Raquel “Rachel” Leviss slammed Lisa Vanderpump for calling her revenge porn lawsuit against Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix “ridiculous.”
On Monday’s episode of Leviss’ “Rachel Goes Rogue” podcast, the “Vanderpump Rules” alum criticized her former boss for “victim-shaming” her and spreading “propaganda” about her in the press.
“Immediately, I was like, ‘Oh, she didn’t read the brief,'” Leviss explained. “But then, you know, insiders told me like, ‘Oh no, she knows exactly what she’s doing.’ She’s saying this statement for the press to pick up this certain story.”
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Earlier this week, Vanderpump told TMZ that Leviss’s filing was “ridiculous” and that you shouldn’t send explicit videos to “your best friend’s boyfriend” if you don’t “want to have somebody share your porn.”
However, Vanderpump was unaware that Sandoval allegedly recorded the former beauty pageant queen performing a solo sexual act — which Madix, 38, allegedly shared with the rest of the cast — without her consent.
“Obviously, you guys know, the lawsuit is not about me sending a video. This video was recorded,” Leviss explained. “It was a FaceTime video that I did not know was being recorded and I wasn’t aware this video existed until it was sent to me.”
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Although she and Vanderpump were never “super tight,” Leviss admitted that it “doesn’t feel good” watching her former employer say such “disappointing and hurtful” things about a “sensitive” topic.
“It took a long time to really decide if I’m going to press charges or not. And I felt like it was important to bring this up,” she explained.
“My privacy was violated in a very intimate and unsuspecting way, and it is embarrassing and not something that I’m proud of at all,” she continued. “So to have her push out a certain type of story that isn’t anywhere near the truth of what has happened is very disappointing.”
Leviss noted that it’s been “heartbreaking” to watch someone she once “looked up to” turn on her in the media.
“You have this idea of who somebody is and admire them for being a boss and advocating for what’s right but it just seems like that perception is shattering very quickly,” she said. “Seeing the way she has turned on me.”
“I know that she has a lot of power and I want to be firm and standing up for myself and pointing out that it’s not okay to be talking about and spreading certain propaganda and straight-up lies as a way to change the public perception of somebody.”
Taking herself out of the situation, Leviss said Vanderpump’s statement was unacceptable no matter who it was directed towards.
“Looking at this as a statement that is pretty much victim-shaming. It’s going back like years and years, decades and decades of back when people would say, ‘Oh well she was wearing booty shorts. She was asking for it. Oh, she deserved it because she looked a certain way.'”
“It’s very, very icky,” Leviss said. “It doesn’t feel right.”
Leviss sued Sandoval — whom she was caught having a months-long affair with last year — and Madix for revenge porn, eavesdropping, intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy last month.
