As the Scandoval fallout continues days after Tom Sandoval‘s shocking affair with Raquel Leviss was first revealed to the world, Vanderpump Rules fans are reeling.
They’re far from the only ones reacting strongly to the jaw-dropping cheating reveal, though. In fact, Leviss’ own lawyers are now taking aggressive action in an interesting side story that could become a major focal point moving forward.
As we’ve been reporting, a FaceTime video is what appears to have led Ariana Madix to first learning about Sandoval’s affair with the 28-year-old Leviss. That NSFW clip of Leviss, as the reporting goes, was on the TomTom owner’s phone when Ariana found it and uncovered the brutal reality of his months-long infidelity.
But while the adult-themed intimate video was awful enough as far as Ariana is concerned, it also has some potential legal implications for Tom and others. As you may know, California has a state law outlawing “nonconsensual pornography.” And even though Raquel and Tom had consensually shared that intimate video with each other, the thought of it being disseminated elsewhere is very concerning. Plus, the fact that it was apparently surreptitiously recorded and saved without Raquel’s apparent knowledge would seem to make it all even worse.
According to TMZ, on Monday, Leviss’ lawyers sent an official letter to “several” VPR cast members and friends of the show. The letter ominously warned them that the screen recording had been “done illegally without Raquel’s knowledge or consent.” It specifically cited the aforementioned California penal code noting it is illegal to share adult material without the participant’s consent. Leviss’ lawyers are concerned about the FaceTime recording getting out on social media. In the letter, they specifically warn away VPR stars from posting the clip on social media or forwarding it to more people.
As the outlet notes, the letter is interesting because it does not specifically accuse Tom of illegally recording the call. However, insiders “who have seen the video” told TMZ that only Tom and Raquel were involved. Thus, who else would have been able to disseminate the NSFW clip in the first place, if not for one of those two?!
Regardless, Raquel’s lawyers are demanding any VPR cast members who may have a copy of the clip immediately delete it from their phones, cloud accounts, “or any other manner or method in which the recording may exist.” In an ominous conclusion, the legal letter ends like this:
“This matter should be taken very seriously.”
Yikes!
Of course, if you’ve been following this sordid story along with us, you should have already been expecting this. As you may recall from our Monday morning reporting, an anonymous insider revealed Raquel just hired a new crisis PR team. Part of that newly-hired crew’s media push was supposedly a plan to push the “revenge porn” angle regarding this FaceTime video.
That anon insider claimed:
“Raquel fired her PR team yesterday, which, not so coincidentally, was the same as Tom Sandoval’s PR. Her new team is already on the offensive, crafting a narrative that Raquel is also a victim in all of this. When she films with Sandoval later today, she’s been advised (and is planning) to break things off with him. TBD if that happens. The plan is to then go after him for screen recording the FaceTime sex session without Raquel’s consent, which was uncovered by Ariana on Sandoval’s phone and led to the unraveling of events.”
And the source continued:
“They’re planning to allege that Sandoval took advantage of Raquel while she was in a vulnerable moment in life, clouding her judgment, then recording intimate videos without her knowledge. She will then go on an apology tour, relaying that she’s devastated by what has unfolded and for betraying one of her best friends (Ariana). At present, Raquel is not taking responsibility for her role in this affair. She’s more concerned with correcting the record on the ‘finger-banging’ vid than taking accountability for the hurt she has caused. And just for the record, she didn’t have these ideas, nor plans to distance from Sandoval, until her new PR relayed their strategy to try and save her image.”
After that anonymous PR claim first dropped, other Vanderpump Rules cast members blasted it. Lala Kent notably slammed Raquel for being “dumb” and said the affair participant was looking for a way to wriggle out while looking like a victim after having “lit herself on fire.”
And yet this letter would seem to suggest Leviss’ purported PR plan is in action. But will it succeed? After all, Tom has been hanging out at Raquel’s apartment in recent days. Are they, like, an item now but also duking it out in the legal realm?? How does this work?!
Thoughts, Perezcious readers??
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