Rachel Leviss shares Tom Sandoval's plan to reveal their relationship
By Lacey Womack
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For many people, the biggest question of Vanderpump Rules' "Scandoval" scandal was what Tom and Rachel (then going by Raquel) planned to do with the future of their relationship. Keep their affair a secret forever? Reveal it somehow and deal with the fallout?
On her podcast, Rachel Goes Rogue, Rachel Leviss has revealed that Tom Sandoval had a plan to reveal their relationship and stated that he believed that the public would "accept" them together the way that they did his relationship with Ariana, who he says the public hated at first.
Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix were dating for nearly a decade before the news of his affair with Rachel Leviss came to light. The pair got together in 2014, shortly after his relationship with Kristen Doute had ended.
On her podcast, Rachel Leviss says that Tom Sandoval was using his relationship with Ariana as proof that the two of them could just go public and that any backlash from the fact that they were having an affair would eventually fade away and people would accept them as a couple.
"He was saying, ‘Look, people hated Ariana in the beginning, and then they realized we were sticking together. We weren’t going anywhere and so they had to accept it and they ended up loving her and it could be the same for us," Rachel revealed on the fourth episode of her highly anticipated podcast.
According to Rachel, she was happy to go along with Tom Sandoval's plans for their relationship reveal because she was focused on wanting to be with him and not thinking clearly enough about the logistics of revealing that they were together.
In the same episode, she said, "I think I was just naive and wishful thinking that this could work out the way I wanted it to because ultimately at that time I did want to be with him. I was hoping for the best I guess."
She also explained why she chose not to tell Ariana Madix about their affair and revealed that she and Tom Sandoval both felt like it was best for Tom to be the one to tell her about the fact that they had an affair.
"I told Tom, ‘Maybe I should tell Ariana,’ and he was like, ‘No no no no no. You’re not going to tell Ariana.’ OK, then you’re going to tell Ariana. I was waiting on him to tell her. It was my duty to tell her, yes, I know that. But I felt like it was his responsibility with him being in that relationship with him to tell her and break up with her," she explained on her podcast.
According to Rachel, the biggest disagreement that the two of them had in regards to being honest about their affair was the fact that Rachel thought it would be unfair to get to the reunion without Ariana knowing about their affair, but Tom Sandoval was putting off telling her.