The long-anticipated Vanderpump Rules reunion finally kicked off with tears, hostility and even threats of violence as Lisa Vanderpump and her crew hashed out the much-debated controversy surrounding Tom Sandoval cheating on longtime partner Ariana Madix with their co-star Raquel Leviss.
Bravo aired the first installment of the three-part reunion Wednesday, as Andy Cohen sat down with the show’s stars minus Leviss, who watched the proceedings unfold from a television screen in a private room. Leviss had filed a temporary restraining order against Scheana Shay, and the two were not able to film together. (The order has since lifted.)
After viewers saw quick snippets of footage showing Cohen tackling the situation known as “Scandoval” by separately interviewing Sandoval, Madix and Leviss in a show first, the group then convened on stage, where insults and criticism flowed immediately. In light of Madix stating that Sandoval hasn’t moved out of their home, Lala Kent compared Sandoval to her ex-husband Randall Emmett, who has been embroiled in plenty of controversy of his own.
“This is a dangerous human being,” Kent said of Sandoval. In what would become a pattern of Vanderpump seemingly defending Sandoval, the restaurateur told Kent this was “ridiculous” to say, to which Kent replied, “I didn’t ask for anyone else’s opinion.”
Cohen asked Madix what caused a divide in her relationship with Sandoval, and she said, “I think he caused the divide in the relationship because he was fucking other people.” Vanderpump chimed in to say, “Other people is very different [than just] Raquel,” to which Madix responded, “He’s fucked more than Raquel.”
Madix blanched at Cohen bringing up Sandoval alleging that the couple had not been intimate in years. “Having intimacy issues does not excuse literally any fucking thing,” she said. “You work on it, or you break up. So going through the fucking ins and outs of our relationship is fucking pointless.” She also chided Cohen that bringing up their previous intimacy in this context was victim-shaming.
James Kennedy, who was previously engaged to Leviss, was very clearly in Madix’s corner throughout the evening. At one point, he said he previously thought of Sandoval as a “big bro,” leading to plenty of pejoratives exchanged between the two men. Kennedy left his seat and approached Sandoval, leading Sandoval to threaten, “Get in my face again, I’ll fuck you up, mother fucker.” Kennedy replied, “I’ll fuck you up so quickly,” and later had to leave the stage briefly to cool off.
Cohen asked Sandoval the question everyone was waiting to hear, namely: Why didn’t he come clean to Madix sooner about Leviss? “I was obviously scared to,” Sandoval said. “Also she was going through a lot during that time, and I didn’t want to add anything.”
Later, Madix told Vanderpump that she “will have a hard time confiding” in her if she continues to stay in business with Sandoval.
Just before the end of the episode, Kennedy told Vanderpump, “You’re sticking up for Tom too much.” He then stormed off the set and was seen heading outside, at which point the first part of the reunion was over.
More to come.
Vanderpump Rules airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
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