Tom Sandoval Accuses Rachel Leviss of Suing to ‘Extend Her Fame’ and ‘Rebrand Herself as the Victim’
Apr. 25 2024, Updated 11:38 a.m. ET
Tom Sandoval slammed his ex Rachel Leviss for bringing a bombshell lawsuit against him and Ariana Madix — and accused her of bringing the case to “rebrand herself as the victim.”
Sandoval filed a motion, obtained by RadarOnline.com, seeking to dismiss Leviss’ claims of invasion of privacy, eavesdropping, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In her lawsuit. Leviss claimed Sandoval recorded her sexually explicit FaceTime calls during their affair. His girlfriend Madix found the videos and allegedly sent them to friends.
Leviss accused the two of revenge porn and demanded unspecified damages.
In his filing, Sandoval’s lawyer wrote, “This civil case arises out of a sordid affair between Plaintiff RACHEL LEVISS and Defendant THOMAS SANDOVAL -- two of the central figures in the widely publicized and popular reality television series entitled “Vanderpump Rules”. The affair, dubbed “Scandoval”, occurred while SANDOVAL was cohabitating with his longtime girlfriend, fellow cast member, and co-defendant ARIANA MADIX. The affair came to light when MADIX discovered explicit Facetime videos of LEVISS on SANDOVAL’s phone.”
He said, “After thrusting the vicissitudes of her life into the limelight for ongoing public consumption and critique from 2016 through 2023, LEVISS has now filed the instant action against Defendants SANDOVAL and MADIX complaining of being “an object of public scorn and ridicule."
- 'Vanderpump Rules' Star Tom Sandoval Demands New Judge in Court Battle With Ex Rachel Leviss Over Alleged Revenge Porn
- Tom Sandoval’s Mystery Female Pal Served Rachel Leviss’ Lawsuit Outside ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Star’s $2 Million Home
- 'Excited for a New Chapter': Ariana Madix Snags $1.6M LA Home Despite Ongoing Post-Split Real Estate Battle with Ex Tom Sandoval
The lawyer said Leviss’ lawsuit is "a thinly veiled attempt to extend her fame and to rebrand herself as the victim instead of the other woman while denigrating her former friend MADIX as a “scorned woman” and her former paramour SANDOVAL as “predatory.”
He added, “Indeed, to establish LEVISS as the victim, her Complaint contains irrelevant but incendiary allegations of LEVISS’ persecution by multiple non-parties, i.e., Bravo Media, Evolution Media, her former boyfriend James Kennedy, Scheana Shay, and Andy Cohen. Notably, since November of 2023 to the present date, LEVISS has actively maintained a provocative podcast, “Rachel Goes Rogue”, to further bend the narrative to her will.”
Regarding her eavesdropping claim, Sandoval argued, “It is thereby impossible to deduce from the allegations whether LEVISS’s private life was subject to a broad relinquishment of rights under the terms of said “contract” including whether the filming and exposure of her private affairs were to be the subject of the show’s narrative plot. Accepting LEVISS’s allegations as true, the line between her “private” conduct and fodder for a high-profile public reality television series is indisputably blurred.”
He added, “LEVISS fails to and cannot allege any facts showing that SANDOVAL committed an intrusion into her solitude or that SANDOVAL obtained unwanted access to data about LEVISS. To the contrary, LEVISS intended for SANDOVAL to see her explicit videos, LEVISS made the videos for SANDOVAL, and LEVISS shared the videos with SANDOVAL via a consensual exchange on Facetime, i.e., “their video calls”.”
Sandoval asked for the specific claims to be dismissed.