Heavy/NBCUniversal Raquel Leviss
Tom Sandoval wished Raquel Leviss a happy birthday, but “Vanderpump Rules” fans were not happy about it – and neither was she.
Five months after the Schwartz & Sandys co-owner’s affair with Leviss was discovered, he slid into the comment section of her first non-Scandoval related Instagram post since March to wish her a happy birthday on September 12, 2023.
Here’s what you need to know:
Tom Sandoval Said He Misses Raquel Leviss
GettyRaquel Leviss and Tom Sandoval in October 2022.
Leviss turned 29 years old in 2023. “Vanderpump Rules” fans may recall that last year she spent her “glamping” with Sandoval and his then-girlfriend Ariana Madix in the Emmy-nominated episode “Lady and the Glamp.” But a lot has changed since then.
A few days before her 29th birthday, Leviss posted an Instagram video of herself spending peaceful day at a flower farm. ”I’ve been dreaming of a place like this 🌻,” she captioned the post.
On September 12, Sandoval posted a comment to the video.
“Happy Birthday Rachel, I really hope ur finding peace and happiness. Miss u friend,” he wrote.
Some of Leviss’ followers called Sandoval’s comment “awkward” and “manipulative” as they pointed to some of his past alleged behavior.
“R U OK. Hope you’re finding peace? LOL you’re a big proponent on why the girl doesn’t have peace,” one commenter wrote, before adding that Sandoval could have sent Leviss a birthday message via text or DM instead of publicly.
“Get out of these comments. Don’t you have a video to record without a woman’s consent?” another wrote to Sandoval.
“Friends don’t take intimate recordings of their friends without their consent,” came a comment the @BravoandBlaze fan account.
For her part, Leviss promptly responded on her Instagram story to reveal that she has since blocked Sandoval from her Instagram account. In a screenshot of the blocked button shared with fans, the former Miss Malibu showed that she also crossed out Sandoval’s profile pic and included a GIF sticker that said, “Ok bye!”
Raquel Leviss Is No Longer Friends With Tom Sandoval
BravoTom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss.
While they stood united at the “Vanderpump Rules” reunion taping in March 2023, Leviss’ relationship with Sandoval ended when she spent time in a mental health treatment facility shortly after their scandal broke.
In August 2023, Leviss spoke out on Bethenny Frankel’s “Just B With Bethenny” podcast to detail how Madix discovered their affair via an intimate Facetime video of her on Sandoval’s phone. Leviss claimed she did not know that Sandoval had screen-recorded their call.
“I felt very betrayed,” Leviss said of finding that Sandoval recorded her during a private moment. “I felt like I couldn’t trust this person. I felt like my privacy didn’t matter to him … If he would’ve asked for permission, I would’ve said no.”
Leviss also claimed that she confronted Sandoval about the situation on-camera, but that producers didn’t use the footage in the “Vanderpump Rules” finale after Sandoval complained about how it looked.
“When Tom and I were filming at my apartment…I said to Tom, ‘How can I trust you? You filmed me without my consent.’ And he admitted to it,” Leviss told Frankel.
Leviss claimed that Sandoval questioned her after they wrapped the scene to ask her why she said anything on-camera that would make him look bad. “And I was like, ‘Well, because that’s what happened,’” Leviss alleged.
A source confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that Sandoval feared the scene would “paint him in a negative light” so he boycotted filming “Vanderpump Rules” if it wasn’t taken out.
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