The detective skills of the Bravo fandom rival those of the CIA, Meghan King, and of course, Bo Dietl. Viewers all over the world fell under the spell of Vanderpump Rules amid the Scandoval drama.
The betrayal of Ariana Madix by her partner of ten years, Tom Sandoval with her close friend Raquel Leviss changed everything. Tom and Raquel coordinated alibies and stories to hide their secret rendezvous. Once the news was out, the timeline still felt weird and fans had suspicions.
Tracie Morrissey of Pot Psychology appeared on an episode of Page Six’s Virtual Reali-Tea podcast. She explained her theory behind believing Raquel and Tom’s hookup happened a long time before the “truth” came out.
The Season 8 of it all …
Tracie took it all the way back to Season 8 of Pump Rules. In Episode 9, Raquel was doing table work with former co-stars Dayna Kathan and Danica Dow. In the scene, Raquel revealed she had been out the night before with “the girls” but got so wasted, she came home. She noted her purse was left on a counter and went to sleep.
Raquel explained ex-boyfriend James Kennedy was red hot because he couldn’t reach her and when she woke up, had some very interesting “rage texts.” She said James called her both a “slut” and a “whore.”
In that scene, there was a flashback to the evening being discussed and Tracie’s spidey senses began to tingle. “They showed this really fast montage of Raquel being wasted, like, dancing and out with people,” she began. I’m telling you, don’t mess with Bravo fans who have 20/20 vision.
Tracie continued, “And it’s just such a quick flash, but if you pause it, you’ll see that it’s actually Tom Sandoval [taking the] selfie video. You see half of his face, and it’s 100 percent him. It’s very obvious it’s him. And she’s [Raquel] leaning on him and stuff.”
But wait, there’s more
When Ariana’s birthday episode aired, Tracie noticed something else. “And James is talking to Raquel about the [‘rage text’] incident, and he mentions — and she almost talks over him when he does it — he’s like, ‘But you don’t turn your phone off. You shouldn’t turn your phone off,’” she said.
“So her phone was turned off. It wasn’t on the kitchen counter in her purse; it was turned off,” Tracie concluded. She also thought Raquel’s explanation to Dayna and Danica “sounded a little too rehearsed” and “very deliberate.” And we all know how much Sandoval enjoys coaching Raquel.
The next thing to catch Tracie’s eagle eye was Raquel’s new lightning bolt obsession. This seemingly served as a symbol of Tom and Raquel’s relationship. I guess if you’re cheating, emojis are the new love notes. About two weeks after the above incident, Raquel began using the lightning bolt on social media.
Tom’s story was he and Raquel had a one-nighter and then held off for a while. That said, both of them said their first dalliance was in August 2022. “I think there’s like a nugget of truth there where it did happen once and then it didn’t happen again for a long time.” Tracie thinks the first time was years before and not weeks or months.
In the Season 9 reunion, Tracie noticed when Raquel was ending things with James, Sandoval looked “scared.” “They actually panned to Sandoval, and he’s just scared. And then he just starts laughing, like, really giddy. … And [his castmates] were like, ‘Why are you laughing about this?’ And he was like, ‘I don’t know, I’m just thinking about the engagement.’”
Tracie shared in that moment, Sandoval was “trying to play it off,” and “couldn’t contain” how “happy” he was that Raquel was finally single. So what do you think, does this theory have any legs?
TELL US – WHEN DO YOU THINK THE AFFAIR STARTED? ARE YOU GLAD SCANDOVAL IS DYING DOWN?
