As we’ve previously reported, Raquel Leviss will not be returning to Vanderpump Rules for the show’s eleventh season.
Initially, it looked as though Leviss just holding out for more money.
Now, however, it appears that Raquel/Rachel has decided to prioritize her mental health over her career by permanently stepping away from the show that made her famous.
That’s her right, of course.
But distancing herself from the Scandoval might not be as easy as she’d hoped, especially since Leviss keeps making incendiary comments in interviews.
In a recent conversation for Bethenny Frankel’s podcast, Raquel blasted her Vanderpump co-stars and claimed that she was insufficiently compensated for her work on the show.
Not surprisingly, those co-stars clapped back.
Katie Maloney called Leviss a liar, and Lala Kent referred to Raquel’s betrayal of her friends as a “travesty.”
Leviss didn’t respond to those barbs, and for a while, it looked as though she was finished commenting on the situation.
Earlier this week, however, she surprised just about everyone by responding to criticism from podcast host and Bravo commentator Jared Barnes.
“If you wanted to be with Tom Sandoval so bad, you should have let him know that this tryst, the situation that was going on between you and him, goes no further until you know officially that they have broken up,” Barnes wrote on Instagram, alongside a clip from the Frankel interview.
“[100 emoji] you’re not wrong!” Raquel commented on the post, according to Too Fab.
“I should have had more self-respect than that and should have respected the relationship that Ariana had with Tom.”
In her previous comments on the situation, Raquel wasn’t nearly so apologetic, nor was she so willing to accept blame.
“Looking back, I see I had low self-worth and Tom kept telling me he was actively breaking up with her ‘amicably’ for her ‘mental health,’ which I can now see was magical thinking,” Leviss continued.
“He had a million and one reasons why they hadn’t broken up yet and it was easier to stay in that fantasy then to face the fact that the social anxiety and isolation was not worth it,” she added.
“So yes, absolutely you’re 100% right. It was MY responsibility to remove myself from that situation… now I know better.”
Again, these are Raquel’s most self-aware comments to date — but she’s still not receiving much sympathy on social media.
And she probably never will.
As for her former co-stars, they remain universally furious at Leviss (though most of them seem to hate Sandoval more).
Ariana Madix appeared on Scheana Shay’s podcast over the weekend, and the castmates discussed Raquel’s claim that she was never really friends with Ariana.
“The fact that she said you are no more than an acquaintance, an alliance, a coworker, that was she was using you to get closer to Tom,” Scheana said.
“That was very hurtful,” Ariana replied.
“I wasn’t using her for sh-t. I just thought that we were friends,” she added.
Ariana went on to blast Raquel’s claim that any part of the Scandoval was fabricated as part of an effort to boost ratings.
“I don’t know whose decision it was to do that, but it was a bad decision, and it was a very untrue statement or series of statements to make. I know Bethenny did that as well, you know, saying that this is like a producer thing,” Madix said.
“All that does is diminish what I went through,” she added.
Needless to say, there’s still a lot of hostility between Raquel and the rest of the cast — but sadly, none of it will be worked out on camera.
Raquel Leviss Offers Weak Excuse For Sleeping With Her Best Friend’s Boyfriend: I … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.