Have you heard? It’s Vanderpump Rules Season 11 premiere night! Almost the entire gang will be back to undoubtedly split every old Scandoval hair and create some brand new chaos. However, Rachel Leviss bowed out of the show after facing a public firestorm once her affair with a very not single Tom Sandoval came to light last season.
Even though we won’t see her back on camera with the friend group to explain or defend herself, she’s been telling much of her side of the story on her podcast, Rachel Goes Rogue.
One common theme Rachel has broached is that Tom is a master manipulator. She alleges that he even white-polished-fingernailed-handcrafted their first physical encounter. Read on to find out why Rachel believes he planned that one fateful night.
Rachel Leviss: “[Tom] fooled me!”
On the pod’s January 29 episode, Rachel discussed feeling deceived by Tom during VPR Season 10. Rachel thinks he staged the initial interaction that led to their affair behind her back.
She recalled producers pushing her to join Sandoval’s outing in Los Angeles. At first, Rachel thought she was surprising him but later learned he knew she was coming (excuse the pun). She claims they had sex for the first time that night.
“Charli [Burnett] and I walk in, and who’s the brightest-eyed, bushy-tailed one to see me? Who is so thrilled that I just walked in? [None] other than Tom Sandoval,” Rachel said sarcastically.
“And it’s such B.S., too, because I heard somebody say, like, ‘Oh yeah, Tom definitely knew. Producers definitely told Tom that Charli and [Rachel] were about the walk in.’ ”
She continued, “Like, he was ready for that scene. And I’m like, ‘Goddamn it! He fooled me!’ Like, I thought he was actually genuinely happy to see me.”
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is what it feels like to actually be appreciated,’ and feel like you’re welcomed in a room and feel like somebody wants you there — like, the stark contrast.”
“But then later on, finding out that he was acting and that wasn’t fully genuine? Ugh,” she said of being frustrated upon discovering Tom knew.
Later, Rachel wondered if he’d orchestrated their whole relationship for TV, citing his tendency to “self-produce.” She pondered, “He said, ‘We can be together next season,’ … I wonder if it would be like this if it wasn’t a reality TV show.”
“I think he had his motivation behind it that really escalated the situation. Whereas if it wasn’t a reality TV show and we weren’t all filming, I wonder if it would be like this,” Rachel concluded about the whole lightning-struck train wreck.
Vanderpump Rules Season 11 begins tonight at 8/7c on Bravo
TELL US – DO YOU THINK TOM ORCHESTRATED HIS AFFAIR WITH RACHEL TO MAKE FOR GOOD REALITY TV?
