Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty Images, Leon Bennett/WireImage
Three years after the Vanderpump Rules Scandoval exploded into the Zeitgeist, the California Court of Appeals paved the way this week for Rachel (formerly known as Raquel) Leviss to move forward with her revenge-porn case against Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval.
In March 2023, a suspicious Madix looked through her long-term boyfriend Sandoval’s phone and found sexually explicit videos of Leviss saved on it, confirming a secret relationship between the two. Madix herself detailed to the court what happened next. She hurriedly took out her own cell phone and made two recordings of the sexually explicit videos, then went outside with Sandoval and confronted him about the affair. She also sent two videos to Leviss’s cell phone, along with a text message that stated, “You are DEAD TO ME,” and she immediately informed production on Vanderpump Rules about what she had found, according to court papers. Leviss says that the original videos were secretly recorded by Sandoval without her knowledge.
During a heated argument that followed, Sandoval grabbed Madix’s phone and deleted the videos, including from the “Recently Deleted” folder, according to Madix’s declaration filed in the case. Madix submitted testimony to the court that she did not share the videos with anyone else. She also submitted evidence from a digital forensic examiner, whose firm conducted a forensic extraction and analysis of Madix’s cell and testified there were no nude photos or videos on her phone from March 1 to March 2, 2023.
After the affair had been discovered and the substantial public scrutiny started, Leviss left the reality show and checked herself into a mental-health treatment facility. Less than a year later, on February 29, 2024, she filed a lawsuit against Sandoval and Madix for revenge porn, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She alleged that she suffered emotional, financial, and reputational harm “as a result of Madix’s distribution, dissemination, and publication of the illicit videos.”
Madix appealed to strike the case against her after the trial court ruled the case could proceed and that “Madix accessed Sandoval’s phone surreptitiously and made a copy of the data from the phone — the FaceTime videos — without Sandoval’s authorization in the privacy of a women’s bathroom stall.”
Madix argued to the California Court of Appeals that her actions were in furtherance of her right to free speech and in the public interest, citing that California law prevents strategic lawsuits brought to chill speech involving matters of public significance. After reviewing evidence and arguments, two of the appellate-court justices ruled, while not weighing in on the underlying evidence and claims in the case, that Leviss’s case can proceed because Madix failed to show that her actions arose out of constitutionally protected activity.
One appellate-court judge dissented, arguing that because Sandoval had given Madix his password, she essentially had “blanket consent to look through his phone,” and the tape was not made public. He argued that because almost nobody saw the tape, this case is mainly about public scorn and ridicule from the reality show.
“Maybe you are not a fan of reality shows. Maybe you are like me: never heard of Vanderpump Rules or #Scandoval before this case,” Judge John Shepard Wiley Jr. wrote. “The infamous sex tape was not ‘public’: just three people saw it. But the discussion about the scandal has been whoppingly public.”
A trial setting conference in Leviss’s case is scheduled for August 11 in Los Angeles. “Free speech ends where Revenge Porn begins,” Leviss’s attorney Mark Geragos said. Neither Madix nor Sandoval’s attorneys responded for a request to comment.
Sign up for the Vulture Daily
An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice
Related
