Rachel Leviss is dishing on Scandoval — on her own terms.
It’s hard to believe it’s already been 10 months since the 29-year-old’s affair with her Vanderpump Rules co-star Tom Sandoval was revealed, leaving the entire cast — and world — in complete shock. As we’ve been reporting, Rachel opted to not return for the show’s 11th season after a stay in a mental health facility… But that doesn’t mean she’s ready to completely leave the spotlight.
On Sunday, the debut episode of her new iHeartRadio podcast Rachel Goes Rogue premiered, and right off the bat she told listeners ahead of VPR starting back up later this month, she wanted to get her story out as opposed to sitting “idly by and [watching] this whole season pan out.”
Related: Ariana Madix Is Suing Tom To FORCE The Sale Of Their House!
She then gave some more context on why she opted to not return to the show, telling fans:
“I don’t want to be with Tom and I’ve made the decision to cut Tom out of my life. Going back to do the show, it would force me to interact with him … and I know I’m on the outskirts with all the other cast, so I wouldn’t get my story across.”
She continued:
“I really believe the girls wouldn’t give me the time of day to let me open up to them, given my previous history with my interactions with them.”
Yeah, it’s pretty clear where they stand…
Rachel added that she saw “the worst version” of herself during Season 10, as she and Tom were secretly hooking up. After things blew up, she felt she had no option but to head into the mental health treatment. She explained that through said treatment, she was still considering returning to the show, but ultimately decided against it — an against staying with Tom.
Elsewhere in the pod, she got into the really juicy stuff — how she and Sandy began hooking up! She recalled the two were having drinks at The Abbey in WeHo before she offered the 40-year-old a ride home where Ariana Madix, his then-GF, was sleeping. But the door was locked! She remembered:
“We go in the back, and the sliding door isn’t unlocked, so he was like, ‘Well, we’ve got the fire pit here,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, the fire pit’s cool, we can just keep talking. We got the fire pit going, we’re chatting, and then he goes, ‘You know what the best thing about this pool is? That it’s heated.’”
Oh, Tom…
They decided to go in, with Rachel saying she stripped down to her underwear and a “corset top” while Tom dove in in his boxers. She said that at first, they were keeping distance, but he eventually swam over to her to ask her to turn down the music she was playing from her phone — and that’s when lines were crossed:
“And then looked at me a certain way and then he grabbed me, spun me and kissed me and I was, like, surprised but, like, happy.”
She cringed, pointing out in retrospect it’s “so bad, so embarrassing,” but at the time, felt completely different. But her story aligns with Tom’s pretty decently… She continued:
“I knew it was wrong, Tom knew it was wrong. Right after Tom kissed me, he like sat on the stair of the pool and he was like, hands on his face, his mind must have been running a million miles a minute, contemplating what to do.”
She says that at that point, she thought it’d be best to leave — but the musician stopped her. She recalled him saying:
“Hang on, I just need to think for a second. I just don’t know what to do right now because I really like you.”
Oof…
But she says she told him she’d be more comfortable chatting in her car, so the two moved the party… and that’s where they sealed the deal — doing “everything” that night, right there in the car.
Ick! Poor Ariana… Unknowingly resting right upstairs! The story really doesn’t get better with time, does it??
Listen to the FULL podcast episode (below) to get Rachel’s side:
What are your thoughts, Perezcious readers?
[Images via Rachel Leviss/Instagram & Bravo/YouTube]