VPR: Tom Sandoval's Text To Peter Madrigal Hints At Raquel Leviss' Affair Timeline
With every passing day, there's more drama coming from the "Vanderpump Rules" scandal known as "Scandoval" — and this time, cast member Peter Madrigal is weighing in.
Madrigal — who has been a manager at Lisa Vanderpump's Sexy Unique Restaurant Restaurant and Lounge since the reality show kicked off — appeared on former cast member's Kristen Doute's podcast, "Sex, Love, and What Else Matters," on April 5, 2023 with his own Scandoval-related evidence. According to Madrigal, he got a totally weird text from Tom Sandoval, the man at the center of it all, asking about Tom's secret paramour Rachel "Raquel" Leviss.
Madrigal and Leviss went on a date early in Season 10 in the aftermath of Leviss' split from her fiancé, James Kennedy (formally referred to as "DJ James Kennedy"). Apparently, shortly after their time together in January of 2023, Sandoval texted Madrigal to ask some, uh, pretty intimate details. "I get an interesting text from one Tom Sandoval. He hasn't texted me in six months," the manager told Doute. "And then he texts me and he says, and I quote, 'Dude, exclamation point. Just watched the first episode LOL, exclamation point. Did you bang Raquel the night after SUR, exclamation point, question mark, crying laughing face.'"
"If you go through my text messages with Tom Sandoval, he never texts me emojis," Madrigal said. "Never does ... What I'm thinking is, 'How are they portraying me on the show?' So, I call him. He was all like, 'Oh, no, I was just wondering if you banged Raquel that night.'"
Peter Madrigal believes this text is an important part of the Scandoval timeline
It stands to reason that Sandoval only asked Madrigal this awkwardly invasive question because he and Leviss were already involved by that point — and Madrigal definitely thinks that's the case. Concerned that he was portrayed as some sort of Lothario in the episode, he sat down and watched it, which he notes that he rarely does, and all he saw was Leviss looking pretty underwhelmed on their date, where they got nachos together.
"I don't know why she responded, like, 'Ugh,'" Madrigal said of Leviss' reaction to his whole deal. "And now I know why. She was already dating Tom Sandoval." She was already having sex with Tom. And that text message from him proves it."
Madrigal also took issue (understandably) with Leviss referring to him as a "starter pony" in terms of reintroducing her to the dating pool, which she did on a March 1 airing of "Watch What Happens Live." At the time, Leviss said of Madrigal, "I feel like Peter's, like, a great starting pony to get back into the dating world ... He was such a great shoulder to cry on."
"I'm nobody's starter pony," Madrigal told Doute, regarding Leviss' comments. "Go f*** yourself. I always keep an even keel, but my God. Who the hell do you think you are? Who the f*** do you think you are?"
What's going on with Scandoval these days?
If you're a fan of "Vanderpump Rules," you might have worried, in recent years, that the show was simply past its prime. The cast members, who once provided season after season of messy, truly insane drama, started getting married, having families, and leaving SUR behind all together. And then, in advance of Season 10, longtime couple Katie Maloney and Tom Schwartz went through a clearly difficult, fraught divorce... and were ultimately outdone by the Scandoval of it all.
At the beginning of March 2023, Sandoval's girlfriend of nine years, Madix, discovered incriminating and explicit videos on his phone that involved Leviss, at which point the scandal broke that Sandoval and Leviss had been having an affair for months. In the time since that happened, the news has been absolutely non-stop. Sandoval went on Mandel's podcast, claiming that he'd been trying to break up with Madix for months. Sandoval's best friend and business partner, Tom Schwartz, defended his ride or die buddy on "Watch What Happens Live," saying Sandoval and Leviss are in love and that Sandoval is addicted to her. Madix, with her star on the rise, booked a Lifetime movie and a spot on "Dancing With the Stars." Fans of "Vanderpump Rules" who were concerned the show wouldn't ever get interesting again have certainly gotten their due.
Former cast members are returning to Vanderpump Rules over Scandoval
As if all of that wasn't juicy enough, there's also a significant development with Doute, who's hosted cast members like Madrigal on her podcast since Scandoval broke. When the series kicked off in 2013, Sandoval and Doute were dating, having lived together for quite some time and both working at SUR with everybody else. By the end of the second season, Doute and Sandoval were no more... and he'd already moved on to Madix. In the aftermath of Scandoval, it was reported by outlets like Deadline that Doute is coming back to "Vanderpump Rules" after she was let go due to accusations of racism in the summer of 2020.
It makes complete sense that Doute is returning to stir up even more drama on "Vanderpump Rules," considering that her and Sandoval's relationship was plagued with constant infidelity on both sides. Sandoval also notably first kissed Madix while he was dating Doute — who suspected something had happened, at which point Sandoval gaslit her and convinced her that she was imagining things. Doute also famously brought "Miami Girl" into the restaurant while both Sandoval and Madix were working, referring to a woman who claimed she'd been intimdate with Sandoval — during his relationship with Madix — during a boys' trip to Miami.
The Season 10 finale of "Vanderpump Rules" airs on May 17, and the reunion, which will be split into multiple parts, begins airing on May 24.