Rachel Leviss, formerly known as Raquel, is taking aim at her former boss Andy Cohen for his assumption that he was “medicated” at the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 reunion.
Following the brutal three-part reunion — in which Leviss was torn apart by her former castmates for her affair with Tom Sandoval — Cohen suggested in an interview with Variety that her lack of emotion was either because she was “really medicated or really out of touch with her role in everything.” He later told his Radio Andy listeners that it was “maybe wrong” of him to “speculate,” per Entertainment Tonight.
While Leviss told Bethenny Frankel on her Just B podcast that she’s been on “antidepressants for several years,” she said it wasn’t Cohen’s place to publicly suggest that she might have been on anything during filming.
“To say that I must be heavily medicated because my behavior was erratic or I did not have emotions is not OK in my eyes,” she said. “I feel like that violates some sort of HIPAA law. And to make assumptions like that, it’s damaging to a person.”
Frankel — who confirmed that an employer “cannot” say or speculate that a person who works for them is medicated — then asked if Leviss was offered mental health support. After all, Cohen admitted to feeling “worried” for the former reality star’s mental health going into the reunion.
“Going into the reunion, it was promised to me that I would have a mental health advocate in my trailer as I watched the first two parts of the reunion — and then behind the scenes just in case for my mental well-being,” Leviss said. “And that was taken away from me the day before the reunion.”
Leviss assumed that it was “punishment” from Bravo after she had given a short interview to a TMZ paparazzo before the reunion.
“I [answered] some of his questions. They were very basic. I didn’t give away anything that the reunion was going to touch on,” she said. “And I think the network saw that and was angry, disappointed, and punished me by taking away my mental health advocate.”
Decider has reached out to reps for Vanderpump Rules and Cohen for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Leviss — who is officially not returning to the show for Season 11 — elaborated on her decision to step away from reality TV. While she would’ve considered coming back if she was given “equal pay” to Sandoval and Ariana Madix, she said she ultimately decided not to after the network “refused” her request.
“Oh, hell no,” she told Frankel, referring to whether she’d ever do another reality show. “No, because I refuse to not respect myself on that level where I would endure that emotional abuse any longer. I can’t do that to myself.”