Since news broke of #Scandoval, Bravo fans have had one question: Are Tom and Raquel still together from Vanderpump Rules and where is their relationship now?
Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss are two cast members on Bravo’s reality TV series Vanderpump Rules, a spin-off of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which follows the lives and drama of current and former employees of Housewife Lisa Vanderpump’s West Hollywood restaurant, Sexy Unique Restaurant—or better known as SUR. Tom has been a cast member since Season 1. Raquel joined in Season 5 as the girlfriend of cast member James Kennedy. The got engaged in Season 9 and broke up at the reunion.
In March 2023, news broke that Tom cheated on his girlfriend of 10 years, Ariana Madix, with Raquel, whom he had a seven-month affair with. Ariana, who is also a cast member on Vanderpump Rules, confirmed the affair in an Instagram post at the time. “hi. where to begin? i want to express my most sincere gratitude for the outpouring of love and support i have received from friends, family, and people i’ve never even met in the last two weeks. when i have felt like i couldn’t even stand, you all have given me the strength to continue and seen me through my darkest hours,” she wrote.
“to say i have been devastated and broken is an understatement. however, i know that i am not in this alone. so many of my closest friends are also grieving this loss right now and reeling from this betrayal on so many levels. i am so fucking lucky to have the best support system in the world and i hope i can repay every single person for the love you have shown me. what doesn’t kill me better run. love, ariana.”
Tom also confirmed the affair in his own Instagram post in March 2023. “I want to first and foremost apologize to everyone I’ve hurt through this process. Most of all, 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,” he wrote. “I can only imagine how devastating this has been for Ariana and everyone around us.” He continued. “I feel really horrible about that. My biggest regret is that I dishonored Ariana. I never meant to disappoint so many people, including our loving families and friends.”
For Bravo fans, Tom and Raquel’s affair—which has since been nicknamed #Scandoval—is one of the network’s juiciest and most dramatic scandals in history. But are Tom and Raquel still together after their Vanderpump Rules affair? Read on for what we know about if Tom and Raquel are still together post-#Scandoval.
Are Tom and Raquel still together from Vanderpump Rules?
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Are Tom and Raquel still together from Vanderpump Rules? The answer is no. News broke on May 17, 2023 — the same day the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 finale aired — that Tom and Raquel had broken up nine months after their affair started in August 2022. “Raquel dipped out. Sandoval is not the one for her,” a source told Page Six at the time. “Raquel dipped out. Sandoval is not the one for her.”
“I fought so hard for Rachel,” Sandoval shared on the December 7, 2023 episode of the Two T’s in a Pod podcast. “I stopped drinking. I stopped smoking cigarettes because she went away to a facility. I’m like, ‘She can’t drink, she can’t smoke. I’m gonna quit.’” He also added that he “was there in any way that she needed” before she completely cut him out of her life and moved to Arizona.
“We were best friends,” Sandoval lamented. “It’s heartbreaking to go through. I was fully in love with her. She’s not just some hot girl. I was a model for 15 years, it’s deeper than that.”
A source for The Messenger claimed that Tom was the one who ended the relationship to “focus” on his music career with his cover band, Tom Sandoval & The Most Extras. “His relationships with everyone right now are on the back burner, and he’s focusing on his music,” the source said. “He’s about to turn 40 and trying his best to move away from all of this, but he’s struggling at times. Like anyone trying to better themselves, it’s one day at a time.”
A source also denied to People that Tom and Raquel broke up because they were never in a relationship in the first place. “Tom and Raquel never put a label on their relationship to begin with,” the insider said. “After their affair was exposed and the blowback they received, they said that before defining things, they needed to take time to address the issues in their own lives that drove them to this in the first place. And that’s where things still are.”
The source continued, “Raquel has been away in a mental health treatment facility, and hasn’t come home yet. Tom has been on the road, focusing on his music. There’s no split because they were never a couple.” A representative for Tom also denied the split in a statement to People. “Clearly the rumors going around are not credible as they don’t have their facts right — including Tom’s age,” the representative said.
Tom and Raquel’s breakup came a month after Tom told Howie Mandel on his podcast, “Howie Mandel Does Stuff,” in April 2023, that he and Raquel were “taking a break” due to the drama around their relationship. “We’re really good friends,” he said at the time. “Were not putting any label on it. We’re just kind of taking a break.” When asked if he and Raquel were “friends with benefits,” Tom said, “Not right now.”
Ariana, for her part, told host Andy Cohen on an episode of Watch What Happens Live in May 2023 that she didn’t believe that Tom and Raquel were really broken up. “I don’t buy that at all. She was sending letters to my house, like, four days ago,” she said. When asked whether she believes that Tom and Raquel were actually “in love,” Ariana responded, “I don’t really know that either of them knows what that word means.”
When did Tom and Raquel’s affair start from Vanderpump Rules?
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When did Tom and Raquel’s affair start from Vanderpump Rules? Ariana confirmed in The Vanderpump Season 10 finale in May 2023 that Tom and Raquel’s affair started in August 2022 after the death of Ariana’s dog, Charlotte, and her girls’ trip on Vanderpump Rules with Raquel, Katie, Scheana, Charli and Kristina Kelly.
“I went with Tom to Tom Tom because he had that party thing. I found a screen recording of them on FaceTime,” Ariana told Katie and Scheana of how she learned of Tom and Raquel’s affair. “It was literally from the night before. He was at [Tom] Schwartz’s.” She continued, “I called Raquel and I started like, making her like, f—ing tell me what the f—? When did this start? She said, ‘Right after the girls trip.’ I’m like, ‘You mean right after Charlotte died?’”
Ariana also revealed that Raquel told her that she and Tom kissed, while Tom confessed that they had sex. “She said they kissed,” Ariana said. “Well, later that night when we were out here, I pressed Tom. And he said, well, they actually f—ed in her car that night. And he didn’t have a key to get in so he had to ring the doorbell and I had to let him in.”
Tom Schwartz also confirmed on an episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in April 2023 that he first learned of Tom and Raquel’s romance in August 2022. “I learned in late August about the affair,” he said. He claimed that Sandoval told him that he and Raquel had a “one-night stand,” but it wasn’t until January 2023 that he learned their relationship was a full affair.“Then it became — from my point of view — an emotional affair … But I didn’t think it was a linear thing,” Schwartz said, adding that he was unaware Tom and Raquel’s relationship “steadily progressing” after their one-night stand.
Schwartz told host Andy Cohen that he fully learned of the affair in January 2023 after Sandoval admitted to being “in love with Raquel.” “I was flabbergasted but not surprised because, I think, there’s a lot of people out there who kind of knew it was an open secret,” Schwartz said.
Schwartz also accused Sandoval of being “flagrant” and “brazen” about the affair from January to March 2023, when Ariana found out about it. He also accused Sandoval of “placating” him by telling him that he planned to break up with Ariana before his affair with Raquel went public. “I’m being fed a narrative that he has broken up with Ariana or attempted to many many times — that he’s not happy, they’re not healthy, they’re not intimate, blah blah,” Schwartz said. “All of that’s inconsequential now in light of the way he handled it.”
Where are Tom and Ariana now after his affair with Raquel on Vanderpump Rules?
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Where are Tom and Ariana now after his affair with Raquel on Vanderpump Rules? Tom confirmed that he and Ariana still lived together as of April 2023 in an interview at the time on Howie Mandel’s podcast, “Howie Mandel Does Stuff.” “You both live together still?” Mandel asked, to which Tom responded, “I mean, Howie, to be totally honest, I can’t afford to – I don’t have a lot of friends I can stay with right now.”
Tom — who claimed to “run the house,” including being in charge of the gardening, housekeeping and having his assistant clean — also revealed that he and Ariana text to communicate with each other while in their home. “She’s in the house, we’re in far – I mean, dude, this is a big house, it’s like an almost $3 million house,” he said. “We text, we have a go-between, text like when we’re coming and going. All I do is, I go into my room. And then, you know, she’s in her room, she’s downstairs. And then like, I’ll go into the gym, and I’ll be in the gym, and then when I’m done with the gym, I go back into my room. And then I’ll go somewhere else.”
He continued, “Sometimes I stay away, but I always let them know. I’ve gone out of town a couple times. But yeah, it’s been OK, like we’re not… You know, initially, it wasn’t great, and I had to stay away. I would understand if we had kids, so like, the kids would see like, Mommy and Daddy like being weird, but we don’t.”
Tom also told Mandel that he and Ariana plan to sell their home together and move out from one another once the time is right. “She’s really busy right now, she’s obviously blowing up, which is great. I’m really happy to see that,” he said. “So she’s busy doing things, you know… I’ve been busy as well, trying to get things together, so.”
Image: Courtesy of Bravo.
