Image Source: Nicole Weingart/Bravo
The third and final part of the “Vanderpump Rules” season 10 reunion has finally come and gone, and it brought even more drama as the intense confrontation between exes Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix and their fellow SURvers continued. In the episode, Raquel Leviss finally came face-to-face with Madix after her and Sandoval’s months-long affair was revealed, and while she offered apologies, they weren’t so well received by Madix. In fact, in one heated moment, Madix likened Leviss to a dementor from Harry Potter. But more on that ahead. First, a recap.
In early March, Madix learned about Sandoval and Leviss’s relationship. “Vanderpump Rules” cameras began rolling again at the time to capture more footage, and the whole cast came together on March 23 to film the reunion, during which Madix and Sandoval hashed out the situation.
Just minutes into the first episode, Sandoval was lashed out at by nearly everyone else on the reunion stage when he began to cry after being questioned by host Andy Cohen. “You’re not at the Academy Awards,” James Kennedy yelled at Sandoval, while Madix chimed in, “The sad sack act is f*cking bulls*t.”
Things quickly escalated between Kennedy and Sandoval as the two argued over the seriousness of their friendship in the wake of the latter’s affair with Leviss, Kennedy’s former fiancée. As threats were thrown around, both got out of their seats and had to be physically separated. Cohen then spoke specifically to Kennedy, pushing him to “stay in the chair.” Kennedy quickly excused himself for a bathroom break, but yelled insults at Sandoval on his way out — including, “You’re a worm with a mustache.”
During May 31’s episode and the previous installment on May 24, cast member Scheana Shay was present, while Leviss was not due to a temporary restraining order she obtained against Shay early in March. Leviss accused close friend Shay of punching her upon learning of the affair. It kept Shay and Leviss from filming together during the reunion, but on March 29, Leviss and her lawyer did not appear in court for the hearing about the order, and it was dismissed. During a one-on-one chat with Cohen that aired on May 31, Leviss said she’d had her lawyer file for the dismissal and admitted, “I completely regret filing the restraining order.”
Parts one and two of the reunion mainly showed Leviss listening in from a trailer outside the studio as her castmates filmed. Shay left the stage at the end of the second episode, and Leviss was brought in — though her conversations with the rest of the crew have yet to air.
Shay and Leviss’s differing versions of those events were the bulk of the focus during the May 31 episode. Shay said she was not able to speak about the incident until after her court date (though did show off her nails to support the argument that her long manicure would have prevented her from forming a fist). That didn’t prevent other cast members from sharing their opinions, though.
Cohen directly asked Sandoval what he thought happened between Shay and Leviss, and after a lengthy pause, Sandoval lamented that he felt “like I’m between a rock and a hard place. I don’t want to upset my relationship with Scheana but I want to tell the truth.” Sandoval then insisted that he heard Shay tell Madix on the phone after the former’s encounter with Levis, “I just punched that b*tch in the face,” asserting that he was “one hundred percent [positive], I’ll take a polygraph.”
“I talked to Scheana on the phone and not once did she say ‘I punched Raquel,'” Lala Kent chimed in, supporting Shay. An emotional Shay ultimately said she’d never be friends with Leviss again, and detailed the impact of the affair on her own life. Shay also confirmed she had shared her suspicions about a relationship between Sandoval and Leviss with Madix, who’d brushed her concerns off at the time.
In the previous episode, Sandoval and friend Tom Schwartz had offered differing timelines for when the latter learned about Sandoval and Leviss’s affair. Schwartz claimed Sandoval told him he’d had a one-night stand with Leviss in early August, while in a separate interview with Cohen that aired May 24, Sandoval claimed his business partner didn’t know about the relationship until January of this year.
While Sandoval seemed to be crumbling under the stress of his friends’ questioning, Leviss appeared to keep calm during the moments she was filmed. She also spoke about her mindset during the affair while chatting solo with Cohen in the May 31 sit-down. Leviss said she and Sandoval felt Madix seemed to ignore signs of their affair, stating that her former friend, “never pressed about it, she never confronted me about it… just believed at face value.” When Cohen told Leviss it seemed like she was blaming Madix for her actions, Leviss agreed: “I mean at the time I think that was my mindset . . . I’m very ashamed of it.” Leviss asserted that she and Sandoval had planned to come clean to Madix about the affair before they were discovered, but “just needed to get our story straight” on the timeline they planned to share.
In the final part of the reunion that aired on June 7, Leviss and Madix attempted to apologize to Leviss and all the people they’d hurt through their actions. “I’m so ashamed and embarrassed that I’m even capable of keeping this secret from someone who has been in my corner since the beginning. Ariana, I’m so sorry for betraying you,” Leviss offered at one point. She continued, “I did it because Tom and I had this connection. I felt seen and heard by him,” which struck a nerve with the group, as Madix had always been one of Leviss’s biggest supporters. “I never confided in Ariana about personal things like I did with Tom,” Leviss explained, adding, “I’ve been a people pleaser my whole life and I dropped that mentality and started just pleasing myself. It was almost impossible to turn away from.”
By the end of the episode, Sandoval was in tears as he apologized, saying, “I understand what I did was so f*cked up, but I’m human. I make mistakes . . . Ariana, I know that you hate me, and it’s OK. I understand. But I want you to know I will always love you, and I will always be cheering you on from afar.”
Neither of their apologies were recieved well, however, because of the fact that they were continuing their affair (and both claimed to be in love). After thanking fans of “VPR” for their support throughout Scandoval, Madix told Leviss, “This is gross. When is it gonna click? [Your relationship is] an abomination . . . It’s so f*ckin awful.”
At one point in the reunion, Madix revealed Sandoval had still been sleeping with her after his affair with Leviss had begun, which spurred Sandoval to make a truly revolting comment. “She kept her T-shirt on,” he said about that sexual encounter with an eyeroll. “It was really hot,” he added sarcastically, which produced groans of disgust from everyone in attendance. Even Schwartz, who had been in Sandoval’s corner throughout the reunion, told him to stop talking.
Throughout the night, Madix insisted she was not humiliated by Sandoval and Leviss’s actions, and she delivered quite a few zingers at the pair, but the one that stood out was when she likened Leviss to a dementor from Harry Potter. “You are lower than the f*ckin lowest of low people. You’re a f*ckin’ psychopath,” she said. “You’re terrifying to me as a person. The fact that you are capable of this sh*t — un-f*ckin-believable. You’re a dementor. I know you like Harry Potter. You’re a f*ckin’ dementor . . . You’re a soul-sucking individual. After today, I will never see or speak to you again, and I will be better for it.”
In a final interview filmed six days after the reunion, Leviss revealed more details about her affair with Sandoval (the main one being that they totally lied about their affair’s timeline), and even admitted to suggesting she, Sandoval, and Madix be a throuple. “I love Ariana as a person, and I’m in love with Tom Sandoval, so [a throuple] didn’t sound like a farfetched idea,” she said. Sandoval rejected the idea, however, as Madix would not have agreed to it (obviously).
Since filming ended, Madix attended May’s White House Correspondents’ dinner and has been romantically linked to trainer Danny Wai. Sandoval and Leviss both have not defined their current relationship with each other beyond saying they love each other in the reunion.
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