Vanderpump Guidelines’s Tom Sandoval-Raquel Leviss dishonest scandal, defined

Like Peter Pan’s Tinkerbell, the forged of Bravo’s Vanderpump Guidelines wants consideration or they may die. If nobody’s watching, they’re not dwelling. And that overexposed lifestyle is strictly why the illicit entanglement between forged members Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss is so explosive: the months-long relationship appears to have eluded the cameras.

And now, completely everyone seems to be watching.

Dubbed the “Scandoval” (a portmanteau of “Sandoval” and “scandal,” which is way more linguistically pleasing than “terriblehumansoval”) the affair includes Sandoval, a unique forged member, Leviss, a comparatively new forged member, and Sandoval’s long-term accomplice and co-star, Ariana Madix. The revelation broke late final week, with Madix allegedly discovering texts and a display screen recording of an intimate FaceTime between Leviss and Sandoval on Sandoval’s cellphone.

Sandoval and Leviss are nonetheless seeing one another, in response to a minimum of Bravo puppetmaster Andy Cohen. Madix has, in response to sources, been the recipient of a ton of assist from associates and followers.

A few of these associates embody fellow forged members who’ve declared warfare. Leviss and Sandoval are, amongst different issues, rumored to be frightened that they could must cancel their Coachella journey given the incendiary public fallout.

The rationale you will have heard about this, even when you’re Bravo-agnostic, is a testomony to how profitable the present and its stars have been at parlaying their private dramas into nationwide fame. For the previous 10 years, the Vanderpump Guidelines forged have lived their lives for Bravo cameras, changing into celebrities and social media stars by way of a present that’s allegedly about West Hollywood restaurant staff.

Sadly for Maddix, dishonest has at all times been a giant, massive a part of the present’s enchantment.

Todd Williamson/Bravo by way of Getty Photographs

There’s a lingering whiff of adultery in every episode, primarily because of forged members emanating the darkish vitality of regrettable hookups from seasons previous. Somebody making out with somebody they’re not imagined to has been one of many present’s essential attracts season after season; Madix and Sandoval themselves had been accused of dishonest with one another on the Golden Nugget Las Vegas on line casino by Sandoval’s former girlfriend and ousted forged member Kristen Doute, who definitely did cheat on Sandoval with then-co-star Jax Taylor, who in flip was two-timing Doute’s pal and co-worker Stassi Schroeder.

And that’s simply outdated stuff.

What makes this specific affair so explosive and in contrast to previous scandals is that Sandoval and Leviss have stored it secret for therefore lengthy, a feat that’s diametrically against a Vanderpump Guidelines forged member’s attention-vampire existence.

Beneath the floor of the theatrics and excessive himbo drama of the Scandoval is a somber have a look at how late-stage actuality tv operates, and the way a lot artifice is employed in allegedly candid actuality reveals. Bravo audiences have realized to just accept that there’s a sure diploma of fakery in actuality tv, that these individuals promoting their lives on digital camera at all times have one eye on how they’ll be perceived, how the subsequent episode will play out, and what subsequent season’s storyline might appear like. What makes Scandoval so galling is that it’s a glimpse into how keen persons are to destroy themselves and their relationships, all to provide us … a tv present?

The Tom Sandoval-Raquel Leviss affair, defined

The epicenter of this scandal is the West Hollywood restaurant generally known as SUR owned by former Actual Housewife of Beverly Hills Lisa Vanderpump. Although the title may simply be mistaken for the Spanish phrase for “south” or a wistful homage of that picturesque stretch of California coast, the title SUR is definitely an acronym devised by Vanderpump standing for Horny Distinctive Restaurant. Vanderpump Guidelines, then, is about horny distinctive individuals allegedly working at this horny distinctive restaurant underneath the horny, distinctive supervision of Vanderpump.

The present premiered on Bravo in 2013, on the sturdy shoulders of unique forged member Scheana Marie Shay, who was, on the time, identified for being actor Eddie Cibrian’s mistress. Shay, who sports activities an “It’s all occurring” tattoo in honor of cinema, spent the primary few seasons portrayed as an outsider at SUR, shunned by a trio of gorgeous waitresses — Schroeder, Doute, and Katie Maloney — and people lovely waitresses’ boyfriends — Taylor, Sandoval, and Tom Schwartz — for her notorious infidelity scandal.

Todd Williamson/Bravo by way of Getty Photographs

Shay and the remainder of the forged’s friendships, alliances, romances, and desires outdoors of SUR had been the main target of the office actuality present.

Nobody at SUR may inform you in truth that they had been there due to a ardour for the Los Angeles restaurant enterprise. They wished to be pop stars, fashions, and actresses. Because the present grew in recognition, showcasing these individuals’s usually messy lives, the forged received well-known for being on Vanderpump Guidelines. Thus, these larger, extra hopeful desires started to fade away, as did the facade that these tv stars had been truly working actual shifts at SUR and incomes their livelihood off of ideas.

The Vanderpump Guidelines forged discovered themselves in an unbreakable Faustian cut price that continues to today.

The forged wants the present to remain well-known. The present itself wants their mess to outlive. The extra mess the forged feeds it, the extra scores the present will get, and the richer and extra well-known the forged turns into. The rub is that regardless of how well-known the present makes them, no forged member has ever been extra well-known than the present itself. So these people are locked in an existential stasis; a horny, distinctive gilded cage.

Some 10 years after its premiere, after a number of firings, a number of new hirings, and a few divorces, Shay, Maloney, Sandoval, and arguably Schwartz — who at the moment are near hitting 40 — are the one remaining unique, full-time forged members. They’re mainstays, alongside crucial character: infidelity.

Since season 2, Sandoval has been in a severe relationship with forged member Ariana Madix, simply probably the most level-headed and self-aware particular person on the present. Their partnership, as established on the present over a number of seasons, was basically a wedding, solely not formalized as a result of Madix doesn’t imagine within the establishment. Madix, at one level, revealed on the present that she had frozen her eggs, ostensibly signaling a future for her with Sandoval.

That each one modified this previous week, when it was revealed Madix and Sandoval had damaged up after 9 years, and that Sandoval had been dishonest on Madix with forged member Raquel Leviss off-screen for the higher a part of a yr.

Leviss, not in contrast to Shay, was initially portrayed as an outsider. She got here into the present by way of a relationship with forged member “DJ” James Kennedy. Earlier than approaching Vanderpump Guidelines, she apparently gave herself a stage title, turning Rachel into “Raquel.” Raquel began showing on the present in season 6, earlier than changing into a full-time forged member three seasons later. Her relationship with Kennedy, which was filmed extensively on the present, progressed into an engagement earlier than the pair known as it quits in December 2021.

Filmed over the course of 2022, the tenth season of the present is presently airing on Bravo; it premiered on February 8, 2023.

Within the very younger season, Leviss’s story arc has been primarily centered on rebounding from her damaged engagement and negotiating her relationships with fellow forged members just like the newly divorced, entertainingly territorial Katie Maloney. Maloney and ex-husband Tom Schwartz truly received married on the present, however introduced the dissolution of their marriage in March 2022.

Maloney and Schwartz’s on-camera fights this yr have been about her asking him to not embarrass her and him persevering with to take action. And regardless of Leviss’s tenuous friendship with Maloney, Leviss has seemingly been trying to woo Schwartz, a factor — if reciprocated and consummated — that Maloney would discover extraordinarily embarrassing. Schwartz, it simply so occurs, can be enterprise companions and greatest associates with Sandoval, the person who Leviss was secretly seeing. The 2 Toms co-own a pair of institutions: Schwartz and Sandy’s and TomTom, as a result of they’re each named Tom.

Andrew J. Cunningham/Getty Photographs

When it was first revealed that it was Tom Sandoval with whom Leviss was concerned, and never Tom Schwartz — and due to this fact the seemingly dedicated Madix who had been wronged, and never just lately divorced Maloney — all hell broke unfastened. Since then, there was rampant hypothesis about Leviss and Sandoval’s matching lightning bolt necklaces being secret love totems, Sandoval dressing up as Leviss for Halloween (seen on Leviss’s Instagram), and even a rumor that Sandoval introduced Leviss house to St. Louis for Christmas, whereas Madix was off along with her circle of relatives.

For a secret affair, the 2 have seemingly and conveniently left a path of tantalizing clues hiding in plain sight.

Sandoval and Leviss’s affair isn’t scandalous as a result of it’s an affair. Infidelity — each insinuated and admitted — has been a cornerstone of this collection since its inception and has fueled storylines for a number of seasons. Neither is it simply the truth that these two have managed to vaporize one of many extra steady relationships on this extraordinarily poisonous actuality tv collection.

Somewhat, the Scandoval is so scandalous as a result of the 2 have seemingly managed to maintain it secret not simply to viewers but additionally to their castmates, a lot of whom have trolled and even threatened Leviss and Sandoval on social media, and to some extent, the manufacturing itself. That simply isn’t imagined to occur underneath the watchful eyes of Bravo and Lisa Vanderpump, at her Horny Distinctive Restaurant.

The Vanderpump Guidelines forged is like Fleetwood Mac

If there’s one factor you might want to perceive about Bravo’s candid actuality reveals like Vanderpump Guidelines and the varied Housewives franchises, it’s that there’s a certain quantity of accepted artifice concerned. These persons are working to maintain themselves on tv, which locations incentive on heightened reactions and mess. Or, when you’re like Leviss, there’s motivation for newer forged members to get within the thick of it to get promoted to a full-time forged member. It’s additionally not fully clear if these persons are certainly greatest associates, or in the event that they’d truly converse to one another in any respect in the event that they weren’t engaged on the identical tv present.

This ingredient of consciousness raises the query of whether or not the Vanderpump Guidelines forged is of course this messy or if their actions are influenced by their jobs as tv stars. And that query of the place the bogus ends and actuality begins is on the coronary heart of the Scandoval affair.

Does Leviss even have emotions for Sandoval, or is that this all calculated? What, if something, truly occurred along with her and Schwartz? Was this affair a part of Leviss’s plan to turn out to be the present’s essential villain? As a result of in a short while, Leviss has turn out to be the reigning actuality villain in the entire Bravo universe.

On Sandoval’s finish, one would assume that if he actually cared about Madix, the very least he would’ve performed is spare her this humiliation. Not solely did he cheat on her, however regardless of the tens of millions of individuals within the metropolis of Los Angeles, he did so with one of many half-dozen individuals they recurrently movie with. Is the present extra necessary than the relationships on this man’s private life? Or is all of it — even his long-term relationship with Madix — only a charade? And did he not foresee how his companies — bars and eating places that bear some permutation of his title — are tied to his fame on the present?

The affair has essentially modified how one watches the present this season.

Understanding the Sandoval-Madix breakup is occurring in actual time provides the present season of Vanderpump Guidelines the vibes of a discovered footage horror film; one the place Madix, our closing woman, has no thought what’s about to hit her. And now that we all know that at the very least some filming coincided with Sandoval and Leviss’s secret affair, it additionally turns each second between the 2 into one other piece of the puzzle, one which helps paint a clearer image of their romance. The true-life clues — matching lightning bolt necklaces included — assist too.

Getty Photographs for CLD PR/White

Scandoval has additionally known as into query how a lot, and the way lengthy, have Sandoval, Madix, and Leviss’s co-stars have identified in regards to the affair. Within the fourth episode, Schwartz tells Sandoval that he and Maloney made an settlement to not date anybody of their pal circle (i.e., Leviss). With out hesitation, Sandoval responds, “That’s not reasonable.” Sandoval encourages his greatest pal to pursue the romance with Leviss, regardless that it might end in ire from Maloney.

Was Sandoval projecting? Does Sandoval actually need the most effective for his buddy? Was Sandoval letting his pal take the warmth for a Leviss romance whereas secretly having his personal affair along with her? Or did Schwartz know all of this was occurring and sacrifice his personal picture to avoid wasting his partner-in-crime, Sandoval?

On Tuesday night time Sandoval lastly addressed the affair and issued an apology to Madix in an Instagram submit. “I’m past unhappy that it ended the best way it did. The alternatives I made harm so many individuals. I acted in a manner that clashes with who and the way I need to be,” he wrote, happening to say that he handled Madix with disrespect.

Leviss adopted with an announcement to Leisure Tonight on Wednesday morning. Leviss stated that she had begun counseling. “Though I selected to be on a actuality present accepting the nice and unhealthy that comes with it, past my very own actions I’ve been bodily assaulted, misplaced friendships, obtained loss of life threats and hate emails along with having had my privateness violated,” she wrote in her assertion, referring to an alleged violent response from castmate Shay. In accordance with Individuals, Leviss has filed a restraining order towards Shay.

Maybe the best way to take a look at this all is that Sandoval, Madix, Leviss, Schwartz, and your entire Vanderpump Guidelines forged are the fact model of Fleetwood Mac’s creation of Rumours — all of them destroying themselves and their relationships to provide artwork. As a substitute of Lindsey Buckingham tapping into the ache of breaking apart with Stevie Nicks to put in writing “Go Your Personal Approach,” we’ve season after season of forged members setting fireplace to their relationships, diddling newbies, filming with exes, perhaps even divorcing one another — all on digital camera. The present, which has teetered out and in of Bravo’s prime tier and been supplanted by the likes of Under Deck and Summer time Home, has discovered its shot within the arm.

That’s how this tv present and the individuals on it survive.

Within the wake of the Sandoval-Leviss affair revelation, Bravo ringmaster Andy Cohen stated that the circus’s cameras have been deployed to get uncooked reactions from present forged members. A few of these might even embody Sandoval’s ex-girlfriend and ex-castmate Kristen Doute. Cohen additionally confirmed that the reunion for Vanderpump Guidelines was filming in two weeks, promising that it might be explosive and “upsetting” (in Cohen-speak, this truly means “the most effective”) Vanderpump Guidelines reunion but. His stars will be certain of it.

Replace, March 8, 11:05 am: This story was initially printed on March 7 and has been up to date with statements from Sandoval and Leviss.