Raquel Leviss claims Lala Kent convinced her Oliver Saunders was single during their cast trip to Las Vegas last summer.
As Lala shaded her Vanderpump Rules castmate on her podcast and Andy Cohen opened up about the upcoming reunion taping amid Raquel’s legal drama with Scheana Shay, Raquel said that because of Lala’s own flirtation with Oliver, she “100 percent” believed that he was no longer married to Samantha Saunders.
“I was like, ‘Oh, Lala mentioned meeting him at the Vanderpump à Paris opening, and she was saying that she was kind of into him,’” Raquel explained on a recent episode of Page Six‘s Virtual Reali-Tea podcast. “And that made me think that he was single. There was no thought in my head that he was [not].”
As Raquel shared, Oliver “point-blank” told her, “‘I’m separated from my wife, and I have a child,’” and, because she felt charmed by his “really good personality” and found “the way he spoke about his son” to be “very endearing,” she found herself thinking, “I’m kinda into this guy.”
“And then Lala gave me the green light,” she recalled.
Meanwhile, in the same interview, Scheana said that due to Oliver’s relationship status being “an immediate red flag” to Lala, she told Raquel she could “have him,” even though she had a “crush” on Garcelle Beauvais‘ son.
“[Raquel] got put in such a bad position … [It was] not her fault,” Scheana noted, defending her co-star just days before it was revealed that she and Tom Sandoval, the boyfriend of their mutual friend and castmate Ariana Madix, were allegedly having an affair.
Following the news of Sandoval and Raquel’s relationship, Lala lashed out at Raquel on her podcast.
“Bottom feeders attract to bottom feeders, and real recognize real,” Lala said on the March 9 episode of Give Them Lala, via Us Weekly. “That’s how it’s always been.”
According to Lala, Raquel’s behavior amid season 10, which included dates with Peter Madrigal and a make-out with Tom Schwartz, “feels very climb-y.”
“There’s plenty of dudes to make out with. You gotta get out of the group,” she advised. “For it to be your best friend’s dude it’s just yucky. For her to make a comeback, the group’s never gonna forget. That’s some low-down, dirty stuff.”
“I personally would leave and run away and go home, I would go and live my life,” Lala continued. “You don’t expect your best friend who’s a woman to do you like that. And to sit there and look you in your eyes and confide in each other and go get lunch when the whole time that’s what she’s been doing behind your back? That is absolutely terrifying.”
Although Lala said she and Katie Maloney were “picking up” a scent amid production, they could’ve never imagined the destruction Raquel would ultimately cause.
“This is Ariana’s real life. It’s everyone’s real life, and I’m heartbroken for her. I cannot even imagine. She is going to come out of this looking at her life differently,” she shared.
While Lala is understandably disgusted by Raquel’s behavior, she has no plans to get “physical” at the upcoming reunion.
“I’m not trying to catch a case,” she explained. “Also, there’s something about putting my hands on someone that feels ick. So, that’s not gonna be me, but I’ve never really been a physical person. That’s why I talk the way I do. I don’t know how the rest of the cast is gonna be. I think that there’s gonna be a lot of security for sure.”
As for how Ariana is doing today, Lala said she texts her and checks in with friends before noting that she is planning to keep her distance “until the wound is not so fresh.”
Lala then seemingly likened the scandal to the end of her relationship with Randall Emmett.
“[Sandoval] dimmed her light. Dimmed it. He exhausted it,” she stated. “And you wanna know how I know? Because I was in something like that, where I was like, ‘God, you’re so f-cking annoying, I’m exhausted from you.'”
In other news, on a recent episode of his SiriusXM radio show, Andy answered fan questions about the taping of the reunion, which is set to film in just two weeks — before Raquel’s restraining order against Scheana, who she accused of assault (which Scheana denies), expires.
“I don’t know, I haven’t gotten into it,” Andy admitted on the March 8 episode of Andy Cohen Live, via Us Weekly. “The reunion is in, like, two and a half weeks, and I think there will be a lot happening in the two and a half weeks. There’s so much happening every single day, so I don’t know.”
Then, when Andy was asked if Sandoval and Raquel will skip the taping, Andy said the special will be “great” no matter what.
“I don’t want to lean into hypothetical situations because I don’t want to be quoted talking about a hypothetical,” Andy replied. “All I can say is we’re going to deliver a reunion, and that’s what I can tell you. We’re going to deliver a reunion, and it’s gonna be great. How about that?”
Vanderpump Rules season 10 airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.