Rachel Leviss Accuses Lisa Vanderpump of ‘Victim-Shaming’ and Spreading ‘Propaganda’ to Whitewash Tom Sandoval

Rachel “Raquel Leviss” responds to Lisa Vanderpump’s recent comments about her lawsuit against Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval.

Earlier this month, ex The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, 63, told TMZ Leviss’ filing was “ridiculous.” She proposed Vanderpump Rules alum, 29, shouldn’t be sending explicit videos to “her best friend’s boyfriend” if she doesn’t “want someone to share your porn” — although it wasn’t until after the comment that she learned Sandoval, 41, was allegedly filming Leviss without her consent.

“I immediately said, ‘Oh, she didn’t read the synopsis,'” Leviss said on Monday’s episode of his Rachel goes rogue podcast. “But then, you know, insiders told me like, ‘Oh no, she knows exactly what she’s doing.’ She’s making this press statement to pick up that particular story.”

Rachel Leviss admits scandal still makes her ‘defensive’: ‘They painted a devilish picture’

Rachel ‘Raquel’ Leviss and Tom Sandoval.

Santiago Felipe/Getty, River Callaway/Variety via Getty

In February, PEOPLE confirmed that Leviss is seeking unspecified damages for wiretapping, revenge pornography and invasion of privacy allegations stemming from the alleged distribution of an intimate video that Leviss says her ex Sandoval recorded without her consent near the end of their months-long relationship. (The discovery of that video by Madix, 38, sparked the abrupt end of her nine-year relationship with Sandoval and an international news story called Scandoval.)

In her complaint, Leviss said she was the “victim of predatory and dishonest behavior by an older man” who made sexually explicit videos “without her knowledge or consent.” She further claimed that the footage was “distributed, disseminated and publicly discussed by a despicable woman [Madix] seeking revenge.”

Raquel Leviss Warns ‘VPR’ Costars To Stop Sending Intimate Videos At Center Of Tom Sandoval Affair

Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty

In this week’s episode of her podcast, Leviss clarified that the video was recorded over a FaceTime call and that she only learned of its existence when it was sent to her. While she admitted that the duo was never “super tight” during her time on the show, Leviss admitted that Vanderpump’s public stance on the matter is “not good.”

“It took me a long time to really decide whether or not to press charges. And I felt it was important to bring it up,” she explained. “My privacy was violated in a very intimate and unquestionable way, and that’s embarrassing and not something I’m proud of at all. So to have her put out a certain kind of story that’s not even close to the truth about what happened is very disappointing.”

PEOPLE has reached out to a rep for Vanderpump.

Lisa Vanderpump.

Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty

Rachel ‘Raquel’ Leviss recalls lengths Tom Sandoval went to talk to her after scandal: ‘It was manipulative’

Noting that Vanderpump — who is also Sandoval’s business partner at their LA bar TomTom — wields “full power,” Leviss said she wants to be “strong in standing up for herself.” She claims that her former head of SUR i VPR the executive producer “spreads certain propaganda and outright lies as a way to change public perception.”

She also called Vanderpump’s comments “victim shaming.”

“It goes back like years and years and decades and decades back when people would say, ‘Oh, well she wore shorts. She asked for it. Oh, she deserved it because she looked a certain way.’ It’s very, very nasty,” Leviss said. “It doesn’t feel right to me.”

She continued, “It’s one thing to be an advocate and advocate [Sandoval’s] mental health in general, but it’s another to turn things around to support one of their cast members who is a man and make a woman fall.”

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Vanderpump Rules airs Tuesdays at 8:00 PM ET on Bravo.

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Source: HIS Education