view it very differently now.”
The Pump Rules universe faced its biggest shakeup yet earlier this month. Us Weekly confirmed on March 3 that Tom, 39, and Ariana Madix split after nine years of dating due to his lengthy affair with Raquel, 28. News of the scandal broke as viewers watched the former beauty pageant queen attempt to make a move on Tom Schwartz following his divorce from Katie Maloney.
Bravo fans have rallied around Ariana, 37, after the bombshell breakup — as have her costars. Lala was one of the first Pump Rules cast members to address the controversy via social media, telling her followers that Ariana gave her “consent” to unleash the “blowtorch, gasoline, grenade launcher” on Raquel and the Missouri native.
Production picked back up on the reality series after news broke of the duo’s affair — and some already-aired scenes and interviews have hit different amid the scandal. Lala called out Raquel for referring to Ariana as one of her only “true friends” before her relationship with the TomTom cofounder was uncovered.
“For so long, I’ve been saying that she ain’t got a lot upstairs, and everyone’s like, ‘She’s so sweet.’ And she sits there and is like, ‘I’m not dumb, Lala. I went to college,'” the Give Them Lala author said via Instagram on Sunday, March 5. “But now that all hell has broken loose and she’s lit herself on fire, she wants to lean in on, ‘I’m dumb, everyone else filled my head, I’m the victim.’ It’s not gonna work.”
Both Raquel and the musician have publicly apologized to Ariana, with the California native asserting that “there is no excuse” for her behavior. “I am not a victim and I must own my actions and I deeply regret hurting Ariana,” she wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, March 8, noting that she is “speaking to a counselor” about how to “make healthier choices.”
Lala, meanwhile, claimed on her podcast that she started to get suspicious of Raquel throughout filming for season 10. “There’s plenty of dudes to make out with. You gotta get out of the group,” she said on Thursday. “For it to be your best friend’s dude it’s just yucky. For her to make a comeback, the group’s never gonna forget. That’s some low-down, dirty stuff. … This is a character flaw.”
Us has reached out for comment about the editing of remaining episodes.
Vanderpump Rules airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
