Where Tom Schwartz Stands With Tom Sandoval After "Incredibly Messed Up" Affair With Raquel Leviss
Tom Schwartz is ready to put Scandoval behind him—but that doesn't mean he's turning his back on Tom Sandoval.
Three months after Sandoval's affair with Vanderpump Rules co-star Raquel Leviss came to light, Schwartz admitted he needs to distance himself from the cheating scandal that rocked season 10 of the Bravo series.
"It's incredibly messed up," Schwartz said on the June 12 episode of Fox's reality show Stars on Mars. "It seems each time I try to weigh in or talk about, ramble on about it, drivel on, I inevitably sound like I'm somehow justifying it or making excuses for it, and I'm not. Because there's just no excuse for it."
And while Schwartz did have his business partner's back during the explosive three-part VPR reunion, he in no way condones Sandoval betraying ex Ariana Madix.
"Any sort of version of his side of the story has become obsolete because of the way he handled it," he continued on the Fox reality show. "Ultimately, that's his life. That is his life. I did not have an affair. I am not him. It's just so strange that I've been absolutely mired in this. It's taken on almost a life of its own. And after this, I'm stepping away from it permanently."
Although it may have sounded like Schwartz was officially severing ties with his BFF, that's not exactly the case.
"Schwartz meant that comment in relation to Scandoval, not Tom," a source with knowledge exclusively told E! News. "Of course, they are and will remain friends."
Though some time apart is needed.
"I'm taking a break from Tom right now," Schwartz recently told Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright on their podcast. "I haven't seen him in a while."
"He made a big mess and he left it for us to clean up back at the businesses," he continued. "It's hard for me not to feel resentful of him."
Meanwhile, Sandoval is trying to pick up the pieces of his life and move on. Back in March, after news of the affair came to light in March, he began doing damage control as backlash started negatively affecting their L.A. restaurants TomTom and Schwartz & Sandy's.
"Hey, I fully understand and deserve ur anger & disappointment towards me, but please leave Schwartz, my friends and family out of this situation," Sandoval wrote in a March 4 Instagram post. "This was a very personal thing. Also, Schwartz & Sandy's might have my name on it but also there are three other partners and 20 employees, who especially rely on the restaurant for income for them and their families."
Sandoval continued, "Please direct all your anger at me and not them. They did nothing wrong."
Keep reading for every OMG bombshell about Sandoval and Leviss' affair. Don't miss the Vanderpump Rules "Secrets Revealed" special Wednesday, June 14, at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
Upon joining her co-stars on set in part three of the Vanderpump Rules reunion, Raquel Leviss swiftly addressed her betrayal to everyone. "I'm super embarrassed and not proud of myself," she admitted. "And I know I owe a lot of people in this room an apology."
But when she called her behavior "super, super selfish," Ariana Madix exploded.
"Selfish does not f--king cover it, bitch," Madix shot back. "Diabolical, demented, disgusting, subhuman—start getting a better vocabulary to describe your f--king actions because selfish does not f--king cover it."
In a clip from Leviss' one-on-one interview with Andy Cohen, the Watch What Happens Live host questioned if she ever tried to get Tom Sandoval to break up with Madix during their affair.
"I encouraged him to reflect and see if he was really happy," the former beauty queen admitted, "because, as a friend first and foremost, I wanted him to be in a situation that made him truly happy."
Back on set with the rest of the cast, Leviss addressed the cringe sex talk from earlier in the season, in which she told Madix to have more sex with Sandoval.
She insisted, "I genuinely was coming from a place of, 'Do you want to be in this relationship?'"
Madix did not accept the explanation. "The answer was yes and you had already f--ked him at that point so shut the f--k up," she yelled in response. "F--k yourself with a f--king cheese grater. You f--king suck, you're disgusting and I wish nothing but the worst f--king s--t that could ever happen to a person on you!"
Leviss later admitted she considered skipping the reunion over fears of facing her former friends before delivering a lengthy apology to Madix.
"I'm so ashamed and embarrassed that I'm even capable of keeping this secret from somebody who has been in my corner since the beginning," she shared. "Ariana, I am so sorry for betraying you. I can't even fathom the pain that I've caused you. And I have been completely selfish and, you're right, selfish is not the right word because it doesn't even begin to describe the state of mind I have been in. It was a mistake."
Addressing the cast as a whole, she continued, "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."
Madix's response? "So my dog had just died, I cried in your f--king arms and you thought, 'I should go f--k her boyfriend?'" she fired back. "You are lower than the f--king lowest of low people. You're a f--king psychopath. You are terrifying to me as a person. The fact that you are capable of this s--t is un-f--king-believable. You're a dementor, I know you like Harry Potter."
Cohen finally asked the question everyone was wondering: "You are still in love?"
Leviss nodded in confirmation, to which Madix replied, "You are ugly, you are hideous, you are rotten inside."
Cohen then posed the same question to the TomTom co-owner and, after an extremely long pause, Sandoval finally confirmed, "I'm sorry, yes."
His ex of nine years reacted, "Honestly, that's the most pathetic thing I've ever heard. This is a joke."
Amid all the drama of Sandoval and Leviss' reckonings, Tom Schwartz posed an unexpected question to Madix: What did it feel like to have the whole world rally behind her in support following the scandal?
Madix began to cry and answered, "It's what kept me going. My friends and my family, you guys and strangers I've never met, it's honestly what kept me going. I had a week-and-a-half where I didn't eat and lost, like, eight pounds. I couldn't do anything. I had someone stay with me every night because I felt like I needed to be babysat, honestly. I just can't think of two worse people, I can't."
Katie Maloney assured her BFF, "Your life is getting better by the minute."
Right after Scandoval broke in March, fans immediately noticed both Sandoval and Leviss had been wearing lightning bolt necklaces during their affair. Leviss even bought hers on camera during season 10.
"It was significant to who he became in my life," she said during the reunion, "and I know that's not what anyone wants to hear."
Lisa Vanderpump couldn't believe Leviss' audacity in purchasing the necklace on the show. "I don't understand this because you knew it was on camera," the Sur owner responded. "It's so provocative. It's just like having the conversation with Ariana, it's almost like you were acting out some kind of weird charade."
Leviss replied, "I know, I was cringing so hard watching that back."
Cohen grilled Sandoval about his cheating, asking if he'd hooked up with anyone else since starting the affair, to which he replied no.
Madix noted, "You know who he did sleep with after he and Raquel started sleeping together? Me."
Sandoval sarcastically responded with a dig about Madix that shocked everyone: "Yeah, she kept her T-shirt on. It was really hot."
Lala Kent fired back, "You're such a f--king d--k!" while James Kennedy chimed in, "You're f--king disgusting!"
Even Schwartz condemned his BFF's jab, telling him, "Don't say that. Don't say that."
Scheana Shay, who was watching from a trailer 100 yards away due to the temporary restraining order Leviss obtained against her, was equally appalled. "I wanna throw this at the TV," she said while holding a White Claw seltzer, "but I won't."
After Cohen dismissed Leviss from set for a cast break (and so Shay could return), she and Sandoval reunited in her dressing room to rehash their confrontations with everyone.
"I thought you were really good," he told her after they shared a hug. "Way better than me."
But looks can be deceiving. "That was brutal," she said. "It's hard to admit to everything and when everything's laid out in front of you, everything that we've done, and how we've hurt so many people, it's really hard to accept that. And seeing the person I've become, this isn't who I want to be. I don't want to be a person who hurts other people."
Despite getting verbally annihilated by their co-stars, the two found humor in one aspect of their exile from the friend group. Sandoval joked, "They're like, 'Now we can all unite together. We'll see how long that lasts."
Leviss replied with a laugh, "If they have a common enemy, it could last a while. I guess these are the consequences."
Cohen concluded the reunion in usual fashion by asking for final remarks from each castmember. Sandoval took his time to deliver an extremely emotional apology to Madix.
"I understand what I did is very, very f--ked up, but understand that, like, I'm a human and I make mistakes," he sobbed, wiping away tears. "I make f--king terrible mistakes and I hurt somebody I've never loved ever more in my entire life. Ariana, I know that you hate me and it's OK, I f--king understand. But I want you to know that I will always love you and I will always be cheering you on from afar. Always."
For Madix, she was ready to move on. "I will not forgive him," she stated, "and I will not be cheering him on from afar."
In an interview filmed six days after the reunion, Leviss dropped a major bombshell, explaining it was "important" for her to finally tell the truth.
"I think that I've been lying and being so deceitful this entire time that I don't want to lie anymore," Leviss said. "But it's all out there. The worst of it is out there, but I'm still finding myself having to lie about specific timeline things."
When asked by a producer why she lied, Leviss said Sandoval felt "it would be less hurtful to say that this wasn't going on for so long."
So when did their affair actually begin? Leviss revealed the second time they hooked up was while the cast was in Mexico for Shay's wedding, after which it became a regular occurence. "It definitely picked up steam more after filming," she said.
Leviss then confirmed that she had met Sandoval's family and had traveled to his hometown of St. Louis.
Finally, Leviss revealed that she and Sandoval slept together when Madix was out of town for her grandmother's funeral.
"This is the one story that we've agreed on getting straight and I know the reason that 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 especially for like a funeral of all things," a crying Leviss said. "So I don't know, this has f--king killed my soul. I am so sick of lying. I hate it. I hate being deceitful. It's horrible."
As for why she initially agreed to lie about the timeline, Leviss admitted that Sandoval has asked her not to disclose the information. "Especially now with being so isolated," she explained, "I feel like Tom is like my one person that I do have and if I just went and betrayed him then I'd really have nobody.
Part two kicked off with a screaming match between Tom Sandoval, Lala Kent and James Kennedy, with Lisa Vanderpump coming to Sandoval's defense.
"Lala, sometimes you've been pretty aggressive," the Sur owner chastised, to which Kent fired back to her former boss, "You guys, stop!" Vanderpump, surprised, replied, "I got to stop?"
Kennedy agreed with Kent. "You're sticking up for Tom too much," he told Vanderpump, before storming off set and yelling, "I'm not going to listen to this s--t."
After cooling down, Kennedy returned to set and apologized to Vanderpump and Cohen. "I'm so sorry Lisa, I love you," he said. "Andy, I'm so sorry, mate."
Cohen's response? "Just stay in your f--king chair, honestly."
Cohen set aside time to grill Kent about her scandal-plagued ex-fiancé Randall Emmett and inquired why their 2-year-old daughter Ocean did not appear during season 10.
"He sent a legal letter saying that she was not allowed to be on camera," Kent revealed, "you can't use pictures, no video, no nothing."
Cohen then brought up the explosive 2022 L.A. Times article that accused Emmett of running a casting couch and other illegal activities, all of which he has vehemently denied. When asked if she was surprised by the exposé, Kent replied, "Yes and no," adding she now has 20/20 vision when it comes to red flags in their relationship.
Recounting how Kent auditioned to be in one of the producer's films shortly after they met in 2015, Cohen inquired, "Do you feel like you had to sleep with him in exchange for getting a part?" She replied, "I actually did not."
When the cast took a break for lunch, Sandoval headed straight for Leviss' trailer to rehash everything that went down so far after sharing a hug.
"They're making you and me out to be pathological liars," he told his lover, to which she replied, "I see that, even though we know that we're not and we haven't lied about anything besides this affair."
Leviss, who had been watching the drama unfold on a TV monitor 100 yards away, revealed her biggest issue with the conversation surrounding his and ex-girlfriend Ariana Madix's relationship.
"I don't love the way it's coming across about your guys' intimacy," she admitted. "Just watching what you guys taped just now, it looks like you guys had this solid relationship."
The TomTom co-owner did admit they should have come clean about their affair much earlier. "It's rough," he continued. "Ariana is going to unleash on you. I'm glad you came though."
Leviss replied, "It just sucks because my entire character is in question now. I have gone through a transitional phase in my life this summer. I think the pendulum did swing a little too far the other way and this is my wake up call."
Sandoval told her sweetly, "I believe in you."
After Sandoval and Leviss' heart-to-heart, he was officially done discussing the drama on camera and lost it on the crew.
"OK, I'm done filming. I'm done," he declared. "Can we have, like, a for real break where we're not being filmed?"
A producer stepped in to calm him down and explained, "Cameras are up when anyone's together the whole time. You can have time if you need time to yourself."
Which he still wasn't having. "No, man, I'm gonna f--king flip and get the hell out of here," Sandoval exploded. "I need a break from filming! Stop filming me! I want to talk to her, like, I don't want a camera in my f--king goddamn face."
He continued, "I don't feel relaxed, she doesn't either. We have to watch what we f--king say, I don't want that. I'm in a very delicate position."
Ally Lewber joined boyfriend James Kennedy and talk quickly turned to his temper while he's drinking.
"Even though I am drinking again, it is a lot different from how it used to be for me," the DJ, who was previously sober, insisted. "I will never go back to that boy I was two and a half years before I did quit drinking."
Sandoval scoffed "OK, James" before revealing a never-before-heard story about Kennedy allegedly partying too hard on the job.
"We had this ongoing job in Atlantic City," he shared. "And the last time that we were there, you were belligerently drunk with no shirt on. Security came to me and said your friend is going to get kicked off the premises. The manager told me later that you had smacked the waitress on the ass and that they had to have her sign a form saying that she wasn't going to file a suit."
Kennedy's response? "You two just have to show up to get drunk," he snapped at Sandoval and Schwartz. "That's all you have to do to get paid, show up and get drunk."
After Leviss filed a temporary restraining order against Scheana Shay, Cohen asked the cast if they believed Leviss' allegation that Shay punched her.
Vanderpump chimed in, "I think she might have slapped her," while Katie Maloney defended her friend, "Look at her fingernails, she can't make a fist."
Though Sandoval initially hesitated to weigh in, he eventually shared, "I'm between a rock and a hard place. The thing is, I don't want to upset my relationship with Scheana, but I want to tell the truth."
Sandoval claimed he heard Shay say, "'I just punched that bitch in the face and threw her phone in the street,'" but Madix vehemently denied that happened, adding, "She said 'I pushed her,' she never said punched."
The restraining order discussion ended with Cohen making a shocking announcement. "Scheana, I do have something for you. This is from Raquel," he shared. "She's not allowed to give it to you in person. She gave it to me to give you."
Cut to Cohen's one-on-one sit-down with Leviss where she addressed taking legal action against her former BFF. "I completely regret filing the restraining order and I've been taking every measure to get it dropped," the former beauty queen said. "I spoke with my lawyer and he was able to file a request to dismiss the court hearing altogether and this is the paperwork showing that for Scheana."
After receiving the docs from Cohen, Shay broke down in tears.
"Having this for the last few weeks—first of all, the betrayal," she wept. "Two of my best friends, that is heartbreaking in itself. But then to throw all of this on top of it when I did nothing but take care of her. I gave her a home to live in when she didn't have anywhere to go. I was the sister to her that she didn't have growing up. I did everything for her, and for her to do this to me, it has taken such a toll on me."
During Leviss' solo interview, she shared her timeline of the affair, which she confirmed began last August. "He made me feel heard and seen," she told Cohen, "and those were feelings that I haven't really felt maybe ever."
Leviss admitted she was probably a little naive in hoping her and Sandoval's romance would work out after betraying Madix. However, today, she noted, "I'm very ashamed of it."
But when Madix eventually found out about the affair in March, Leviss explained, "We were going to tell her, we just wanted to get our stories straight, basically, because he felt like it would hurt her if she knew how long this has been going on."
But when Madix eventually confronted her about the secret relationship, Leviss came clean about everything. "I told her the truth and she said thank you for telling me," she recounted to Cohen, "because Tom would have never told me the truth."
Before Leviss was brought out to join the rest of the cast (minus Shay), Tom Schwartz pulled a pill bottle out of his pocket and popped something in his mouth as cameras rolled.
"What the f--k is that?" Sandoval asked his BFF, before he confirmed, "Xanax. Just a quarter, I'm stressed."
Sandoval encouraged his business partner, "You know you can tell people it's none of your business? I'm taking my medication."
Schwartz then offered the bottle to Madix, who declined.
In the final scene of part two, Cohen announced, "Raquel is here and ready to join us," as Leviss nervously walked to the stage.
When asked by a producer if she was ready, she answered, "I mean, no, but just got to confront it."
"Ariana, I know you have not seen Raquel since you found out about the affair," Cohen said. "How are you feeling about this?"
For her part, Madix said was feeling "not great" about Leviss' entrance.
Madix kept her head down as Leviss took her seat, avoiding any eye contact. Fans will have to tune in to part three to see their actual exchange.
During a sit-down with host Andy Cohen, Ariana Madix revealed how Raquel Leviss contacted her after she found out about the former beauty queen's affair with Tom Sandoval.
"She texted me," she said. "It took her 48 whole hours to text me."
A screenshot of the convo showed Madix texted "You are DEAD TO ME," to which Leviss replied, "Ariana, I don't know what to say right now besides I really f--ked up and I am so so so sorry."
Madix ended the correspondence with "Shut the f--k up you f--king RAT" before blocking her ex-BFF.
According to Sandoval, his romance with Madix wasn't the TV magic fans often saw.
"Ariana and I kept our relationship pretty private for many years," the TomTom owner explained. "We had issues. I felt like I was her gay BFF. We put on a front when we were filming and I even talked to our showrunner. For us to be having these issues and keeping it from people, I just didn't think it was fair to the rest of the cast."
Cut to a never-before-seen flashback from September 2022 in which Sandoval tells a producer, "I feel guilty, people put themselves out there, man. It's not fair. I feel like it's important for us to, like, talk about this s--t and not pretend like it's all amazing."
Madix's response to his comments? "I feel like I always showed everything, from my point of view," she said during the reunion. "He's framing it now as something else. Because he has to, he's desperate."
Sandoval teared up addressing Ariana about his betrayal. "I'm sorry for doing the one thing I said I wouldn't do, and I did it in the worst way possible," he told his ex. "I love you and I apologize."
Naturally, that wasn't received well. "He has victim-blamed me 100 percent of the way so I don't believe anything that just came out of his mouth," Madix coldly responded. "I think he's f--king full of s--t and he can f--k off."
Noticeably absent from the group was Leviss, who was watching the entire reunion film from her trailer over 100 yards away from the set. As Andy explained, the 28-year-old was "not legally allowed to be in the same room as Scheana Shay due to the restraining order that she filed" after their alleged altercation.
Though Leviss didn't comment on any of the bombshell revelations as she watched the drama unfold on a TV monitor, she did deliver many eye rolls and animated reactions to her co-stars' digs.
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