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Cheating on your partner is bad enough, but doing it with a mutual friend takes it to an entirely other level. Katie Maloney from Vanderpump Rules recently addressed the scandal that rocked Bravo, sharing that the deception was especially nefarious because of the players involved.

After a nine-year relationship, Tom Sandoval had a multi-month-long affair with Raquel Leviss, someone who his girlfriend, Ariana Madix considered to be a close friend. The Vanderpump Rules cast aren’t angels and nearly every cast member has cheated in their relationship.

But as James Kennedy and Lala Kent point out in the Vanderpump Rules reunion trailer, when they hooked up while Kennedy was still with Leviss, Kent and Leviss were nowhere near being friends.

Why was this ‘Vanderpump Rules’ affair especially ‘sick’ and ‘awful’?

Maloney said that the level of friendship Leviss and Madix shared is what made the affair even worse. “The relationships, the interpersonal relationships involved with it,” she said on Dear Media’s Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast.

Andy Cohen, Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Sandoval at the 'Vanderpump Rules' reunion
Andy Cohen, Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Sandoval | Nicole Weingart/Bravo

“Because it’s like the deception and the nefarious nature of the relationship with Raquel and Ariana,” she continued. “The way that she would just allow Ariana to love on her and be best friends with her and hold her hand across the table and allow Ariana to open up about her relationship with Sandoval to her.”

It was just so “Sick and awful and just be carrying on behind her back,” she added.

Katie Maloney didn’t like how Tom Sandoval played victim on ‘Vanderpump Rules’

Deeping the backlash against Sandoval is that he tried to portray himself as a victim. Several times during Vanderpump Rules Season 10 Sandoval complained to Tom Schwartz that Madix wasn’t affectionate or that he felt like he was annoying her.

“Compounding elements that have like, just exploded into one another,” Maloney said. “And then, you know, Sandoval just being just so selfish and narcissistic about it. All he wants to do is write himself as the victim in this story that, you know, he wasn’t getting enough love and attention in his relationship, but not putting in any work or effort.”

@bravotv

@Ariana FancyAF Madix turns the camera on #PumpRules co-executive producer, James ? Check out the full video on bravotv.com!

♬ Ariana Chats with Producers Vanderpump Rules – Bravo

Meanwhile, Maloney recalled how Madix was putting in the work and telling Sandoval what she wanted.

“Like she’s having the conversation, she’s doing the work and he’s acting like he wasn’t getting anything out of it,” she said. “That like he’s just been alone in this relationship. So he’s had to seek out. It’s just he went to the person just right next to her.”

The ‘Vanderpump Rules’ affair gets even worse

The fallout seems to get worse and worse. The final Vanderpump Rules episode airs on Wednesday and Bravo’s sneak peek clip showed that Sandoval and Leviss were together when Madix was grieving.

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Madix tells Maloney and Scheana Shay how she learned about the affair. She called Leviss to find out when it started. “She said right after the girls’ trip,” Madix recalled Leviss telling her. “I’m like you mean right after Charlotte died? So she said they kissed.”

“But later that night when we were out here I pressed Tom and he said he actually f***ed her in that car that night,” she added. Maloney and Shay look stunned and speechless. “And he didn’t have a key to get in so he had to ring the doorbell and I had to let him in.”