Raquel Leviss has stepped forward after the Vanderpump Rules season 10 reunion. She talked to Bethenny Frankel for the first time and shared that she now understands why she did what she did – like having an affair with her co-star Tom Sandoval.
“I needed a break because everything was so noisy and chaotic online. Also, I wanted to figure out why I did things the way I did,” Leviss said on the “ReWives” podcast on August 16. “I wanted to dig deep and find out why I keep choosing the wrong kind of guys and getting into bad relationships. I wanted to know what makes me act this way.”
Fans of Bravo’s show know that Leviss and Sandoval’s relationship led to the end of his nine-year relationship with Ariana Madix when she found out about the cheating in March.
“It took time, but I learned about love addiction and it’s real. It’s when you mix strong feelings with closeness,” Leviss told Frankel. “The same changes in your brain happen as when you take drugs. It’s like an addiction, and it explains why I couldn’t stop seeing this person, but it doesn’t make what happened okay. But now I understand.”
Leviss spoke up on the podcast for the first time after getting help for her mental health in Arizona. She talked to Frankel because she wants to show how reality TV can exploit people. (Frankel has also talked about how reality TV stars don’t get paid fairly, especially now with the SAG-AFTRA strike.)
“I felt like the backlash was too much,” Frankel said to Leviss. “I saw clips on social media about this ‘Scandoval’ thing that was getting a lot of attention. They were using his name a lot and it was in the news. I thought, ‘This will make everyone more famous than before.’ The show is about a bar, alcohol, parties, and cheating. So, honestly, why is this a big deal? … I mentioned your name to show how someone could get exploited. And that story will be out there forever without pay.”
“Reality TV is edited. It’s set up to tell a certain story. So it’s not all true,” she said. “As a viewer, it’s easy to get caught up in it. And an affair is something that affects a lot of people. So people projected their feelings onto it.”
Leviss added that the network is making a lot of money from the success of Vanderpump Rules because of this scandal. (The show got Emmy nominations this summer for the first time.)
“I haven’t seen any money from it… It’s not right. I feel like a kid saying, ‘It’s not fair.’ But it really isn’t,” she said. “I’ve been shown as the biggest villain. My mistakes on camera stay forever. You talked about how reality TV is like an addiction and they always dangle a reward in front of you. They say, ‘Tell your side of the story or we’ll make one up for you.’ It’s scary. So I almost went back, just because of that.”
