Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval have responded to Rachel Leviss’ lawsuit alleging revenge pornography, wiretapping, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress in the “Scandoval” that unfolded on Bravo last year Vanderpump Rules.
Madix filed a statement Friday citing California’s anti-SLAPP law, which protects against frivolous lawsuits. In response to Leviss’ lawsuit filed in February (which you can read here), Madix shared how she first learned about the affair between her then-boyfriend Sandoval and Leviss; She found a video of Leviss masturbating on Sandoval’s phone.
Madix says she made a copy of the video but never shared it with anyone, especially not production, the statement said. When she confronted Sandoval about the discovery, he deleted the copy.
“I didn’t send the videos to anyone else. I also did not share, view or show the videos to anyone,” Madix said in the statement. “To be clear, I only saw the video of plaintiff masturbating in secluded locations.”
The statement also includes an image of the text she immediately sent to Leviss that reads, “You died for me.” You can read Madix’s statement here.
Sandoval, for his part, filed a motion last week to dismiss portions of Leviss’ lawsuit involving the manner in which the explicit video was obtained.
“These videos were created by Leviss and released by Leviss to Sandoval via consensual exchanges on Facetime, i.e. ‘their video calls,'” reads the statement, which you can read here. “Based on Leviss’ own allegations, Sandoval merely stored private copies of the videos that Leviss filmed and shared with him.”
“Leviss’ lawsuit is a thinly veiled attempt to increase her fame and portray herself as the victim rather than the other woman, while simultaneously denigrating her former friend Madix as a ‘woman despised’ and her former lover Sandoval as a ‘predatory,'” Sandoval’s motion continues.
In her lawsuit filed in February, Leviss claimed that Scandoval “caused chaos in Leviss’ life, culminating in months of inpatient treatment at a psychiatric facility and her departure from the show.” Prompted by Bravo and Evolution in conjunction with the cast Leviss faced unprecedented public skewering and became, without exaggeration, one of the most hated women in America.”
“It is clear that Bravo intentionally sacrificed Leviss in the interests of its commercial interests by denying her the opportunity to tell her side of the story and defend herself, which she repeatedly begged for permission to do,” the filing says from Leviss.