It’s (still) all happening. The drama between Raquel Leviss, Katie Maloney and Tom Schwartz isn’t slowing down on season 10 of Vanderpump Rules, with Raquel exclusively telling Us Weekly that she “definitely considered” making things more serious with her male costar.
“Tom Schwartz is so kind and considerate,” the 28-year-old former pageant queen told Us during a joint interview with Scheana Shay on Wednesday, March 1. “And he always puts himself in other people’s shoes. And that’s something I admire a lot about him.”
Us broke the news in August 2022 that Raquel and Tom, 40, hooked up at Scheana’s wedding in front of Bravo cameras, six months after he and Katie, 36, called it quits.
“It was more of, like, a fun makeout. I feel like I’m not in the place right now to have a serious relationship — coming out of a five-year, serious relationship,” Raquel told Us. “I met [ex-fiancé] James [Kennedy] when I was 21 and now I’m 28, so I feel like I only have two more years of my 20s left and I kind of wanna live it up.”
The SURver currently describes her status with the TomTom co-owner as “really good friends.” And despite Katie slamming Raquel when she posts pics with her castmate on social media, she doesn’t understand why she would need to stop.
“We’ve gotten so close through this past year,” Raquel told Us. “And I love him as a friend and I wanna keep this friendship. I think it’s frustrating because Schwartz and I do hang out so much. And we’ve taken so many photos together, just, like, out and about. And the one time that I wanna post a photo with [him], it’s so polarizing and people are like, ‘You are rubbing this in Katie’s face.’ I’m like, ‘We’re not even dating, like, we’re just friends. I feel like I should be able to post a photo of my friends.’”
Katie made waves last month when she called Raquel “desperado” for snapping a pic with Tom outside of Schwartz & Sandy’s.
“[My motivation was] pure vanity. Just because there are so many articles now with Schwartz and I [using] that one photo that we’re standing next to each other [and] it was, like, one of those days that I didn’t put that much effort into my makeup,” she told Us with a laugh. “And I was like, ‘Dude, we need to put out a new photo.’”
The “You’re Gonna Love Me” podcast host has made it clear that she isn’t happy with Raquel and Schwartz for hooking up — and has accused Scheana of pushing the pair together. The drama has only started to air on season 10, with Katie getting upset on a recent episode at the idea of her ex and Raquel making out — weeks before it even went down.
“I think you’ll see as the season progresses, the things that led up to that moment. I think at Scheana’s wedding it was such a romantic atmosphere. And Schwartz and I have this connection,” Raquel told Us. “It’s more of a friendship now, but there definitely is like a little bit of chemistry, a little bit of flirtation and just the atmosphere was so romantic that all those things kind of just led to that.”
Raquel added that the damage was seemingly done with Katie when she admitted she was even interested in making out with Schwartz.
“You’ll see as the season progresses, in the next episodes, she is a little bit more passive-aggressive. And you’ll kind of see how that plays out,” she noted. “She did forgive me, but she didn’t actually forgive me.”
Vanderpump Rules airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
