The Nora Theory

Rachel Leviss, former star of Vanderpump Rules and one of the participants in its most significant scandal, dropped her new podcast this week. It’s been nearly a year since Rachel’s name became synonymous with a cheating scandal, arguably the most famous other woman since Camilla Parker Bowles.

In case you have been living under a rock, Rachel was outed for having a seven-month-long affair with Tom Sandoval, despite being good friends with his longtime partner Ariana Madix. Their affair took over the entire Bravo discourse for months. It was a whole thing.

Rachel checked herself into mental health treatment after the reunion, and has (sort of?) stayed out of the public eye since. Until now.

An approximately an hour-long first episode had producers interviewing Rachel, asking questions about the scandal and her mental health. This is a departure from most podcast formats where the star, as it were, asks the questions.

Telling Her Side of the Story — Again

Rachel claims she has been quiet this whole time — which is not exactly true, she went on Bethenny Frankel’s podcast in regard to the reality reckoning and told her side of the story. Now she wants to speak her truth again. She feels that what she has to say is important, which hey, I guess it is since I’m sitting here writing about it.

The producers, or maybe Rachel herself, purposely timed this podcast to coincide with the return of Vanderpump Rules, which is a savvy move. Interest will pique about this scandal again, and she knows she will be spoken about this season.

Throughout the podcast, but especially in the beginning, Rachel comes off as very nervous, and she admits as much. Her voice is wobbling and she continually uses qualifiers saying over and over again that she doesn’t know. At one point, she expresses fear that she won’t be portrayed well even on her own podcast.

Rachel also wonders whether she should just do her yoga and pilates and focus on her mental health. In the days leading up to recording, she almost pulled the plug on doing this (and maybe she should have?). It’s a lot of responsibility to put out a podcast every week, she worries, and I highly doubt this podcast will improve the public’s perception of her.

The Scandoval

Going into treatment, she knew Tom was not a healthy person for her (duh), but at least she acknowledges she chose to put herself in that situation.

The producers ask her why she was so addicted to Tom, and she answers that she put him on a pedestal, and looked up to him. He validated her — she felt adored and admired. She felt valued as a person, but she realized she had a pattern of putting these guys on a pedestal, and her friendships suffered because she was not spending enough time with them (?!) and it took over her life. I’m not so sure that’s why her friendships suffered here, but sure. It might have more to do with the nefarious affair, but who knows?

The affair began when he bought her a drink. She was going through it with the other girls in the group. They went to The Abbey and then went home to the house he still shares with his (now former) longtime girlfriend where she was sleeping upstairs. They were locked out, so they say by the fire pit and eventually decided to go swimming in their underwear. He kissed her and then they had sex in his car. Things escalated into a months-long affair from there.

They would FaceTime all hours of the day every day, to vent about their experiences filming. They bonded over the unique situation of being on a reality show. She felt seen and heard, and he was always ready to drop everything to come see her. Was it genuine? She thought so at the time. She thinks there was a part of him who thought so too. Then she goes on to say there was healing he needed to do to be a more mature adult. For anyone who has seen even a single minute of Vanderpump Rules in which he is on screen, this is obvious.

Tom would tell her he was going to break up with Ariana, and she muses that she was too patient. She should have put her foot down and made him choose much earlier, which once again, sure. That’s totally where she went wrong here, why not?

The producers asked if she considered telling Ariana, and Rachel said of course she did. Tom told her that they weren’t having sex, and she was under the impression that it was a glorified roommate situation. On season 10 she discussed their relationship with Ariana to try to feel that out, in what would become one of the most hard-to-watch scenes of the season.

On another podcast, Tom claimed he’s still in love with her and misses her. The producers played a clip, and Rachel unwisely admits she listened to the podcast episode five times even though she claims it made her physically ill. His voice repulses her and she misses the fantasy but not the actual man. She admits that it feels vindicating that he’s publicly saying that, with a giggle, but goes on to say he’s just trying to make himself look better. Which at this point is probably a Sisyphean task, but a man can try.

The affair felt real to Rachel, but much of it was living in a fantasy and falling in love with a future version of him where he wasn’t with Ariana.

Why Isn’t She Returning for Season 11?

Rachel did not return for season 11 of Vanderpump Rules. She realized she is not cut out for reality TV – which is very true. Possibly even an understatement.

She doesn’t want to be with Tom anymore, and going back to the show would force her to be around him. She’s on the outskirts (again, wild understatement) with the group. Since she wisely suspects that the rest of the group wouldn’t give her the time of day, she knew returning to the show would not help her get her story across.

“Tom has a way with his words…I know I’m not completely strong enough to resist.”

Rachel Leviss

If she returned to the show, she doesn’t think she could have resisted Tom’s persuasions. She did consider going back and was making plans to see Tom when she got out of treatment, but she came to her senses at some point.

It’s “so cringey” for her to watch season 10, understandably so, and I think we can all agree. It feels like she is watching the worst version of herself. Although the show is a significant trigger for her, she will still be watching the season because of the podcast.

Rachel expressed interest in seeing who will be the villain this season because she’s removed herself from the situation. Every reality show needs a villain, and she can only be the off-screen elephant in the room if she’s not on the show.

The Excuses

Rachel very specifically claims she doesn’t want to make excuses, but immediately goes on to make lots of excuses.

She consistently blames others for her behavior, especially James Kennedy — her ex-fiancé. Working with him, meeting Ally, his new girlfriend, and hearing that she was the love of his life, was just too much for Rachel to bear. She spiraled because of that pain. The social situations she was in, according to her, made the situation worse. Her friends on the cast pressured her to drink, which added fuel to the fire. Tom was always there for her, although not really.

Rachel says she was always a good girl and a rule follower, but once she aged out of pageants and no longer had that over her anymore, she went wild. At the start of season 10, she was coming out of her people-pleasing era. By her account, and there is evidence on the show to support this, she did a lot of pleasing with James, and she claims she held back her drinking so he wouldn’t be tempted to drink. She points to the increased drinking after she didn’t have to worry about this anymore as a reason for her behavior.

James was her first real relationship, and when that was over, she was free to do what she wanted and live for herself. Unfortunately for her, not only did she take this to incredible extremes, but this era of her life played out very dramatically on camera.

Rachel also blames her insecurity for much of her behavior. She didn’t feel good in her own skin. She changed her name at 6 or 7 because she didn’t want to be herself. She got involved in the affair because Tom made her feel good.

Now, she is dedicated to her recovery. She is aware of these things now, and can move forward without these behaviors.

If you rewatch season 10, none of these excuses are particularly compelling, although they do provide context for how this whole mess came to be.

The Dog

Much of the first episode of this podcast was focused on the drama surrounding Rachel’s dog, and in some ways, this was the most interesting part of the tale. Graham, a golden doodle, was gifted to her by her parents. She raised him with her ex, James. Rachel describes Graham as feisty with a big personality. She says he is possessive over his toys (this is called resource guarding, but she doesn’t use the term) and will switch into attack mode when challenged, which is obviously a big problem.

She claims James is not a good dog owner, and would encourage Graham to bite him. Graham would hide under the couch when James was yelling and she said James was “tormenting” Graham regularly.

After lots of intensive training, the dog didn’t show improvement. Her parents were taking care of him while she was in treatment, and Graham bit her mother. The doctor recommended that they put the dog down, but instead, they tried to find fosters for him. None were a good fit, and Rachel had to either leave treatment to take care of him or stay and give him up. She made the choice to give him up.

They tried to keep it under wraps. The rescue promised to keep it confidential, but after a new owner returned Graham in three days, and trainers didn’t want to work with him anymore, the rescue contacted Vanderpump Dogs. Lisa Vanderpump adopted the dog but didn’t tell Rachel.

One week after her treatment ended, negotiations for season 11 of Vanderpump Rules fell apart and she decided she couldn’t go back. Shortly after, she found out on Instagram during the cast trip to Lake Tahoe that the dog had been returned to James. She surrendered all rights to Graham, so she has no say in this now. She texted Lisa that she doesn’t want Graham with James, then said she wouldn’t go into the specifics of why even though she already did not five minutes before. Lisa was only concerned with getting Rachel back on the show, according to Rachel.

Where Does Rachel Go From Here

The interview jumps around a great deal, always circling back around to Tom Sandoval. There is much therapy speak and lots of excuses that we’ve already heard. While Rachel doesn’t need to be vilified any more than she already has, she is putting herself in the position for people to do so, and not in a way that is going to make any difference in how this story is remembered. This girl needs to focus on herself outside of the public eye for a good long while.

As far as the future format of the podcast, she’s going to be watching the season and then breaking it down with her therapist privately. After that, she will spend the rest of the week organizing her thoughts for the podcast, where she will seemingly be discussing the season as it airs.

The producers say they will also continue to break down the scandal in more detail as the weeks go on. I doubt there will be any groundbreaking reveals. So far, it’s been much of the same as what she discussed with Bethenny.

Is this worth the listen? No. The Vanderpump Rules fandom needs to move on from Rachel Leviss, and Rachel Leviss needs to move on from Vanderpump Rules.