Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss’ affair shook the Vanderpump Rules world. When it was revealed that Sandoval had cheated on his partner of nine years, Ariana Madix, fans and cast members were quick to rally around Madix and condemn Sandoval.
Recently, Sandoval decided to appear on a podcast to share his side of the story. He opened up about how his affair with Leviss started and even described their first kiss as “magnetic.”
Tom Sandoval explains how he became close friends with Raquel Leviss
On the podcast Howie Mandel Does Stuff, Sandoval sat down with Howie Mandel and his daughter Jackelyn Shultz. Sandoval opened up about how he became close to Leviss and how the affair started.
According to Sandoval, he and Madix had been growing apart for some time. Despite living together, the two of them were each in their own world, did not hang out much, and barely had any connection with one another. Additionally, Sandoval admitted that they were both dealing with anxiety and depression and could not be there for each other.
Meanwhile, he and Leviss started talking more and became close.
“I was in such a place, just yearning for a connection,” he said. “Raquel and I had just become slowly–especially after her and James [Kennedy] broke up–really, really good friends. [We were] confiding in each other, [being] a source of strength.”
He added at another point in the interview, “I thought she was so awesome … She’s so kind, she’s smart, she’s witty, she’s fun … She’s beautiful.”
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Tom Sandoval says his first kiss with Raquel Leviss was ‘magnetic’
Sandoval shared that, at first, he tried to get his best friend and fellow Vanderpump Rules star Tom Schwartz to date Leviss. His thought process was that “if Schwartz and her start dating, we could all hang out even more.” However, Schwartz ultimately was not that interested in dating Leviss.
One night, Sandoval and Leviss hung out in the backyard of Sandoval’s house, and the two of them kissed.
“It was magnetic,” he said. “We were, like, talking and moving closer. As time went on, we just started talking closer and closer. And all of a sudden, we were kissing. I felt something that I hadn’t felt in so long emotionally.”
Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix were already broken up when she discovered the affair
Although the common narrative surrounding “Scandoval” is that Sandoval and Madix broke up because she found out about the affair, Sandoval set the record straight and shared that they had already ended their relationship two weeks prior to Madix finding out about him and Leviss.
According to Sandoval, he broke up with Madix on Valentine’s Day in 2023. However, Sandoval alleged that Madix kept “trying to convince [him]” to stay together and continued to be “fully in denial” of the end of their relationship.
He, then, confirmed that Madix found out about the affair later on when she went through his phone and saw explicit content of him and Leviss. News of the affair eventually became public some time in early March.
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