This heart-to-heart hits different in the wake of Scandoval.
Raquel Leviss had an emotional conversation with Ariana Madix on Vanderpump Rules' May 10 episode all while having a secret affair with Ariana's boyfriend of nine years Tom Sandoval. In an effort to comfort her co-star amid Ariana's ongoing relationship issues with the TomTom co-owner, the former beauty queen asked her then-BFF if her romance was truly OK.
"We had a big argument last night," Ariana confessed. "He feels like he's not being heard, which is why he's always the loudest person in the room."
Raquel then suggested intimacy might be the issue as that's what led to her failed engagement to James Kennedy.
"I remember when I opened up to you about James and I not having sex," she told Ariana, "and you told me sometimes 'Sandoval and I go through dry spells.'"
But Ariana shared she feels disconnected from her longtime partner. "You come home after working all night and you're, what, you think you're just going to whip your d--k out and I'm gonna be like 'let's f--k?' Like, that's never gonna happen," Ariana explained. "We have to spend time together."
Raquel's response was particularly chilling given Ariana was unaware of their affair at the time. "I feel like in a relationship you should want to have sex," she said, to which Ariana replied, "But you have to be like emotionally intimate before you can be physically intimate."
So then Raquel asked Ariana is she's even attracted to Tom. Her response? "I think he's so f--king hot," Ariana confessed. "But then I'm like, 'I'm not hot.' You don't look at my body and go, 'Yeah, that's what I want. I want cellulite, fat thighs and a big ass and bingo arms.'"
Ariana's confession brought Raquel to tears as she felt she could relate.
"I'm sure Ariana's body image insecurities have a role in the issues that Tom and Ariana are having," Raquel shared in her confessional. "If you're not feeling good about yourself, there's no way you can be having good sex."
Alas, Ariana still wanted to stay with him: "I think we'll talk it out and we'll be fine."
But as Tom revealed in his first post-Scandoval interview on April 11, he and Raquel had already started their affair in August before the latest episode was filmed. After news of their relationship went public back in March, both Tom and Raquel apologized to Ariana for their affair.
Though he acknowledged he "handled s--t wrong," he did admit, "Nothing is excusable for what I did. I definitely deserve the hate."
Vanderpump Rules airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.
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