Rachel Leviss Sues Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix Over “Revenge Porn”
In Los Angeles County Superior Court today, former Vanderpump Rules star Rachel Leviss has filed a civil lawsuit against castmates Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix. The suit, filed by attorneys Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos, contains allegations regarding the creation and distribution of nonconsensually filmed “revenge porn.” The filing states that “the explicit videos were recorded by Sandoval without [Leviss’s] knowledge or consent in or around February 2023. The two videos Leviss has seen depict her in a state of undress and masturbating.” According to the filing, “Madix obtained at least two illicit videos of Leviss and distributed them and/or showed them to others without Leviss’s knowledge or consent.” The recordings allegedly alerted Madix to the fact that her then partner, Sandoval, was involved in a sexual relationship with Leviss, leading to “Scandoval,” which turned the affair into a national phenomenon. (The viewership of Vanderpump Rules increased by 77% from the previous season, to more than 11 million people.)
The lawsuit states: “Lost in the mix was that Leviss was a victim of the predatory and dishonest behavior of an older man, who recorded sexually explicit videos of her without her knowledge or consent, which were then distributed, disseminated, and discussed publicly by a scorned woman seeking vengeance, catalyzing the scandal. Leviss ultimately checked herself into a mental health facility and remained there for three months while Bravo, Evolution, and the cast milked the interest her excoriation had peaked.”
According to the lawsuit, during her last season on the show, “Leviss began drinking much more heavily.” It adds that “Leviss was encouraged to do so by production and Sandoval, who believed it would make for better television and readily provided alcohol for her consumption.” The filing also discusses alleged violent behavior from Leviss’s former fiancé and costar, James Kennedy, who the suit says “once physically assaulted then-cast member Kristen Doute on camera; the footage, however, never aired.” (Doute and Kennedy did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair’s requests for comment.)
While Bravo and Evolution are not defendants in her suit, Leviss alleges that they “misled” her “into believing that she was contractually barred from speaking out about her mistreatment.” Freedman provided a statement to VF that says, “I’m outraged that NBC and Bravo have used illegal NDAs as cudgels to profit off their employees. The idea that human beings are expected to sacrifice their mental and emotional health in service of Bravo’s ratings is obscene.” Geragos’s statement reads, “Tom and Ariana are alleged here to have engaged in criminal acts. They then doubled down and used those actions to shame, bully, belittle, and intentionally try to destroy Rachel’s mental health. The law makes it clear that recording someone without their consent and distributing that illegal recording is punishable by law; however, doing so while knowingly enticing them to engage in sexual acts deserves the harshest of penalties allowable under the law.”
Sandoval, Madix, Evolution Media, and Bravo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On March 3 of last year, Leviss’s then attorney, Michael Holtz, sent cease and desist letters to Sandoval, Madix, and cast member Lala Kent, who began selling merch featuring the phrase “Send it to Darrell” (Kent’s lawyer). The cease and desist stated that Madix sent Leviss a copy of the video with a message that read, “You are dead to me.” Vanderpump Rules executive producer Alex Baskin told Variety that Madix had alerted him to the video’s existence prior to Holtz’s warning, noting, “Fortunately, we did not get a cease and desist.”
Vanity Fair detailed some of that fallout in “Inside the Real Housewives Reckoning That’s Rocking Bravo”:
On April 2, 2023, Vanderpump Rules star Rachel Leviss entered inpatient mental health treatment for three months following a season on which her affair with a castmate, known as “Scandoval,” became the show’s central plotline and a national news story. Despite Bravo’s knowledge of Leviss’s residential care, [Andy] Cohen subsequently declined to correct Leviss’s castmates on multiple episodes of [Watch What Happens Live] when they said she was actually at a spa and implied she was faking her mental health issues. Cohen also repeatedly asked what guests thought about Leviss and her mental health. Saturday Night Live star Chloe Fineman called her a “filthy whore,” and Cohen laughed. After the reunion, he speculated in a Variety interview that Leviss had been “very medicated” at the taping, during which her costar Ariana Madix, whose ex-boyfriend Leviss had the relationship with, told Leviss, “Fuck yourself with a fucking cheese grater.” Cohen did not intervene. “You can’t be the leader of the universe, then act like you don’t know what’s going on in it,” [Bethenny] Frankel says of Cohen.
Leviss chose not to return to Vanderpump Rules, though the storyline and her absence have remained central topics on the new season, which is currently airing on Tuesday nights on Bravo.
Leviss’s lawsuit is among a growing number of filings from current and former Bravo cast members in recent months, which Vanity Fair has previously reported on. Earlier this week, former Ultimate Girls Trip and Real Housewives of New York City star Leah McSweeney filed a lawsuit against Cohen; Bravo and its parent company, NBCUniversal; production company Shed Media and its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery; and executive producers Lisa Shannon, Darren Ward, and John Paparazzo, alleging “a rotted workplace culture that uniquely depended on pressuring its employees to consume alcohol.” It further claimed that McSweeney was encouraged to drink despite production’s knowledge of her alcoholism and that Cohen showed preferential treatment to cast members with whom he used cocaine. Cohen’s spokesperson has told multiple outlets that “the claims against Andy are completely false.”
On February 22, Freedman, who also represents UGT and former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member Brandi Glanville, sent Bravo, NBCUniversal, and Warner Bros. Discovery a letter asserting that an “inebriated” Cohen had sent Glanville a video message in which he shared “his intention to sleep with another Bravo star that night while thinking of her [Glanville] and invited her to watch via Facetime.” The letter also described “a vicious media campaign based on false allegations of sexual misconduct. The false narrative, which NBC and Shed Media have apparently decided to foment, arises from Ms. Glanville’s experience on Ultimate Girls Trip: Morocco.”
That is in reference to a lawsuit filed in January by UGT and former Real Housewives of New Jersey star Carolina Manzo against NBCUniversal and its streaming service, Peacock; Bravo; Shed Media and its parent division, Warner Bros. Entertainment; and a Shed subsidiary called Forest Productions Inc. The suit alleges that Glanville, who is not named as a defendant, sexually assaulted Manzo after producers encouraged Glanville’s alcohol use and behavior.
At the time of Leviss’s filing today, Bravo was still selling an “I Survived Scandoval” sweatshirt for $36.95. (According to a representative, Leviss, who left the show in 2023, does not receive any profits.)
