Raquel Leviss and Tom Sandoval weren't being honest during Part 3 of the "Vandepump Rules" reunion special about the timeline of their affair and even how many times they had sex — so Raquel set the whole record straight with a tear-filled final interview six days later.
It’s no wonder no one on the cast of “Vanderpump Rules” could figure out why Andy Cohen said that a shocking “bombshell” reveal at the reunion could put the whole future of the show in question — they weren’t there for it.
The final part of the three-part reunion special was absolutely as explosive as promised, with Raquel Leviss eating it at the hands of Ariana Madix, Lala Kent, Katie Maloney and James Kennedy. But even that wasn’t as shocking as what she said in private six days later when she decided to finally set the record straight.
That’s right, all of that hate and vitriol flying her and Tom Sandoval’s way didn’t stop the both of them from perpetuating some of their lies they’d apparently pre-planned before the show.
One such lie was when Sandoval repeatedly said that he’d slept with Raquel only one time. He also told host Andy that they’d never slept in his and Ariana’s house. Lie and double lie as Raquel revealed that they’d slept multiple times way before anyone knew — and shared at least one awful incident in their house.
Another lie was the timeline, which has been muddied at best, but definitely pushed as close to the turn of the year as possible. “He feels like it would be less hurtful to say that this wasn’t going on for so long,” Raquel said in her final interview. She then shared that they’d hooked up prior to the gang’s August trip to Mexico, and then things got hot and heavy in Mexico (recall that Ariana was on that trip.
“That first night in Cancun, he was like drunk and trying to find his room,” Raquel shared in her final interview. “I heard him talking in the hallway. There was somebody working there and he was asking which direction the elevator was, and I was just like, wait, come inside, like sorry, sir, he’s really drunk. Yeah, that was the second time that we were physical, intimate with each other.”
When she was asked if they hooked up multiple times in Mexico, Raquel paused before admitting they had. “I don’t remember how often it would happen, but it definitely picked up speed more after we wrapped filming.”
Her biggest reveal about their sex live was one she said Tom “asked me not to disclose all this information.” She went on to say, “Especially now with being so isolated, I feel like Tom is, like, you know, my one person that I do have,” she said. “And if I just, like, went and betrayed him, then I’d really have nobody.”
Through tears, though, she did finally admit to something far worse than hooking up while Ariana was grieving the loss of her dog, which Ariana does know about. This, she did not (and she didn’t learn during the reunion, either).
“It’s the one story that we’ve agreed on getting straight and I know that the reason why Tom wanted to lie about it is because it’s a really bad look to hook up with someone’s boyfriend in their own house when they’ve gone out of town, especially for, like, a funeral of all things,” said Raquel. “So, like, I don’t know. This f—ing kills my soul. I am so sick of lying, I hate it, I hate being deceitful. It’s horrible.”
Raquel also gave a different version of the “open relationship” rumor, which was addressed on the show. According to her, she actually proposed something like that to Tom as a way out of this mess.
“I mean, I even suggested, I was like, maybe, like what would Ariana think about, like, having me as an addition. And he was like, no, no, no she would not be into that,” she said. “Because like I love Ariana as a person and also I’m in love with TOm Sandoval, so yeah, it didn’t seem like that far-fetched of an idea, but it was not something in question.”
After this reveal, Raquel said, “He’s gonna kill me. I just hate lying so much, I hate it.”
At the same time, she did get caught in one lie even in this interview. Both her and Sandoval had denied that she ever went to St. Louis, or that she met his family there. She insisted that she’d met his mother in Los Angeles and when asked if she’d been to St. Louis, she again said no in this final interview.
Production then put on the screen a picture of the two of them in St. Louis. “I can’t recall, no.” Producers then called her out for her face betraying the lie, so she finally confessed. “I know, I have a really bad poker face,” she said. “It freaking happened, yeah.”
Raquel was definitely in tears by the end of this interview, but she had none for the Ariana or the rest of the cast during the actual reunion special. There, she and Tom perpetuated their careful story of what happened.
Tom did break down two times. The first time was when Ariana broke down about how much she fell apart when she found out, saying that the support of friends and even all of America helped her get through.
He then completely fell apart at the end, telling her tearfully, “I understand what I did was very, very f—ed up. But understand that I’m a human, I make mistakes, I make f—ing terrible mistakes. I hurt somebody I’ve never loved more in my entire life. Ariana, I know that you don’t– you hate me, and that’s okay, I understand. But I want you to know that I will always love you and I will always be cheering you on from afar, always.”
Ariana, who seemed both extremely angry and so, so over it, responded with her own closing words: “I’m really grateful for Scheana, Lala, James, and Katie, and Lisa, and you, being there for me today, and in the last three weeks, and always. I will not forgive him. And I will not be cheering him on from afar.”
Raquel had also tried apologizing to Ariana multiple times during this final hour, but Ariana wasn’t having it. FInally, she told her, “I don’t accept. And I don’t believe you for one f—ing second.”
Earlier in the reunion, Sandoval again insisted that he’d slept with no one else after he’d started sleeping with Raquel, which set up on one of his most infuriating comments of the whole evening.
“You know who he did sleep with after him and Raquel started sleeping together?” Ariana asked. “Me.”
“Yeah, she kept her t-shirt on,” Sandoval shot back. “It was really hot.”
This set off the entire cast, with Lala Kent shouting, “You’re such a f—ing dick.” James echoed her sentiment with, “What the f—, dude? You’re disgusting.” Even Sandoval’s bestie Schwartz hung his head, “Don’t say that. Don’t say that.”
Sandoval was deflecting all night long, refusing to take ownership at almost every turn until, perhaps, his final words. Even after they’d wrapped the main part of the reunion, he and Raquel stole a moment together on camera where they had very different takes on what just happened.
“It’s really hard to accept that, and seeing the person that I’ve become, this isn’t who I want to be,” said a self-reflecting Raquel. “I don’t want to be the person that hurts other people.”
“I know, that really sucks,” said a clearly deflecting Sandoval. “It’s just really hard for all these people to think that we’re the most evil-est people ever and we’re compulsive liars. It’s like, how do we not lie about this?”
Lisa Vanderpump was flabbergasted by a lot of what happened on camera, and she didn’t even know the full truth of it. We have to keep in mind that Raquel admitted she and Tom were actively lying during the reunion, so we can’t really take anything they say as total fact.
Nevertheless, we do believe Raquel when she confirmed that she bought the lightning pendant necklace to connect with Tom’s. “Yeah, it was significant to who he became in my life. I know that’s not what anyone wants to hear.”
Lisa wanted to know why she kept doing these things on camera. “It was so provocative. It’s just like having the conversation with Ariana,” she told Raquel, referring to her talk with Ariana about intimacy issues with Sandoval. “It’s almost like you were acting out some kind of weird charade.”
The cast also laid into Sandoval for dressing up as Raquel for Halloween, now that they know this was after they’d had sex. At this point, Sandoval was still maintaining the lie that it was only one time, but no one was buying it. We cracked up at one point as he was saying it when James asked Lala, “Why does he keep saying one time? It’s more than one time.”
Raquel’s most eloquent and complete apology came about midway through the special — and Ariana tore her apart for it!
“I’m so ashamed and embarrassed that I’m even capable of keeping this secret from somebody who’s been in my corner since the beginning,” she said. “Ariana, I am so sorry for betraying you. I can’t even fathom the pain that I’ve caused you. I have been completely selfish, and you’re right, selfish is not the right word because it doesn’t even begin to describe the state of mind I have been in. It was a mistake. The way it was handled was a complete mistake, the way that we have betrayed the people closest to us was detrimental to all of our friendships and I’m seeing, like, all of the consequences for my actions that I never even considered because I was living in the moment.”
In response, Ariana said, “So my dog had just died, I cried in your f—ing arms, and you thought, I should go f— her boyfriend. You are lower than the f—ing lowest of low people. You really are. You’re a f—ing psychopath. You are terrifying to me as a person. The fact that you are capable of this s—, unf—ing believable. You’re a dementor. I know you like Harry Potter. You’re a f—ing dementor. I hope Charlotte f—ing haunts you. You’re a soul-sucking individual and I will, after today, never see or speak to you again and I will be better for it.”
In the end, Lisa said she couldn’t see how the show might be able to continue after this particular scandal as it’s beyond anything they’ve dealt with before. Andy said that maybe what they needed was some time.
They got about six days. Actually, a little longer, because most of the cast learned about Raquel’s final interview along with the rest of America. Season 11 of “Vanderpump Rules” is set to start filming later this month; with producers telling the cast to watch all of the reunions before taping begins.
Will Raquel show up? Will it be possible to film with Ariana saying she never wants to see Raquel or Sandoval again? Is the cast irreperably broken or will this, as many other things have before, also pass?
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