Lala Kent, Raquel Leviss and Tom Schwartz.NBC
Sticking up for a friend. Lala Kent warned Raquel Leviss against getting cozy with Tom Schwartz — well before the duo hooked up at Scheana Shay‘s wedding.
In a sneak peek from the Wednesday, February 22, episode of Vanderpump Rules, the Give Them Lala author, 32, confronted Raquel, 28, about her possible interest in the Schwartz & Sandy’s cofounder, 40, after his split from Katie Maloney.
“I’m like, ‘Haha, no, no, never,’” Raquel said when asked how she responded to Scheana, 37, suggesting that she strike up a romance with the TomTom co-owner. “And then I think about it more. I do like Schwartz a lot. I don’t know, like, I wouldn’t ever date him seriously though.”
Lala, however, thought that Raquel’s denial wasn’t strong enough. “Hold up, hold up, hold up. This is when I will step in and f–king defend my friend at all costs,” the “Give Them Lala” podcast host said. “If we want bodies laying everywhere, it’s gonna be you hooking up with Schwartz. I get messy, but I wouldn’t even do that s–t.”
Katie — who was also present for the conversation — kept quiet as Lala spoke, but she didn’t hold back in her confessional interview. “Are you out of your damn mind?” she said of Raquel’s comments about liking Tom.
Katie Maloney.NBC
The Utah native also slammed Scheana for broaching the topic with Tom when he appeared on a July 2022 episode of her podcast. “I have not heard Scheana’s podcast with Schwartz yet, but it’s a total act of betrayal,” Katie told the cameras. “Scheana was a bridesmaid — my bridesmaid — at my wedding. And when Scheana went through her divorce, I supported her. How would she have felt if I was trying to hook up [her ex-husband Mike] Shay with one of my girlfriends? She would have been livid.”
The episode was filmed before Scheana’s August 2022 wedding to Brock Davies. Shortly after the ceremony, an insider told Us that Raquel and Tom “made out” at the event. (Katie, who filed for divorce from Tom in March 2022, seemingly wasn’t in attendance.)
One before the nuptials, Tom gushed about Raquel during an interview on his costar’s “Scheananigans” podcast. “I was so caught up in my own little world and I was married — I never took time to get to know Raquel,” he said at the time. “She was always cool. I just never really took [the] time to invest in her. That’s a horrible way to phrase it. I never really gave her a chance. … She has so much depth and character. I think I wrote her off.”
Earlier this month, Scheana claimed that Katie gave her “blessing” to a Tom and Raquel romance, but Katie denied that version of events.
“I told Scheana I wasn’t down for this s—t … so keep going with this diabolical nonsense,” Katie wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post that included screenshots of her texts with the “Good as Gold” singer. “I was pretty clear that I didn’t mean or cosign s—t … so why go through with this?”
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Vanderpump Rules airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
