![\"Ariana](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/PmSZfTdGLDFcRUvRHIgc_NEbuys=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(745x187:747x189):format(webp)\/Ariana-Madix-Rachel-Leviss-042924-tout-e58f80e658ac4d5cafcb38ee0e2a1403.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAriana Madix\u00a0is responding to\u00a0Rachel “Raquel” Leviss\u2019 revenge porn lawsuit.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In new legal documents obtained by PEOPLE, attorneys for the\u00a0Vanderpump Rules<\/em>\u00a0star, 38, claimed Madix learned of her ex\u00a0Tom Sandoval\u2019s affair with Leviss in \u201cin the worst possible way\u201d by discovering a video on his phone of the pair \u201chaving phone sex.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the filing, the\u00a0Dancing with the Stars\u00a0<\/em>alum was \u201cdevastated and immediately confronted\u201d Sandoval, 40, and Leviss, 29, about their alleged \u201cbetrayal\u201d as well as informing her friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n However, the attorneys claim she did not \u201cshare or show any of the video footage she found\u201d with anyone but Leviss.<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, Ms. Madix could not have shared such footage because Mr. Sandoval deleted it from her phone within minutes of Ms. Madix confronting him\u2014a fact Ms. Madix stated in writing 33 minutes after sending the videos to [Leviss],\u201d the filing alleges.<\/p>\n Madix’s attorneys claim Leviss is seeking to \u201cpunish her and blame Ms. Madix for the negative reaction [Leviss] received as a result of her affair with Mr. Sandoval.\u201d<\/p>\n Furthermore, the filing alleges that Leviss\u2019 lawsuit is \u201can abuse of the legal process,\u201d adding, \u201c[Leviss] does not seek to vindicate any cognizable rights but to punish Ms. Madix, and deter others, from exercising their constitutionally protected right of free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n The attorneys are requesting Leviss\u2019 claims be stricken and Madix be rewarded her attorneys\u2019 fees.<\/p>\n In a statement to PEOPLE, Leviss’ lawyers Mark Geragos and Bryan Freedman say, “The only thing more laughable than Ariana\u2019s motion is her fairytale account of how she discovered the relationship from Tom\u2019s phone.”<\/p>\n “Meanwhile, we look forward to cross examining her on her declaration, as we have irrefutable evidence that the videos were distributed,” the statement continues. “Lastly, the forensic ‘expert’ states that the video is not ‘NOW’ on her phone, well after the events in question and with months of notice that her actions had put her in legal jeopardy.”<\/p>\n The attorneys also detail the night that Madix allegedly discovered Sandoval\u2019s affair with Madix on March 1, 2023. After Sandoval\u2019s phone fell from his pocket during a performance at a club in West Hollywood, Madix decided to check it.<\/p>\n \u201cCall it woman\u2019s intuition, when the set ended, Ms. Madix felt the need to check Mr. Sandoval\u2019s phone and went to the women\u2019s room for privacy,\u201d the filing alleges. \u201cIn a locked stall, she accessed the phone and saw strangely suspicious text messages between Mr. Sandoval and [Leviss]. Ms. Madix then opened the photo app on Mr. Sandoval\u2019s phone and was shocked to find a video of a Facetime call between Mr. Sandoval and [Leviss] that showed Mr. Sandoval\u2019s face in the upper corner while the main image was of [Leviss] masturbating.\u201d<\/p>\n After allegedly snapping \u201ctwo short recordings of the video,\u201d Madix confronted her ex about the affair. Sandoval then tried to move Madix away from the club as he was concerned they would be overheard. Madix allegedly \u201csent the videos she recorded\u201d to Leviss along with a text message reading, \u201cyou\u2019re dead to me.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the filing claims Madix did \u201cnot share, display, or send the video to anyone else.\u201d The attorneys allege \u201ca heated argument\u201d with Sandoval ensued, where he \u201cforcibly grabbed\u201d Madix\u2019s phone from her and deleted the videos she had recorded in the bathroom stall.<\/p>\n Following the argument, Madix said she texted a friend about what had happened, stating, \u201ci called [Leviss] after finding out and texting her the videos of herself from tom\u2019s phone that i took[.] tom took my phone and deleted them[.] chased him all the way down san vicente[.]\u201d<\/p>\n The motion also claims that once news of the affair broke, \u201cmuch of the public discussion about [Leviss] was negative, [but] she was thrilled to be in the public eye.\u201d<\/p>\n Contrary to her allegations in the lawsuit, the attorneys claim, “[Leviss] made numerous public statements about her affair with Mr. Sandoval in which she admitted that Ms. Madix did not know about it, apologized for hurting Ms. Madix, and admitted that Plaintiff had personal issues she needed to work on. At no time did [Leviss] claim that Ms. Madix had caused her any harm.\u201d<\/p>\n After leaving\u00a0treatment at a mental health facility, the attorneys allege Leviss sought to \u201ccapitalize on her new-found fame\u201d with podcast appearances, magazine covers and an appearance at New York Fashion Week.<\/p>\n Leviss first\u00a0sued\u00a0Sandoval and Madix for eavesdropping,\u00a0revenge porn\u00a0and invasion of privacy in February 2024, The lawsuit came about a year after Leviss and Sandoval’s\u00a0affair was exposed, subsequently ending Madix’s\u00a0nine-year relationship with Sandoval. The news not only rocked Bravo fans but also became a pop cultural juggernaut of epic proportions.<\/p>\n In Leviss’ initial lawsuit, which was obtained by PEOPLE at the time, her attorneys claimed that the events of\u00a0Scandoval\u00a0“captured the public’s attention in a massive way” and went viral in a way that “caused mayhem in Leviss’s life” in the form of months-long voluntary\u00a0treatment at a mental health facility\u00a0and her\u00a0eventual departure\u00a0from the show.<\/p>\n She also claimed that she was a “victim of the predatory and dishonest behavior of an older man” who filmed sexually explicit videos “without her knowledge or consent,” and that the recordings were “distributed, disseminated, and discussed publicly by a scorned woman [Madix] seeking vengeance.”<\/p>\n The events led her to seek help in a facility while “Bravo, Evolution, and the cast milked the interest her excoriation had peaked.” Leviss alleged she was “misled” by Bravo and Evolution into believing she was “contractually barred from speaking out about her mistreatment,” and she “suffered in silence” as a result while other parties involved with Scandoval reaped “unseen levels of public recognition and professional opportunity.”<\/p>\n The documents continue, “Meanwhile, Leviss, who was humiliated and villainized for public consumption, remains a shell of her former self, with her career prospects stunted and her reputation in tatters.”<\/p>\n In addition to compensatory, special, general and consequential damages, Leviss is seeking that Madix and Sandoval cease distribution and destroy all copies made of the alleged explicit video. She also asks that her attorney fees be compensated and the court provide other and further relief deemed as just and proper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ariana Madix\u00a0is responding to\u00a0Rachel “Raquel” Leviss\u2019 revenge porn lawsuit. In new legal documents obtained by PEOPLE, attorneys for the\u00a0Vanderpump Rules\u00a0star, 38, claimed Madix learned of her ex\u00a0Tom… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7578,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7576\/revisions\/7578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbiz.thongtinluat.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ariana](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/cnEXIqtCLDj8qFe7Xylff7NXtjU=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)\/ariana-madix-tom-sandoval-raquel-leviss-052423-1-74cdc6938ea149a3b924e51100753146.jpg\")
\nTammie\/AFF-USA\/Shutterstock; Cindy Ord\/Bravo via Getty Images; Charles Sykes\/Bravo via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/q9EIoJ03IrAY2vZ2WY1b-XZi0nk=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(683x131:685x133):format(webp)\/raquel-leviss-081723-2-7eb06310cadc49a698677fbc46628648.jpg\")
\nFaye Sadou\/Media Punch\/Alamy<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/5s4mOL4mEzIecVindJN0Ug8fk3M=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)\/ariana-madix-tom-sandoval-072623-5dae75884c774c75adc0f92c82154b33.jpg\")
\nFrazer Harrison\/Getty<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n![\"Rachel](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/51Ly94SE614Rq2qh4dUuLTZvyjk=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(1376x464:1378x466):format(webp)\/Rachel-Leviss-120223-02-056d71c6af7049cba0b255d82ea6273f.jpg\")
\nSteve Granitz\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n