Katie Maloney is unimpressed with fellow Vanderpump Rules star Raquel Leviss’ latest comments about her affair with Tom Sandoval.
Katie, 36, made her opinion clear while commenting on Bethenny Frankel’s Wednesday, August 16, Instagram post promoting her “ReWives” podcast interview with Raquel, 28, which dropped earlier that day.
“What in the hot garbage is this?” Maloney wrote. She also took to her Instagram Story to seemingly imply that Raquel had lied during the conversation with Bethenny, 52, which marked Raquel’s first time speaking out about the cheating scandal since part 3 of the Pump Rules season 10 reunion aired in June.
“You know that trending sound or song … that was like, ‘Why the f—k you lying?’” Maloney said, referring to the viral song by Vine star Nicholas Fraser. “That’s been stuck in my head, like, all morning for some reason.”
Maloney captioned the clip, “Can’t figure out why.”
During Raquel’s sit-down with Bethenny, which comes one month after she checked out of a mental health treatment facility following a three-month stay, the former pageant queen downplayed her friendships with costars Scheana Shay and Ariana Madix. (Sandoval, 41, and Ariana, 38, called it quits after nine years of dating in March after Sandoval’s affair with Raquel came to light.)
“Ariana and I were not best friends. We were acquaintances who became friends through the show,” Raquel claimed, adding that the “narrative that is being written for” her is “more salacious” if viewers think Ariana was one of her closest friends.
Raquel continued: “[Ariana’s] always been somebody who’s been very sweet to me. She would stand up for me and encourage me to pursue whatever I was, I don’t know … pursuing. And that was all great — but we never had, like, a deep conversation that I would have with a best friend.”
Raquel further claimed that she “never” saw Ariana outside of filming Pump Rules.
“Not just us together — no,” she told Bethenny. “[If we were best friends], we would, I don’t know, go out to dinner just the two of you or shopping or lunch.”
After the podcast episode aired, Katie wasn’t the only one who expressed anger about the interview.
“Come on, Bethenny. No one cares about her story,” one Instagram user commented on one of Frankel’s posts about the episode. “She screwed around with her best friend’s man. Good for her for going to get her mental health help because she clearly has issues with self-worth, but why continue to give her any platform? Why continue to exploit this disgusting and vial [sic] act?”
Bethenny, however, doubled down on the interview amid the backlash. Responding to one Instagram user who commented that “no one cares about anything” Raquel has to say, the Real Housewives of New York City alum shot back, “Then don’t listen.”
In addition to denying that she and Ariana were best friends, Raquel seemingly confirmed during the interview that she won’t be returning for season 11 of Pump Rules.
“[With reality TV], they always dangle that carrot in front of you, like, ‘Well, you need to tell your side of the story otherwise it’s gonna be written for you.’ And that’s terrifying. So, I almost went back … just because of that,” she said during the interview.
As for where she stands with Sandoval now, Raquel said that she can now “look back on it and see that I was not in love with him.” She added that the restaurateur provided her with a “non-judgement zone” which she “needed in that moment” and stated that that doesn’t “believe that he was truly in love with me either.”
