Charli Burnett Reflects on Her Season 10 Friendship with Raquel Leviss
Find out what the SURver had to say about Raquel’s affair with Tom Sandoval, the shopping trip for the lightning-bolt necklace, and more.
Charli Burnett may have stuck by Raquel Leviss’ side throughout Vanderpump Rules Season 10, but it’s no surprise that she feels differently about things today.
Read on to hear the SURver reflect on the season and their friendship, and share what she’s been up to since Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix’s split shocked the friend group, as part of the May 23 episode of The Viall Files.
Charli and Raquel Have Known Each Other Since They Were Teenagers
Believe it or not, Charli met Raquel long before they were castmates on Vanderpump Rules. “I’ve known Raquel since pageants, so we have to circle this all the way back,” she said on the podcast. “We’ve competed together since we were 15, even though we weren’t friends.”
That changed when Charli joined Vanderpump Rules back in Season 8, but as fans are surely aware, the two have since reverted back to their distant state.
The Demise of Charli and Raquel’s Friendship
Raquel’s Glamping Birthday Trip
Charli made it clear that she was supporting Ariana and Ariana only on the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 finale after the cast discovered Sandoval and Raquel’s affair, but it turns out the two were already on the outs by then.
“I had a really big disagreement with her on her birthday,” Charli said, revealing that her home had been broken into just before she was set to go on the glamping trip Raquel took with Sandoval, Ariana, Tom Schwartz, Scheana Shay, and Brock Davies. “I called Raquel and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna be late to your birthday. Like, you know, as a friend, will you wait for me? And she insisted on being in [Sandoval]’s car, and it was like this thing where she’s like, ‘I can’t wait for you. I need to go with them.’”
Raquel and Schwartz’s Makeout
That, combined with “the Schwartz thing” — i.e., Raquel and Schwartz making out despite his agreement not to get involved with anyone in his and Katie Maloney’s shared friend group — left Charli with a bad taste in her mouth. More specifically, she found the make-out to be “mean.”
“If someone comes and says something mean to me, I’ll be mean back, but I’m not going to go out of my way to be mean to you,” Charli added.
Charli’s Suspicions About Raquel and Sandoval
While Charli admittedly wasn’t as suspicious about Raquel and Sandoval as Katie and Lala Kent were, she did at one point ask Raquel about the rumors.
“She looked at me and she was like, ‘I would never do that, Charli. You know.’ And maybe it’s very naive of me, [but] I do take people at face value,” Charli explained. “I take everyone at face value… I don’t judge people, you know, because I like to take people for what they give me and what they show me, and if it’s wrong at the end, then that’s what it is.”
Charli and Raquel Buying the Lightning-Bolt Necklace, in Retrospect
Charli’s aforementioned suspicions were, as it turns out, unrelated to the fact that she was with Raquel when she purchased the lightning-bolt necklace that generated fan theories about the affair, given that Sandoval has a similar piece of jewelry. She joked that the shopping trip was a “crime I didn’t know about, [but] my fingerprints are everywhere.”