Credit: Todd Williamson/Bravo
Lala Kent admitted on Wednesday night’s premiere of Vanderpump Rules that she and James Kennedy hooked up early on in their relationships with Randall Emmett and Raquel Leviss, respectively.
Although they’ve both since moved on from those relationships, with Lala having ended her engagement to Randall in October 2021 and James and Raquel calling off their engagement weeks later, the news of their past hookup didn’t come as good news to James’ current girlfriend, Ally Lewber, who was “shocked” by James’ infidelity.
“I was mad at him for a minute, for sure, yeah,” Ally told Page Six at the premiere party. “I think I felt for Raquel a lot in that moment — just knowing [they] were about to get married, and she was never gonna know this.”
“That’s never fun to find out about a partner,” she continued.
According to Ally, who began dating James in early 2022, just weeks after James and Raquel’s split, she and her boyfriend “talked it through” after he told her Lala had mentioned it on camera. And according to James, he wasn’t mad at his co-star for doing so.
Although he insisted he wasn’t “proud” of his infidelity and said his behavior wasn’t indicative of “the man that [he] is today,” James said he doesn’t have time to be mad at Lala for “something that happened six years ago.”
“We’ve already worked on our friendship so much since then,” he explained.
On the Pump Rules premiere episode, Lala told Katie Maloney, “James and I, when we were both very new in our relationships, definitely hooked up,” and she noted that their drunken encounter took place in Chicago.
“You’re making me nervous. My heart is beating. Like, please don’t. Please don’t,” James begged in response before confirming the hookup.
Meanwhile, during another scene of the show, Raquel told Scheana Shay she hopes Ally “doesn’t suffer from low self-esteem” like she did throughout her years-long relationship with James.
“I mean, some of the stuff that I tolerated — I look back, and I’m like, ‘What the f-ck was I thinking?’” she shared.
As for her decision to expose her past hookup with James, Lala said that going into season 10, she didn’t want to be carrying any secrets.
“This season, going into it, I just felt like I was sitting in a pile of sh-t. And I just wanted all of my skeletons out. I wanted to start making amends to people who I’ve affected,” Lala explained, adding that she and Raquel went through “a lot of ups and downs” during season 10.
“And maybe I shouldn’t have told [Raquel about the hookup] because she was upset about it, but hindsight’s 20/20,” Lala continued. “I felt in the moment that I was doing something that I needed to do for both of us because we were in a great place, and I wanted to move forward with her. I just couldn’t move forward with her knowing that I had been someone who I’m not proud of.”
Understandably, Lala said she and Raquel are “not great” today.
“That’s OK, though,” she noted. “That’s to be expected with this group.”
Vanderpump Rules season 10 airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.