Kristina Kelly alleged the Vanderpump Rules production team instigated an argument during the infamous season 10 girls’ trip to Las Vegas.
The former SUR waitress, 35, shared her side of the drama on the Wednesday, June 21, episode of Stassi Schroeder‘s “Straight Up With Stassi” podcast.
“We got word that [Raquel Leviss] was shown footage of [Lala Kent, Katie Maloney and I] talking s—t about her. We had a big thing about it with one of the producers and we were really upset and we found out who it was. It’s a new [producer],” Kristina claimed about the cast trip, which took an unexpected turn when Raquel, 28, and Charli Burnett left following a tense group dinner.
A source close to production, however, denies Kristina’s account of what happened in Sin City, telling Us that there’s “no truth” to the crew meddling by showing Raquel footage.
During a March episode of Vanderpump Rules, Lala, 32, Katie, 36, and Kristina found themselves at odds with Raquel after she hooked up with Garcelle Beauvais‘ son Oliver Saunders, who they met while dining at Lisa Vanderpump‘s restaurant in Sin City. The model, however, argued that she got Lala’s approval to explore her feelings for the waiter.
“You asked me, and I told you to go for it. [But] you drinking? I would never trust you around my man,” Lala said, to which Raquel quipped that it was a good thing the Utah native didn’t “have a man” to hide from her.
After watching the scene back, Kristina questioned the authenticity of the subsequent fallout from the argument. “We were like, ‘This is changing the narrative because you’re messing with [filming].’ I feel like they were really trying to give [Raquel] a story line where we were these bullies,” she added on Wednesday. “So, they were like, ‘This needs to make sense so she needs to know what was said that night in Las Vegas.'”
The Heartspring founder also accused the show’s producers of editing moments out of context.
“They also showed [Raquel] crying in bed. She was crying in bed and they edited that as if she eavesdropped and heard us talking about her and then she got into bed with her galaxy lights and started crying,” Kristina explained. “She was crying over [Ariana Madix‘s] dog. Ariana’s dog had passed away and we had just found out, and so she got in the bed and I am pretty sure she FaceTimed Ariana. And she was crying in bed over that, and I feel like it played out like we were mean girls [who caused it].”
The same production source denies to Us that Raquel was crying about Ariana’s dog, adding she was indeed upset about the comments her costars made.
As viewers watched the drama unfold on the show, news broke in March that Tom Sandoval and Ariana, 37, called it quits due to his affair with Raquel. The cast came back together weeks later to address the scandal — and its aftermath — during the reunion taping.
In a confessional filmed days later, Raquel clarified the alleged timeline of her affair with Sandoval, 40. The dramatic reveal came during the final minutes of the June 7 reunion episodes after she and the TomTom cofounder attempted to defend themselves throughout part 3.
“I think it’s important to me to tell the truth. I think that I’ve been lying and being so deceitful this entire time that I don’t want to lie anymore and it’s all out there anyway. Like, the worst is out, yet I’m still finding myself having to lie about specific timeline things,” she said in an emotional confessional. “[Sandoval] feels like it would be less hurtful to say that, you know, this wasn’t going on for so long. [But] the second time was actually during Mexico [at Scheana Shay and Brock Davies’ August 2022 wedding].”
Following the bombshell revelation, a source offered an update on how Raquel was handling the public backlash.
“Upon the completion of filming the reunion, Raquel entered a voluntary inpatient behavioral health and trauma facility and remains there to date — 68 days and counting,” an insider exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month. “Her treatment is helping her learn the basis of her decisions and to grow from her mistakes with the hope of making better choices and becoming a better person. She is a young woman that is and has been remorseful for her actions and has apologized repeatedly. Raquel looks forward to sharing her story with the unfiltered truth when she comes out.”
While cameras have stopped rolling for now, the Pump Rules cast has continued to dissect the scandal off screen. Lala, for her part, previously weighed in on why she thought Raquel was meant to be the fan favorite on season 10.
“She would have won the season. She would have been the No. 1 chick as she is sobbing about making up for lost time,” the Give Them Lala author said during a May episode of her podcast, referring to Raquel’s emotional confessionals about her split from James Kennedy. “Do we think she was crying so heavily because she was feeling guilty? The line was crossed well before they had sex. The emotional affair had already started.”
At the time, Lala said she wasn’t ruling out a possible redemption arc for Raquel, adding, “As much as I slam her every chance I get, beyond that I do see a broken person. I do not think she is heartless and soulless.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Bravo for comment.
