‘Leviss was a victim of the predatory and dishonest behaviour of an older man,’ lawsuit states
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Rachel “Raquel” Leviss is suing Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix for revenge porn, eavesdropping, intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy after the fallout of their much-publicized affair.
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Sandoval, one of the stars of the reality show Vanderpump Rules, cheated on Madix, who was his girlfriend of almost a decade, with one of her best friends, Leviss.
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Madix learned of the affair when she looked at her partner’s phone and stumbled across a sexually explicit video of Leviss.
The scandal — dubbed “Scandoval” by fans of the show which follows the lives of the staff of Lisa Vanderpump’s SUR restaurant in West Hollywood — made headlines after the former couple’s relationship ended when it emerged the 40-year-old Sandoval had an affair with the much-younger Leviss.
After learning of her longtime partner’s infidelity, Madix entered a mental health facility as private details from her personal life played out in public.
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Meanwhile, Sandoval and Leviss saw their secret relationship fall apart with the reality star becoming known as “the most hated man in America.”
Now, Leviss is taking the pair to court over “a NSFW FaceTime video from Leviss that Sandoval seemingly secretly taped and supposedly circulated.”
The complaint filed in Los Angeles this week, and obtained by Us Weekly, stems from an intimate FaceTime video that Leviss, 29, has alleged Sandoval filmed without her permission.
“There is more to the story, however. Lost in the mix was that Leviss was a victim of the predatory and dishonest behaviour of an older man, who recorded sexually explicit videos of her without her knowledge or consent, which were then distributed, disseminated, and discussed publicly by a scorned woman seeking vengeance, catalyzing the scandal,” the documents state. “Leviss ultimately checked herself into a mental health facility and remained there for three months while Bravo, Evolution, and the cast milked the interest her excoriation had peaked.”
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According to Leviss, the show’s popularity exploded while she was “humiliated and villainized for public consumption.”
The suit adds that Leviss now “remains a shell of her former self, with her career prospects stunted and her reputation in tatters.”
The resulting chatter over the sex video, the documents add, has subjected Leviss “to a public skewering with little precedent.”
In the state of California, it is a crime to spread online video of someone engaging in sexual intercourse or performing sex acts without their prior consent.
Several Vanderpump Rules personalities made reference to the tape, including Lala Kent, who vented on social media about being served with papers by Leviss’ attorneys.
“Raquel, tell your little Mickey Mouse lawyer that if he has stuff to send over, he can send things to my lawyer, same with the rest of my friends and cast, alright?” the Give Them Lala Beauty founder said in an Instagram Story at the time. “I don’t know if you know how this works, you’re pretty brand new to the game. … Send it to Darrell!”
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Kent ended up banking a small fortune from selling merchandise with the slogan “Send it to Darrell.”
“The amount of money that we made on ‘send it to Darrell’ is pretty mind-blowing,” Kent told Andy Cohen in June. “I can say that it allowed me to pay the down payment on my home, and that was, like, within a few hours.”
Leviss’ complaint goes on to allege that Sandoval still possesses several illegally recorded videos that depict her “in a state of undress and engaged in sex acts,” and that Madix has “showed them to others without Leviss’ knowledge or consent.”
“The idea that human beings are expected to sacrifice their mental and emotional health in service of Bravo’s ratings is obscene,” Bryan Freedman, an attorney on Leviss’ legal team, told CNN in a statement. “While coming forward can be terrifying and even embarrassing, I implore people not to suffer in silence.”
Leviss, who left the show after Season 10, is seeking unspecified damages and wants the alleged videos erased.
“This lawsuit is squarely about illegal behaviour and those who traffic in it and enable it. Rachel has apologized for her part in an affair,” one of her other attorneys, Mark Geragos, said.
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