Getty Ariana Madix and Raquel Leviss.
Ariana Madix says she was hurt about Raquel Leviss’ claims that they were not close friends before her cheating scandal with Tom Sandoval.
The “Vanderpump Rules” star opened up on the August 25, 2023 episode of the “Scheananigins With Scheana Shay” podcast to claim that Leviss has been lying about their friendship. Madix also acknowledged that the former pageant queen may not even have realized she had been lying because she was likely fed a narrative by other people around her.
Ariana Madix Said Raquel Leviss’ Claims Could Be ‘Easily Refuted’
BravoAriana Madix and Raquel Leviss.
In the podcast interview, Shay asked Madix how she felt about Leviss’ claims about their friendship. In an interview on iHeart Radio’s “Just B with Bethenny Frankel” podcast days earlier, Leviss claimed she never hung out with Leviss alone unless it was for Bravo’s cameras.
“That was very hurtful,” Madix said. “That is a very obvious lie, or at least a very obvious –when I think of someone lying I think of them doing it on purpose. I don’t know if she’s doing it on purpose. Or if she really understands that statement right there could be so easily refuted with photographic evidence.”
Madix pointed to the Saturday before the scandal broke as an example of her hanging out with Leviss off-camera when they went out to the club Avalon.
“I was very much under the impression that we were, like, really good friends,” Madix said, adding that she considered Leviss part of her inner circle. “And I didn’t come to that impression lightly. … It wasn’t fake to me.”
Madix shared examples of letting Leviss stay at her house, going out to dinner, and dressing up in matching Halloween costumes with her as some off-camera things they did together. She also made signs to support Leviss at her beauty pageant competitions and was front and center cheering her on.
The former SUR bartender went on to say she isn’t sure “whose decision it was to try to diminish the friendships” of the “Vanderpump Rules” cast members but that it was all “very untrue.” “It’s just sad,” she added.
“I think overall, it’s kind of heartbreaking to think that this years of friendship we thought we were building with this person feels that on her end it wasn’t genuinely reciprocated,” Madix added. “And knowing that those things are being said about me and friendship toward her that I felt was really meaningful, it’s just another twist of the knife.”
“I feel like she’s still going along with some things that were told to her over the last year or so from the other party in said affair, and I think that made me really sad,” she noted. “
Raquel Leviss Described Ariana Madix as More of an ‘Acquaintance’ Than a Best Friend
BravoAriana Madix and Raquel Leviss of “Vanderpump Rules.”
On “Vanderpump Rules,” Leviss and Madix appeared to be the closest of friends. Madix even confided to Leviss about her relationship with Sandoval in one hard-to-watch season 10 scene, and in another, Madix described Leviss as one of her “closest friends.” But Leviss downplayed their relationship while speaking on iHeart Radio’s “Just B with Bethenny Frankel” podcast in August 2023.
“Ariana and I were not best friends,” Leviss told Frankel. “We were acquaintances who became friends through the show. … We never had a deep conversation that I would have with a best friend.”
Leviss acknowledged that Madix was always “very sweet” to her and would offer her encouragement, but claimed they never hung out one-on-one unless cameras were rolling for “Vanderpump Rules.”
“I wasn’t hanging out with Ariana off-camera to begin with, I did start hanging out with her in a group setting, because Tom would always invite me out,” Leviss claimed. “So it did seem like we were close friends from the outside looking in, but in those situations, I was hanging out with Tom more than I was hanging out with her.”
Leviss did express regret for hurting Madix in such a deep way. “I just got wrapped up in this and wasn’t thinking clearly,” she said of her affair with Leviss’ then-boyfriend. “But we were not best friends.”
READ NEXT: Raquel Leviss Makes Bold Claim About Tom Sandoval & Ariana Madix’s Relationship
