Just shy of one day since the anniversary of Scandoval, Rachel “Raquel” Leviss is taking Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix to court for revenge porn, eavesdropping invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Us Weekly obtained documents filed by Leviss, 29, on Thursday, February 29, for unspecified damages after Sandoval, 41, allegedly recorded a sex tape of her, which she wants destroyed. Despite not including Bravo, NBCUniversal, Andy Cohen or other Vanderpump producers in the lawsuit, Leviss mentioned them several times.
“It is clear that Bravo deliberately sacrificed Leviss for the sake of its commercial interests from its refusal to allow her the opportunity to tell her side of the story and defend herself, which she repeatedly begged for permission to do,” the paperwork states.
The NSFW video has been part of the scandal since the news broke in March 2023. Multiple cast members hinted that Madix pulled the plug on her nearly decade-long romance with Sandoval after she found a recording of an intimate FaceTime call between him and Leviss.
“There is more to the story, however. Lost in the mix was that Leviss was a victim of the predatory and dishonest behavior of an older man, who recorded sexually explicit videos of her without her knowledge or consent, which were then distributed, disseminated, and discussed publicly by a scorned woman seeking vengeance, catalyzing the scandal,” the documents stated. “Leviss ultimately checked herself into a mental health facility and remained there for three months while Bravo, Evolution, and the cast milked the interest her excoriation had peaked.”
The lawsuit continued: “Fueled in no small part by a NSFW Facetime video from Leviss that Sandoval seemingly secretly taped and supposedly circulated, Scandoval blew up last year right as Vanderpump Rules’ 10th season was airing on Bravo. Madix found out about the affair from a so-called accidental look at Sandovol’s phone show and then all unscripted Hell broke loose.”
According to Leviss, she was “misled by Bravo and Evolution” into thinking she couldn’t speak out about her mistreatment.
“As a result, she suffered in silence as Bravo and Evolution watched viewership explode, and the rest of the cast enjoyed unseen levels of public recognition and professional opportunity. Meanwhile, Leviss, who was humiliated and villainized for public consumption, remains a shell of her former self, with her career prospects stunted and her reputation in tatters,” the paperwork noted.
Leviss claimed the explicit video was done “illegally” without her knowledge or consent. Her attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter to several VPR stars in 2023 since the video constituted a violation of California laws on the basis of “nonconsensual pornography.”
Lala Kent previously revealed that she received a legal notice from Leviss’ attorney after bringing up the video multiple times. Kent, 33, then took to social media to express her annoyance with the lawyer contacting her personally instead of sending the letter to her own attorney, Darrell Miller.
“Raquel, tell your little Mickey Mouse lawyer that if he has stuff to send over, he can send things to my lawyer, same with the rest of my friends and cast, alright?” she said in an Instagram Story at the time. “I don’t know if you know how this works, you’re pretty brand new to the game. … Send it to Darrell!”
The phrase went viral and Kent made a large amount of money from merchandise.
“I can say that it allowed me to pay the down payment on my home, and that was, like, within a few hours,” she revealed during the Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen aftershow in June 2023. “The amount of money that we made on ‘send it to Darrell’ is pretty mind-blowing. Darrell’s a big star now.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Sandoval and Madix for comment.
