The Latest 'Vanderpump Rules' Battle Is Happening Off-Screen & It Could Change Scandoval's Legacy
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It’s March 3, 2023 and photos emerge of Tom Sandoval loading bags into his car outside of the home that he shared with girlfriend of nine years and fellow Vanderpump Rules star Ariana Madix. Rumors that he cheated on Madix with fellow VPR co-star Raquel Leviss are just bubbling to the surface and clear lines are drawn — it’s #TeamAriana or nothing.
Sandoval and Leviss quickly become the ultimate reality TV show villains who carried on a seven month affair while feigning a romance and friendship with their co-star. For fans, the drama was black and white until recently.
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Anyone with internet access during the months of March and April 2023 probably stumbled upon #Scandoval at some point. TikTok was all over it, Twitter was in a frenzy and Instagram speculation was rampant. But for the most dedicated followers of the show and the drama that ensued, Reddit became the hotspot for information exchanges and vocal expressions of personal outrage.
As one of the r/vanderpumprules subreddit‘s moderators, Sarah, told us, membership increased drastically overnight once the affair broke. According to Reddit’s 2023 recap, r/vanderpumprules was the #2 most-viewed TV-show-related community. The engagement became so intense that Sarah took on the duty to moderating posts, along with other volunteers, to mitigate bullying, discrimination and hate speech — a task made increasingly complicated by the growing negative sentiment towards the two antagonists of the scandal, Sandoval and Leviss.
The subreddit was the birthplace of definitive and speculative timelines of the affair and theories about key details of the affair such as Leviss and Sandoval’s matching lightening bolt necklaces. And as the information kept coming, one person seemed to get hit with the wrath of outraged fans more than others.
“I do feel like Raquel got a large majority of the anger towards her,” Sarah tells us, revealing that her role as a moderator often involved keeping a close eye on the misogynistic backlash towards Madix’s former friend. “I do think that there’s just a huge level of misogyny that goes into it.”
The aftermath of that anger makes it clear who suffered the most, Leviss has refused to return for season 11 after spending several months in a mental health facility after the affair broke. Sandoval, meanwhile, seems already set for a redemption arc in teaser clips for the upcoming episodes that see certain cast members appearing to make amends.
So, according to Sarah, fans have been self-reflecting and now there seems to be a new divide forming as fans are realizing that the affair may not be as black and white as it once seemed.
Without a spot to clear her name on Bravo’s hit show, Leviss is sharing her story on her new podcast, Rachel Goes Rogue, and fans are all ears. What has emerged are details that imply Sandoval was manipulative and coercive throughout the affair, pursuing her when she was at a low point following her split from James Kennedy and encouraging her to lie to save his image.
“The thought has crossed my mind, like, ‘Did Tom mastermind this?'” Leviss said on a Jan. 29 episode of her podcast. “He is known to self-produce, and all he has is this show, and the success of this show equals longevity in his career. He’s over 40 now, and this is his life. This is his main income.”
“When we did have conversations like, ‘How is this going to play out?’ He said, ‘We can be together next season,'” she recounted. “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.”
Then there is the often-overlooked allegation from Leviss that the intimate recording of her that first alerted Madix to the affair was taken by Sandoval without her consent during a FaceTime call.
“I do think it’s coming back around,” Sarah says of the public, or at least Reddit’s opinion of Leviss as she continues to speak on her side of the story. She notes that opinions are still divided and fans are no longer aligned when it comes to who did wrong in the affair. “I feel like it’s shifted from being super angry and negative towards her.”
Just last week, fans on Reddit discussed a February 2 episode of Leviss’s podcast and praised the former beauty queen for apologizing to Madix whilst also labelling Sandoval as “abusive.” That is not to say Leviss is no longer receiving backlash from Madix’s most loyal supporters, but there is a clear softening in the language used towards her. And given how explicitly Madix has warned those in her inner circle not to defend, or even associate with, Leviss or Sandoval, it is hard not to wonder how this newfound empathy towards Leviss will impact VPR’s beloved heroine.
Almost a year after the affair first broke, the divide between those who blame Leviss and Sandoval for the affair with no layer of empathy and those who wonder if one party might have had more power in the affair than the other may change how fans view Scandoval for seasons to come.
Before you go, click here to see all the celebrity couples who have stayed together after cheating scandals.
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