Never on the same page? Lala Kent and Raquel Leviss got off to a rocky start while filming Vanderpump Rules — and the costars never truly recovered.
Before Leviss appeared on the show, Kent made her 2015 debut and immediately struck up a connection with James Kennedy. The pair decided to stay friends after several failed romantic attempts amid his split from Kristen Doute and before her relationship with her now-ex-fiancé, Randall Emmett.
Meanwhile, Leviss started to make guest appearance in 2016 after she began dating Kennedy. The model quickly made it clear that she questioned the friendship between her boyfriend and Kent — but Kennedy continued to deny the duo were anything more than platonic.
Kent and Leviss put their differences aside before the California native got engaged to Kennedy in season 9, which aired from late 2021 to early 2022. However, the couple surprised their costars when they announced their split at the Bravo series’ reunion.
“We have decided to break off the engagement. It’s been something that I have been thinking about for a while, and I think that James has noticed that my heart hasn’t been fully in it,” Leviss shared during the January 2022 special. “I didn’t want to give up on him because he really has shown me how dedicated he is to me and the things that he is willing to do to better himself. But I feel like it is something deep within. I have been having nightmares about our wedding day, and I think that’s a telltale sign that something is wrong.”
After filming began on season 10, Us Weekly confirmed that Tom Schwartz hooked up with Leviss at Scheana Shay and Brock Davies‘ August 2022 wedding amid his divorce from Katie Maloney. Viewers saw tension rise between Leviss and her costars when she revealed that she was interested in Schwartz.
“Do you really feel that way? ‘If you can’t keep him then here I am?’ If you do feel that way, I am not your audience. I don’t want anything to do with it, and I respect people’s relationships,” Kent told Leviss in a March 2023 episode. “And quite honestly, I think you do too because six years ago when I drunkenly hooked up with your ex-fiancé, that is still something I feel doesn’t feel great.”
As the season continued to air, news broke in March 2023 that Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix called it quits after nearly a decade of dating because he cheated with Leviss. At the time, Kent said she wasn’t shocked by the affair, which prompted Bravo to resume production on the season.
“During the 10 weeks that we filmed, there was a scent I was picking up,” Kent said on an episode of the “Give Them Lala” podcast that month. “Katie also was like, ‘I agree, I’m sniffing something too.’”
She continued: “This is not good. Men are a–holes, but you don’t expect your best friend who’s a woman to do you like that. And to sit there and look you in your eyes and confide in each other and go get lunch when the whole time that’s what she’s been doing behind your back? That is absolutely terrifying. …. This is a character flaw.”
Leviss, for her part, issued a public apology to Madix amid the drama. “I want to apologize for my actions and my choices foremost to Ariana, and to my friends and the fans so invested in our relationships. There is no excuse, I am not a victim and I must own my actions and I deeply regret hurting Ariana,” she wrote via Instagram in March 2023.
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Scroll down to relive Leviss and Kent’s ups and downs:
Originally published at www.usmagazine.com