Rachel Leviss is reportedly not returning to Vanderpump Rules, but the Scandoval culprit still plans to remain in the public eye. Well, technically ear.
During Part 3 of her interview for Bethenny Frankel’s Just B podcast, Rachel–- who has not filmed for Season 11 of ‘VPR’–- was asked if she would ever return to reality TV, to which she responded with a hard “hell no.”
“I refuse to not respect myself on that level where I would endure that emotional abuse any longer,” she said. “I can’t do that to myself.”
While Rachel was the recipient of plenty of vitriol (both on-screen and off) after the news of her affair with co-star Tom Sandoval broke March 1, she’s certain the network would’ve liked to see her return to the series; however, she doesn’t believe her Season 11 storyline would’ve been one of redemption.
“Of course they want me back, and I know that other people on the cast are more important than I am, so I don’t even think I would get a ‘redemption’ arc, to be honest,” she said. “I also know that I wouldn’t be able to share all of my story. Whatever I share gets condensed to five minutes, max … .”
According to Rachel, a few of her castmates wanted to see her return to the series, too, but she doubted their motives.
“Tom has emailed me twice, Lala [Kent] wanted me back, Lisa [Vanderpump] wanted me back, yeah … they have ulterior motives,” she said. “They don’t care about my well-being, they care about their narrative that they need to portray on this show.”
(She revealed later on the podcast that she now has a no-contact policy “with every single cast member” of ‘VPR.’)
Rachel admitted that she did consider a ‘VPR’ comeback at one point, but Bravo was unable to meet her demands.
“I asked for equal pay as Tom and Ariana [Madix], and for them to pay for my treatment expenses [at The Meadows],” she said, referring to the Arizona facility she sought treatment in for months amid the immediate Scandoval fallout. “They refused to pay me equally, and I was considering going back if I was going to be paid equally. I feel like, when you pay your employees, it really shows how much you value them.”
Rachel said she has “a theory” that Bravo only refused to cover the cost of her treatment because “if they paid for it, they would admit to this liability.”
She also called out the network for taking so long to acknowledge her safety concerns.
“Just a few days ago, someone from the network reached out and offered for security to be at my house where I’m staying with my parents,” she said. “And it’s like, it’s a little too late. All of the death threats were happening months ago and you were aware of it and did absolutely nothing to protect anyone.”
When asked if she holds the cast responsible for the hate she’s received, Rachel said she thinks they’re “doing their jobs to make money”–- something she claims she’s unable to do herself post-Scandoval.
“So many people are using this opportunity and scandal to monetize for their own benefit and I’m left here broke,” Rachel said. “My name has been raked through the coals. I don’t have business opportunities. My brand is shot!”
Despite her busted brand, Rachel plans to start her own podcast, claiming she’s really “impassioned about learning about myself and the psychology behind all this.”
“I feel like it would be a great way to share my side of story and bring on experts that really understand the psychology behind it,” she explained. “I feel like, you know, this is an area that’s untapped because nobody really wants to talk about being the other woman. And for as many people who were hurt by this affair, there is equally as many people who have been [the other person].”
Rachel also took the opportunity to discuss some of the regrets she has, admitting she “would do everything differently” if given the chance to go back.
“ … I really just want to acknowledge that a lot of people were believing in me and I feel like I was a disappointment to those people,” she said. “I know there was a lot of trust that was broken, between my friendships and betrayal that happened, and I look back at my actions and I am disappointed in myself as well.
“That is not the person that I want to be,” she continued. “I wasn’t happy, I was really hurting. I don’t ever want to be in a place like that again, and I will make sure that I don’t put myself in that position again.”
Rachel said she’s been given an opportunity to learn about and forgive herself–- and “hopefully” share some of her experience with others–- which is something she wouldn’t have had it not been for Scandoval unfolding the way it did.
“I needed to get caught, I needed to, because it would have just continued and that’s not who I want to be,” she said. “This was the biggest wakeup call for me.”
(Photos: Bravo; Instagram)
9 Responses
I think you were manipulated and gaslighted by that little pissant Tom Sandoval. I believe in cheating on people is the worst anyone can do to someone they profess to love and care about. I am glad that you got a wake-up call and hopefully you can recognize dangerous people like Sandoval before they have an opportunity to drag you under the rock from which they live. Time to focus on you! Best of luck.
Good for her. Sheila’s treated like trash by all of them. Yes, she cheated BUT Tom was in the relationship and he’s back to filming. They really screwed Rachel over.
I don’t care if you agree.??
She Honestly believe that Bravo has a liability in her fucking her best friends boyfriend? Girl please ..
This girl is a self absorbed trip. She wants them to pay for her treatment? Bravo had nothing to do with her needing treatment, she did all that messed up stuff on her own, Bravo didn’t force her to sleep with the worm with a mustache. Plus the treatment obviously didn’t work. She’s seems to still be as toxic as she was before she went into treatment.
Why would Bravo foot the bill for the Meadows? All of the cheating took place off-camera. It wasn’t like it was a plotline created and encouraged by the producers. Rachel and Tom did it all on their own behind the scenes.
Also, she got paid over $300,000 last season. How tf is she broke?
She wants people to hear her “story”. Girl, no matter HOW you tell your story, it’s still YOU carrying on a months long affair with your friends man. You can spin that around and around, but its still the same STORY….
…and I sure don’t want to hear it in your shaky baby voice on a podcast.
I am glad she got the help she be needed. But I think she was expecting too much from what essentially was an employer at Bravo. You can blame too much coddling, her age or naïveté but at the end of the day she is asking to not be held responsible for what happened, which is a choice!
Accountability knows no age only the ability to know what you did was wrong, admit it and deal with the consequences.
true but no one else is taking the heat like she did. People who haven’t watched from day one they all have cheated. that is how ariana and tom ended up together he cheated on krisen with ariana. What did she expect you loose them how you get them. She had no problem wrecking that relationship because it was kristen but now is a victim because it happened to her? Also just because you get cheated on shouldn’t mean hey have unlimited shows etc millions of people are cheated on grow move on. But they all cheated at one point the whole cast
Kristen was the first to say it wasn’t the same thing that Ariana did to her. First of all, Kristen was cheating on Tom constantly (and that’s fine, because he was cheating too). So yes, it is different- Rachel knew Ariana was still invested in Tom because they talked about it. Tom and Kristen were toxic and both sleeping with tons of other people… tom and Ariana were in a 10-year committed relationship where they owned a house together and were working on freezing embryos. (Thank god they didn’t, though)