Vanderpump Rules alum Raquel Leviss turned 29 on September 12 and received an unexpected birthday message from Tom Sandoval. But Raquel, who is using her birth name Rachel again in the aftermath of the “Scandoval,” didn’t appreciate hearing from her ex-lover, so she blocked him on Instagram. Tom, 40, reacted to Raquel’s social media shade when he spoke to People to promote FOX’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 2 on September 13. “Obviously, I think it’s a little immature and petty,” Tom said. “To post that your blocking seems a bit thirsty.”
“I wanted to just send her some love, let her know that happy birthday, whatever,” Tom further said about his choice to reach out to Raquel on her birthday. “I just kind of feel bad for her, in a way. I don’t understand. I think she’s really struggling with taking accountability for her actions and just wants to point fingers and be mad at everybody else. There were two of us in this situation. We both screwed up.”
On her birthday, Raquel shared an Instagram video of herself exploring a flower farm, with the caption, “I’ve been dreaming of a place like this.” Tom commented on Raquel’s video, saying, “Happy Birthday Rachel, I really hope ur finding peace and happiness. Miss u friend.” Afterwards, Raquel posted a screenshot of Tom’s account on her Instagram Stories to reveal she blocked him. “OK Bye,” Raquel wrote on the picture.
In his People interview, Tom explained that he only wants the best for Raquel which is why he wished her a happy birthday. He said they have not spoken but that he did reach to her to her publicist “multiple times” when they filmed season 11 without Raquel. “It sucks. We never had any sort of closure. I had a conversation with her that ended very much in a way of, ‘All right, well, I’ll talk to you in the next few days,’ and that was it,” he said.
Raquel quit Vanderpump Rules after receiving major backlash for having a months-long affair with Tom amidst his longterm relationship with Ariana Madix. After the affair was exposed in early March, Raquel faced off with the rest of the cast at the season 10 reunion where Ariana called her “diabolical,” “demented,” and “subhuman,” among other things. Raquel and Tom were on the same page at the reunion, but a few days later she threw him under the bus to production by exposing more of his lies, including that they had sex multiple times at Scheana Shay‘s wedding in Mexico and at Tom and Ariana’s house while Ariana was away for her grandmother’s funeral.
After the reunion, Raquel checked herself into a mental health facility for treatment in April. A few weeks later, news broke that Raquel and Tom officially broke up. Raquel checked out of the mental health facility after two months and chose not to return to film Vanderpump Rules season 11 with the rest of the cast. After addressing the scandal and her experience getting treatment on Bethenny Frankel’s podcast, Raquel deleted all her Instagram pictures with her former co-stars and unfollowed all of them, including Tom. She also updated her bio to read, “Becoming a better person… one day at a time.” Her bio now says, “Healing Era.”
During her interview with Bethenny, Raquel spoke about her decision to walk away from the hit reality program. “My mistakes that I’ve made on camera live on forever. And you mentioned something about the addiction of doing reality TV and the way that they always dangle that carrot in front of you, like, ‘Well, you need to tell your side of the story otherwise it’s gonna be written for you,’ ” she said to Bethenny. “And that’s terrifying. So I almost went back, I know just because of that.”
Tom has avoided speaking about Raquel while filming the next season of VPR. He still lives in the same house as Ariana but they’ve made it clear that their relationship is nonexistent on and off camera. Tom is set to appear on season 2 of FOX’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test and in the trailer he mentions his scandal. “The whole country’s pissed off at me,” Tom says in the trailer. “I had an affair and want to take a beating.” The TomTom owner is shown with a bloody nose and bruised face after seemingly getting punched in the face by another contestant in the trailer.