Raquel Leviss/Instagram
Vanderpump Rules’ Tom Sandoval, Raquel Leviss’ Relationship Status: ‘Not Putting a Label on Things’
After the chaos caused by Tom Sandoval‘s cheating scandal with Raquel Leviss that resulted in the demise of his nine-year romance with Ariana Madix, the pair remain close. “They are friends,” a rep for Tom tells Life & Style on Thursday, March 30, adding that, “They are not putting a label on things,” when it comes to a relationship.
Tom and Raquel’s affair that developed during the filming of Vanderpump Rules season 10 has morphed into something more. The former beauty queen, 28, was photographed as she got into a car outside of Tom’s Valley Village, California, home he once shared with Ariana on the morning of March 30. The pair were also seen together having dinner following the tumultuous reunion taping on March 23.
The day before, Raquel spoke out for the first time about her romance with the TomTom club owner. “It started out as a friendship, and it turned into something more. But I’m sure we’ll go into detail about all of that at the reunion,” she told a videographer about Scandoval while sitting outside a nail salon not far from Tom’s home.
At the time, the California native seemed hopeful that there would be a future with Tom once they got past being confronted by their costars about their affair. “I don’t know where our relationship is going to be. We’re just trying to get through these next few steps and trying to make amends, hear everybody out,” the former SUR hostess explained.
“I know a lot of people are angry, so just getting through these steps and seeing where it goes … We’re not putting a label on anything,” Raquel said about her future with Tom.
The pair’s romance was exposed when Ariana discovered sexting messages from Raquel on Tom’s phone. On March 3, news broke that the pair had split and that the Schwartz and Sandy’s co-owner had cheated on his longtime love with James Kennedy‘s former fiancée and that it was not a one-time tryst but a long-term affair.
Tom later profusely apologized for hurting Ariana but hasn’t seemed to have made any attempts to win her back following the cheating scandal.
“I want to apologize to Ariana. 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. I can only imagine how devastating this has been for Ariana and everyone around us,” he wrote in a March 7 Instagram post.
The reality star seemed to indicate there was no repairing his relationship with his ex, adding, “My love for Ariana was stronger than any camera could ever have captured. Some of our best times together were never filmed. The same goes for some of our biggest struggles. I wish things happened in a different order and our relationship was not severely tarnished, and that it ended with the same respect for her that it began with. I owed Ariana better.”
