Sandoval claimed he never received “closure” from Leviss despite his hopes they would be together in his latest interview with The New York Times Magazine
Rachel “Raquel” Leviss is setting the record straight about her decision to leave Tom Sandovalwithout any “closure.”
On Tuesday’s episode of her Rachel Goes Rogue podcast, the Vanderpump Rules alum, 29, responded to her former flame and costar’s recent claims about the end of their months-long affair.
In a conversation with The New York Times Magazine published last week, Sandoval, 40, discussed how he had become “the most hated man in America” after the duo made headlines for hiding their relationship behind the back of his partner of nine years, Ariana Madix.
Related: Tom Sandoval Opens Up About Rachel Leviss Cutting Him Off: ‘Optics’ Became Her ‘Priority’
Among the claims made about the fallout, the Bravolebrity said he had gotten sober for Leviss and assumed the two would be together after she left the mental health facility she checked herself into amid the scandal. Despite his hopes to reunite, Sandoval revealed that the former beauty queen went radio silent and never returned his calls.
“She never even gave me any closure, it was really hard. It still messes with me,” he said before the outlet noted in the piece, “He even tried reaching out through her publicist but got no response.”
On her podcast, Leviss admitted she remembered the phone call the Schwartz and Sandys co-owner referred to in the article and explained why she chose not to answer his calls.
“He was really trying to get me on the phone and said he had important info and he would only share
it if I was on the phone,” she said. “Obviously that’s manipulative and that conversation was wild, but I didn’t respond because I’m trying to stay in reality and I know his priorities are the show.”
Leviss added, “It even got so confusing for me when I was hanging out with him.”
The former reality star noted how fans have begun to notice how Vanderpump Rules has “affected Tom and his reality.”
“Now they’re saying like, ‘Oh, Tom should take a year off. He needs to process through this,’ and I’m like, yeah, people like that’s why I didn’t come back,” she continued. “But I think other people are starting to see that too.”
Upon publication, Sandoval faced fierce backlash for his review the NYT Magazine after he invoked O.J. Simpson and George Floyd as comparisons for the media attention he received for the scandal.
“I’m not a pop-culture historian really,” he said. “But I witnessed the O.J. Simpson thing and George Floyd and all these big things, which is really weird to compare this to that, I think, but do you think in a weird way it’s a little bit the same?”
Shortly after angering viewers and Black Bravo stars alike, he issued an apology in a statement shared with PEOPLE.
“My intentions behind the comments I made in New York Times Magazine were to explain the level of national media attention my affair received,” Sandoval wrote. “The comparison was inappropriate and ignorant. I’m incredibly sorry and embarrassed.”
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Vanderpump Rules airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo. All episodes can be streamed on Peacock afterwards.
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