It has all the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy – star-crossed lovers, an almost biblical backstabbing, a scorned woman rising from the ashes of destruction like a phoenix – and although a television show is at its core, it’s actually playing out in reality.
Yes, we’re talking about ‘Scandoval’, the real-life cheating scandal Vanderpump Rules stars Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss – and the world – have been embroiled in for months. It reached its grand finale overnight.
It’s a lot to take in for those who are unfamiliar with the reality series and its colourful cast, a complex web of lies not even Kris Jenner could have masterminded for ratings. Here’s what you need to know.
Watch the video above.
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What is Scandoval?
‘Scandoval’ – a play on philanderer Tom Sandoval’s name – is an umbrella term for the months-long fallout that came from Sandoval and former girlfriend of nine years’ Ariana Madix’s split.
News broke in March the ex-power couple had parted ways after Sandoval, 39, cheated on Madix, 37, with her close friend Raquel Leviss, 28, who is also their Vanderpump Rules castmate.
Vanderpump Rules is reality show focusing on former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Vanderpump’s California restaurant SUR (which stands for Sexy Unique Restaurant), and the behind-the-scenes drama between the staffers who run it.
All three have been regular cast members for almost a decade – Sandoval has been part of the show since its first season, and Madix did appear in the show in Season 1 but didn’t join the cast officially until Season 2 in 2014. The former couple were notably the show’s most stable couple for all nine years of their relationship.
Leviss joined the series in its sixth season in 2016, and was dating series regular James Kennedy. They got engaged in 2021, and were affianced for seven months before splitting in December 2021.
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Weeks after the cheating scandal broke, Sandoval broke his silence. When asked by paparazzi if he would change anything if he could go back in time, he noted, per ET, that he could have handled things better – and said, “Hindsight’s always 20/20 man.”
He then took to Instagram with an apology, urging fans to not take out their anger on his friends and castmates – namely Tom Schwartz, his best friend and business partner. Schwartz had also been suffering as a result of the scandal as their new LA bar Schwartz & Sandy’s Lounge and established Santa Monica bar TomTom had been inundated with a slew of bad reviews online. Sandoval said he was “sorry for everything”.
To fans, that was confirmation Sandoval had cheated on Madix, though he didn’t address her or apologise to her publicly until three days later, when he wrote on Instagram: “I made mistakes, I was selfish, and made reckless decisions that hurt somebody I love. No one deserves to feel that pain so traumatically and publicly.”
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Madix, at this stage, had deleted her social media accounts, though she eventually returned to Instagram on March 16 with a photo of herself on holiday in Mexico, where she wrote a lengthy statement addressing the drama.
“hi. where to begin? i want to express my most sincere gratitude for the outpouring of love and support i have received from friends, family, and people i’ve never even met in the last two weeks,” she wrote.
“when i have felt like i couldn’t even stand, you all have given me the strength to continue and seen me through my darkest hours. to say i have been devastated and broken is an understatement. however, i know that i am not in this alone. so many of my closest friends are also grieving this loss right now and reeling from this betrayal on so many levels,” she continued.
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Madix concluded: “i am so f–king lucky to have the best support system in the world and i hope i can repay every single person for the love you have shown me. what doesn’t kill me better run. love, ariana.”
Leviss, meanwhile, issued an apology via Instagram on March 9, saying she was sorry “for my actions and my choices foremost to Ariana, and my friends and fans”, and calling the circumstances of her relationship with Sandoval “indefensible”.
Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss’ Judas-like betrayal of Ariana Madix
‘Scandoval’ has left fans in a state of disarray ever since it broke – not just because they’ve faithfully watched the trio on-screen for years, but because their formerly close friendship, and Sandoval and Madix’s relationship, was the show’s True North.
When Leviss and Kennedy split, she spoke about how much she valued Sandoval and Madix’s support, and she’s previously spoken about how Madix was one of her “true friends”.
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Vanderpump Rules star Kristen Doute, 40, revealed on a March 10 episode of her podcast Sex, Love, and What Else Matters that she was there the night Madix found out about the affair, claiming it happened when Sandoval’s phone fell out of his pocket and a friend handed it to Madix after picking it up.
“The real truth is that Ariana had his phone, and she told me that she just had this gut intuition to look at it,” Doute claimed.
“She just felt like she had to look, so she goes into his photos. He had screen recorded a FaceTime of himself and Raquel masturbating to each other,” she alleged.
Fans have since gone back and pored over old episodes, social media posts, and interviews given by Leviss and Sandoval in an effort to figure out how long the affair had been going on – Sandoval notably dressed as Leviss for Halloween in 2022, and went out with Madix and Leviss, who were wearing matching costumes, that night.
Some fans think that Sandoval and Leviss had been wearing matching lightning bolt necklaces for months as a sign of their secret relationship, which was confirmed by Leviss this week during the third part of the Season 10 reunion.
Host Andy Cohen asked Leviss if the necklace had “the meaning we all think it does” and she confirmed she decided to get the necklace to match Sandoval’s piece as it ”was significant to who [Sandoval] became in my life.”
“I know that’s not what anyone wants to hear,” Leviss added, to which her ex-fiancé Kennedy stepped in and said it was “gross”.
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How long Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss had been having their affair
”This has been going on for upwards of 6 months – all the while, Tom was sleeping next to Ariana in bed,” one source claimed to People, alleging the affair had been going on in the American summer of 2022.
“She was completely blindsided by this; devastated doesn’t even scratch the surface of how she feels.”
In the final episode of Season 10, Sandoval confirmed the affair had been going on for seven months. Vanderpump Rules is filmed in the summer, and he also confirmed in a separate interview he and Leviss kissed for the first time in August 2022, at 38-year-old co-star Scheana Shay’s wedding.
One piece of information that Sandoval, Leviss and Madix had been going back and forth on was if Sandoval and Leviss had slept together at his and Madix’s home while she was out of town for her grandmother’s funeral.
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“That’s the one story that we’ve agreed on getting straight, and I know that the reason why Tom wanted to lie about it is because it’s a really bad look to hook up with someone’s boyfriend in their own house when they’ve gone out of town,” Leviss said through tears in the third part of the Season 10 reunion.
“Especially for a funeral of all things. I am so sick of lying, I hate it. I hate being deceitful, it’s horrible.”
At the reunion, Leviss also came face-to-face with Madix for the first time, who called her former friend “diabolical, demented, disgusting, subhuman” as she cried.
Leviss offered an apology, saying she was “ashamed and embarrassed” and “can’t even fathom the pain” she has caused.
“The way that we have betrayed the people closest to us was detrimental to all of our friendships, and I’m seeing all of the consequences for my actions that I never even considered because I was living in the moment,” Leviss said.
A teary Sandoval told his ex-girlfriend: “Ariana, I know you hate me, and that’s OK, 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. Always.”
Cohen asked Leviss if she was still in love with Sandoval, which she confirmed. Sandoval said the same about his feelings for Leviss, confirming with a solemn: “I’m sorry, yes.”
Madix chimed in: “That’s the most pathetic thing I’ve ever heard.”
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Off-camera, Madix has reportedly not been speaking to Leviss since the news broke. She has also claimed that Sandoval had sex with Leviss in their former shared home, while she was asleep in another room.
Where Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss stand now
It appears that after all that, Leviss and Sandoval are no longer together.
In a March 22 interview conducted at a nail salon in Los Angeles, Leviss said, per Page Six, that she and Sandoval were “taking a break for now” and “not putting a label on things”.
Madix, meanwhile, has signed multiple brand partnerships off the back of the scandal, and has seen her social media followers grow exponentially.
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In the Vanderpump Rules finale, she snapped at Sandoval: ”You’re worth nothing and I want you to feel that deep in your soul.”
“I want you to hear those words coming from the mouth of the woman that f–king stood by you and loved you and was ready to build the rest of my life around you. Hear my words and know that that’s how I feel about you. I regret ever loving you,” she said.
Leviss, however, in the finale episode, seemed to show little remorse. She smiled and took a playful tone during confessional interviews, saying of why their relationship began: ”I was just so curious to know what it would be like to be physical with someone that you love, ’cause I already knew that I loved him as a friend. And I’ve never had sex like that before. I should’ve, like, completely removed myself from the situation, but I did not have the willpower to not see him.”
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TMZ has also reported that Leviss and her family have received so many death threats and graphic messages in the wake of the cheating scandal that they had to call the FBI.
Sandoval, meanwhile, spent a majority of the finale episode – which aired before the three-part reunion did, the final part of which was broadcast on June 8 – weeping.
He also claimed that he tried to end his relationship with Madix repeatedly and that she didn’t accept his decision, but viewers, and Madix, haven’t bought that for a second.
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