Ex-Vanderpump Rules star Rachel Leviss is suing cast members Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix for “revenge porn, eavesdropping and invasion of privacy” following the explosive events of season 10, TMZ reported Thursday. A NSFW video of Leviss on Sandoval’s phone was reportedly the catalyst for Madix finding out about Sandoval’s secret affair with Leviss.
On the night the Scandoval scandal broke in March of 2023, Sandoval’s phone was “reportedly retrieved by an attendee and handed over to Madix, who searched it and found sexually explicit videos of Leviss,” Leviss’ lawsuit states, according to The Daily Mail.
Madix, the suit claims, “obtained at least two illicit videos of Leviss and distributed them and/or showed them to others without Leviss’ knowledge or consent.”
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“At a minimum, Madix circulated the illicit videos to herself and Leviss. She also immediately informed production about what she had found,” it continues. “In addition, many other individuals have demonstrated intimate familiarity with their contents, leading Leviss to believe the circle of recipients is wider.”
Leviss believes, the document contends, “that the explicit videos were recorded by Sandoval without her knowledge or consent in or around February 2023.”
“The two videos Leviss has seen depict her in a state of undress and masturbating,” it outlines. “However, given Sandoval's apparent practice of secretly recording their video calls, Leviss has every reason to assume there are additional illicit videos and/or photographs of her that she has not yet seen.”
Last March, Leviss’ lawyers reportedly sent her fellow cast members legal notices warning them against possession of an intimate recording of Leviss. Her lawyers called the material “nonconsensual pornography.”
“The idea that human beings are expected to sacrifice their mental and emotional health in service of Bravo’s ratings is obscene,” Leviss’ attorney Bryan Freedman told The Daily Beast.
(Freedman is also representing Real Housewives star Brandi Glanville in a sexual harassment lawsuit Glanville filed this week against Bravo producer Andy Cohen.)
“Many of their employees are suffering in silence due to brazen and calculated actions by NBC and Bravo” Freedman continued to The Daily Beast. “Hundreds of reality TV participants have reached out to Mark Geragos and myself, and we are committed to ensuring that they have zealous advocates to confront the damage these employers have wreaked on their lives.”
“This lawsuit is squarely about illegal behavior and those who traffic in it and enable it,” Geragos, also Leviss’ attorney, added to The Daily Beast. “Rachel has apologized for her part in an affair. That’s not a crime. 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.”
The Daily Beast reached out to Madix’s rep and Sandoval’s manager for comment.
