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The Daily Dish Vanderpump Rules

You Might Be Surprised to Hear Raquel Leviss’ Thoughts on Her Friendship with Ariana Madix

During her one-on-one chat with Andy Cohen, Raquel also revealed how she was planning to tell Ariana about the affair.

By Shannon Raphael

Just a few weeks after Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval ended their nine-year relationship because he had an affair with Raquel Leviss, the Vanderpump Rules cast got together to film the three-part Season 10 reunion.

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But while Raquel was one of the parties involved in the drama, she wasn’t initially part of the reunion conversation. During Part 1, she watched the cast discuss the season’s most compelling moments from a trailer

Then, on Part 2 of the reunion, which aired June 1, Raquel finally joined cast members Ariana, Sandoval, Lala Kent, Katie Maloney, Tom SchwartzJames Kennedy, and Lisa Vanderpump on the stage to share her side of the affair. What’s more, Raquel also sat down for a one-on-one chat with reunion host Andy Cohen

Raquel on Her Friendship with Ariana

After Andy asked Raquel about the timeline of her friendship-turned-affair with Sandoval, Andy wondered aloud whether Raquel had considered how the news would affect Ariana. More specifically, he asked, “How did you envision that this was going to play out with Ariana? Did you think that there was a path forward for the two of you?”

Raquel then admitted that she had hoped she could remain on good terms with the Something About Her co-owner. “Yeah, I think I was living in my own little reality, hoping that it would work out,” she responded.

Why Raquel Kept Her and Sandoval’s Affair a Secret

Andy asked Raquel if the reason she thought she and Ariana could stay friends was possibly because she believed Ariana was “in denial” about her relationship with Sandoval.

“It seemed that way,” Raquel shared. “She never pressed about it, she never confronted me about it, she didn’t — from what I know, what Tom’s told me — she didn’t question him too much about it, just believed at face value what he would tell her.”

Raquel Leviss at the Season 10 Vanderpump Rules reunion.

When Andy pointed out that it seemed like the 28-year-old was trying to blame Ariana for not asking more questions, Raquel acknowledged that she viewed the situation very differently during the affair.

“I mean, at the time, that was my mindset, and now I know that she really did want to know, and it was very deceitful,” she said. “I’m very ashamed of it.”

Raquel Reveals Ariana’s Initial Reaction to the Affair

As Vanderpump Rules fans know from watching the Season 10 finale, Ariana found out about her now-ex’s affair when she looked at his phone during a Tom Sandoval & the Most Extras concert. At the time, Raquel was in New York City filming an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen with Scheana Shay

During her one-on-one with Andy, Raquel shared what happened when she spoke to Ariana on the phone in the immediate aftermath.

“It was a lot of pain that I felt from her. She begged me to tell her when it all happened,” Raquel revealed, before explaining how she and Sandoval were originally planning to break the news to her. “At this point, we were going to tell her, we just wanted to get ‘our stories straight’ basically, because he felt like it would hurt her if she knew how long this has been going on.”

Instead of fibbing about when the affair began, Raquel came clean.

“I told her the truth, and she said, ‘Thank you for telling me, because Tom would have never have told me the truth,” Raquel concluded. 

You can see what happens now that Raquel has made it to the reunion stage by tuning in to Part 3 on June 7 at 9/8c. 

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