During part 2 of Vanderpump Rules' season 10 reunion, Raquel Leviss confessed to feeling “ashamed” of her “very deceitful” affair with Tom Sandoval, while she was accused of “blaming” their costar Ariana Madix.
On Wednesday's episode, fans finally saw the 28-year-old pageant queen’s one-on-one pre-interview with Andy Cohen.
She told the Watch What Happens Live host, 54, about the beginnings of her affair with the Schwartz & Sandy’s co-owner: “Things started getting more romantic after this girl's trip that I went on.”
When asked if Sandoval, 40, “made you feel special,” Raquel said, “Yeah, he made me feel heard and seen. And those are feelings that I haven't really felt maybe ever the way that he was seeing ever.”
“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?” wondered Andy.
Admitted Raquel, “I think I was living in my own little reality hoping that it would work out.”
When discussing the “many signs” Ariana ignored when it came to Sandoval and Raquel’s secret affair, which ultimately ended the couple's nine-year relationship, Andy noted: “It’s interesting because Tom said to me that he felt like … 'Maybe she knows but she's in denial about this somehow.”
“It seemed that way,” Raquel claimed. “She never pressed about it. She never confronted me about it. From what I know what Tom has told me, she didn't question him too much about it just believed like at face value what he would tell her.”
“That kind of sounds like you're blaming her,” Andy said.
“At the time, I think that was my mindset,” she explained. "And I now I know that she really did want to know, and it was very deceitful. I'm very ashamed of it."
Andy then asked how the conversation between Raquel and Ariana, 36, after Sandoval's ex found out about the affair.
“It was a lot of pain that I felt from her,” recalled Raquel. “She begged me to tell her when it all happened. And at this point we were going to tell her, we just wanted to get our story straight, basically because he felt like it would hurt her if she knew how long this has been going on."
Andy interjected, “So by getting your story straight, you were going to maybe truncate how long it had been going on or something?” Raquel acknowledged that was the plan.
“I told her the truth," Raquel continud. "And she said, 'Thank you for telling me because Tom would have never told me the truth.'"
When the cast took their lunch break, Sandoval visited Raquel in the trailer where she had been watching the morning's proceedings because she was legally required to keep at least 100 yards' distance from costar Scheana Shay in light of an ongoing restraining order (which was dismissed days after filming).
“They're making you and me to be basically pathological liars,” Sandoval said.
“I see that,” Raquel asserted. “Even though we know that we're not. We haven't lied about anything besides this affair.”
While at lunch, Ariana looked into her crystal ball and predicted of her ex former friend: “When Little Miss Homewrecker starts making actual demands of a relationship, she's not gonna be so cool and chill anymore, babe."
She added, "Just like I wasn't."
Indeed, back in the trailer, Raquel was always challenging Sandoval, telling him, “I don't love the way it's coming across about your guys' intimacy.”
She continued, “Clearly, I only know what you're telling me. But just watching what you guys taped right now, it looks like you guys had this solid relationship.”
Shaking his head, Sandoval defended himself by throwing shade to his ex. “Ariana always kind of talked down to me a little bit throughout,” he began, citing a more recent example of Ariana telling him what not to wear despite complimenting his sense of style.
“I feel like she felt like you wanted to keep the relationship working because you never broke up with her,” Raquel said. Sandoval had to give her that point, agreeing, “Yes, in a sense.”
After Sandoval assured Raquel he was “glad” she was at the reunion, Raquel said, “It just sucks because like my entire character is in question now.”
She went on, “I have gone through a transitional phase in my life this summer. And I think the pendulum swung a little bit too far the other way. And this is my wake-up call.”
Sandoval comfort her, affirming, “I believe in you.”
“I know you do,” she said.
Sandoval then asked producers, “Can I just chat with her without having [cameras]?” Raquel agreed it would “be nice,” but a producer denied them: “Cameras up if anyone's together the whole time.”
Sandoval got riled up, telling the producer, “Dude, I just want to f---ing talk to her. We just need a breath.”
While the producer kept trying to tell him that wasn’t allowed, Sandoval threatened, “Dude, no, man. I'm going to f---ing flip to get the f--- out of here. I'm not kidding.”
“If you need a break from filming, that's fine,” the producer said, and Sandoval shouted, “I need a break from filming!”
“OK, then go eat some lunch,” the producer said — but Sandoval continued to scream, “Stop filming me!
“I want to talk to her. I don't want to camera in my f---ing g--damn face. You're not understanding,” he asserted. “I don't feel relaxed. [Raquel] doesn't either. We have to watch what we f---ing say. I don't want that. I'm in a very delicate position right now.”
“Just take a beat,” the producer told him.
Sandoval shot back, “This needs to take a beat.”
Back inside the studio, while discussing the fact that Raquel was dismissing the lawsuit against Scheana, Sandoval insisted he and Raquel “did not do this maliciously,” referring to the affair the resulting months of deception and lashing out.
But Ariana didn’t buy that. “You watch what you f---ing say because it is malicious,” she snapped.
“It is malicious, but I did not do it with malicious intent,” Sandoval claimed.
“Well, what f---ing intent was there because you already f---ed somebody before this,” she fired back. “You're disgusting. Go ahead and be the real you.”
Referring to how enraged she was, Sandoval then flipped it onto Ariana, “This is the you that I dealt with during our relationship.
“I feel great about who I am,” she declared. “Unapologetically, you deserve to be that now,” he said. She agreed, “Exactly, I do deserve it.”
“But you were always unapologetic through our entire relationship. You never said you were sorry,” he claimed before Ariana shut him down by telling him to “shut the f--- up.”
The third and final part of the Vanderpump Rules reunion airs next Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
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