In her lawsuit, the 'Vanderpump Rules' alum accuses her former co-stars of causing emotional distress and destroying her career after her affair with Tom was exposed last year.
- Mar 1, 2024
AceShowbiz - Rachel Leviss (Raquel Leviss) is suing Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval. The "Vanderpump Rules" alum accuses her former co-stars of revenge porn and causing emotional distress following headline making Scandoval.
In court documents, obtained by Page Six on Thursday, February 29, Raquel claims she's a victim of revenge porn, invasion of privacy and eavesdropping. Filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, the former beauty pageant queen claims that Tom filmed their intimate FaceTime video call without her consent.
According to the complaint, there "is more to the story" to the affair scandal which took place when Tom was still dating Ariana. Raquel notes that she's "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 "Rachel Goes Rogue" podcast host adds in the lawsuit that she's "became an object of public scorn and ridicule" because of a narrative that was "deliberately fomented by Bravo" and Evolution Media. All of that resulted in her "months-long in-patient treatment at a mental health facility."
Amid the backlash, Raquel was misled into "believing that she was contractually barred from speaking out about her mistreatment." The lawsuit alleges that the network didn't allow her an "opportunity to tell her side of the story and defend herself, which she repeatedly begged for permission to do," the suit alleges. "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."
Last year, Raquel claimed during her appearance on Bethenny Frankel's "Just B" podcast that she wasn't aware of being recorded by Tom. "I decided to be adventurous and look at the adult section on the TV, and Tom and I FaceTime a lot, so it turned into more of an intimate FaceTime," she said. "I expected to have privacy in that moment."
Once Ariana found the video, she allegedly sent Raquel a text that read, " 'You're dead to me.' " That was how Raquel allegedly learned that she "had been recorded without my consent."
