In a different light. Vanderpump Rules viewers were thrown for a loop when the show’s focus on Raquel Leviss‘ potential romance with Tom Schwartz was overshadowed by news of her offscreen affair with Tom Sandoval.
Before the cast started filming season 10 during summer 2022, Katie Maloney and Schwartz announced their split after more than a decade together. As cameras started rolling, Us Weekly confirmed that the bar owner hooked up with Raquel at Scheana Shay and Brock Davies‘ wedding in July 2022, upsetting Katie as she asked her ex-husband not to date within their friend group.
Raquel and Schwartz’s potential connection was on everyone’s mind as new episodes of the Bravo show dropped. In March 2023, however, things took a turn when Sandoval and Ariana Madix parted ways after nearly ten years of dating.
“They were having problems for a while,” a source revealed to Us, adding that things “only came to a breaking point” when Ariana found out that her then-boyfriend was unfaithful with Raquel.
Shortly after the news made headlines, the Florida native’s brother, Jeremy Madix, slammed the Vanderpump Rules costars.
“It’s funny to watch people social climb and be soooooooo fake that they’re willing to s—t on people that are supposed to be their ‘best friend’ (a term that gets thrown around very often around here) all just to come up or have some sort of story line,” he commented on James Kennedy’s Instagram post. “This lifestyle and this group is beyond toxic and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. … Toms a try hard having a midlife crisis with his cringy band and Raquel has faked her way to the top trying to make something of her life willing to step on whoever to get there starting with James. Sell out type lame s—t. Let’s all remember that Raquel was a fan of the show before all of this. Does anyone pay attention?”
Sandoval, for his part, took to social media to issue an apology to Ariana, writing via Instagram, “I want to first and foremost apologize to everyone I’ve hurt through this process. Most of all, I want to apologize to Ariana. I made mistakes, I was selfish and made reckless decisions that hurt somebody I love. No one deserves to feel that pain so traumatically and publicly.”
He added: “I can only imagine how devastating this has been for Ariana and everyone around us. I feel really horrible about that. My biggest regret is that I dishonored Ariana. I never meant to disappoint so many people, including our loving families and friends.”
That same month, viewers started to analyze scenes from season 10 of Vanderpump Rules that appeared to age badly due to the drama. In a scene between Lala Kent and Raquel, which was filmed in July 2022, the beauty mogul questioned her coworker’s interest in unavailable men.
“It is strange to me though because Raquel had zero interest in Oliver [Saunders] until I said [I was interested],” Lala said in a confessional. “Now she’s treating it like a pageant and she’s in competition mode with me.”
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