Yahoo News Scandoval Going to Court as Rachel Leviss Names ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Couple in Revenge Porn Lawsuit
The aftermath of Vanderpump Rules‘ “Scandoval” is currently playing out on Bravo a year after news of the shocking affair and betrayal among the reality TV stars first broke. In the latest wave in the love triangle that captured the nation last year, Rachel Leviss (formerly Raquel), who had an affair with Tom Sandoval behind the back of her friend Ariana Madix, is suing the two in California over the infamous NSFW sex video as well as eavesdropping and invasion of her privacy.
Leviss is seeking a jury trial in the legal action against her two ex co-stars and former close friends. Her side of the sordid affair is detailed in a complaint filed Thursday in L.A. Superior Court, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. It recalls that, in the storm of media attention following the news of the 29-year-old’s affair with Sandoval, 40, over season 10’s filming, she entered in-patient treatment at a mental health facility while explaining that her departure from the show came as Leviss was being “subjected to a public skewering with little precedent.”
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“Leviss was 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 women seeking vengeance, catalyzing the scandal,” states the lawsuit, filed by power attorneys Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos.
The so-called “Scandoval” erupted in March 2023 when Madix, while looking at her partner of a decade’s phone, accidentally saw a sexually explicit video of Leviss. This opened the floodgates regarding their affair and launched the scandal of the year while making Leviss a reality TV pariah.
“She became, without exaggeration, one of the most hated women in America,” the filing says of Leviss, who ultimately exited the Bravo show after the sex tape, allegedly filmed and distributed by Sandoval, went viral. Leviss was last seen during the season 10 three-part reunion and a post-reunion interview that was filmed after the scandal broke. She did not return for the currently airing season 11 and has since launched a podcast, Rachel Goes Rogue, where she has spoken about the events.
California’s revenge porn statute, adopted in 2014, makes it a crime to spread online video of someone engaging in sexual intercourse or performing sex acts without their consent. It is different from the state’s invasion of privacy laws in that it typically involves photos or footage that were taken with consent, but later distributed without one party’s knowledge or permission.
Leviss is asking the court to issue an order that all physical copies of the sex tape must be destroyed and that an injunction be granted to stem the spread of the compromising video. Her suit doesn’t name Bravo, its parent company NBC/Universal, or Amazon MGM Studios’ Evolution Media, but states that Bravo “deliberately sacrificed Leviss for the sake of its commercial interests from its refusal to allow her the opportunity to tell her side of the story and defend herself, which she repeatedly begged for permission to do.”
THR has reached out to reps for Sandoval, Madix and Bravo.
The suit comes days after a legal filing in the world of Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise, from a former castmember of its New York variant claiming coercion and a callous nature toward castmembers’ mental health and alleging some questionable-to-bad behavior from producers. Bravo host and executive producer Andy Cohen denied the claims made against him. A series of legal complaints were also filed detailing alleged uncouth behavior on the set of spinoff series The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip.
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