Vanderpump Rules Season 10 sold us a narrative, and we were all on the edge of our seats. We were told that Tom Sandoval cheated on his girlfriend, Ariana Madix, with her best friend, Rachel ‘Raquel’ Leviss.
But now, Rachel has come forward to claim that narrative is false. It all went down on the August 16 episode of Bethenny Frankel’s podcast, Just B. And this is only part one of Bethenny’s interview with Rachel.
Bethenny set the stage, telling Rachel that the “best friend” narrative was being called into question. “The world thinks that you slept with your ‘best friend’s’ boyfriend of 10 years,” she told Rachel.
Rachel and Ariana never spent time together
Rachel said, “Yes, that is the narrative that is being written for me. It is more salacious that way.” However, she denied it. “Ariana and I were not best friends. We were acquaintances who became friends through the show. She’s always been somebody who’s been very sweet to me. She would stand up for me and encourage me to pursue whatever I was pursuing, and that was all great.”
But Rachel said crucial elements were missing that would make them truly close. “But, we never had a deep conversation that I would have with a best friend. It’s painful to think that I hurt her in this way because that wasn’t my intention. I wasn’t trying to be a malicious person. I just got wrapped up in this and wasn’t thinking clearly. But we were not best friends.”
Rachel also claimed that she and Ariana never spent one-on-one time together off-camera. But no matter the extent to which any of that is true, it doesn’t justify anything Rachel did. If this is her attempt to rationalize, it’s a poor attempt at best.
Tom made her look like Ariana’s friend
She went on, “I don’t expect her to forgive me. I think once trust is broken with somebody from personal experience it’s really hard to come back from that. And the fact that I was able to keep those secrets from her — I don’t expect her to ever forgive me. But I am remorseful.” No matter how she says it, it sounds like she’s fishing for sympathy.
Still, she tried to take some modicum of accountability. “I do recognize that I’ve caused her a lot of pain, and there is a lot of secrecy [and] deception.” And for good measure, she also threw Tom under the bus. Which is fair.
“Although I wasn’t hanging out with Ariana off-camera to begin with, I did start hanging out with her in a group setting, because Tom would always invite me out. So, it did seem like we were close friends from the outside looking in, but in those situations, I was hanging out with Tom more than I was hanging out with her.”
Vanderpump Rules is expected to return to Bravo in early 2024.
TELL US – DO YOU BELIEVE RACHEL’S CLAIMS? WHAT DO YOU THINK ARIANA’S RESPONSE WILL BE?
