The Vanderpump Rules cast has some serious feelings around the new friendship growing between castmates Tom Schwartz and Raquel Leviss.
The two co-stars have created quite the bond in recent months following their respective breakups with their longtime partners.
In December 2021, shortly before the Season 9 reunion special aired, rumors hit the internet claiming that Raquel had ended her 3-year engagement to James Kennedy. And by the time the reunion episode dropped, Raquel and James had gone public and confirmed their split.
Then, in March 2022, as previously reported by Monsters and Critics, Tom and his wife Katie Maloney also shared messages to social media revealing they were ending their marriage after over 10 years together.
With Tom and Raquel now single at the same time, both of them took the opportunity to get to know one another better, and that reportedly came to a head at Scheana Shay and Brock Davies’ August wedding when the two hooked up after a night of drinking.
Although neither party confirmed the hookup, it’s clear that they’ve created a strong bond in recent months, and as it turns out, their castmates have their own feelings about this budding relationship.
Vanderpump Rules cast talks Tom Schwartz and Raquel Leviss’ newfound friendship
While speaking to Us Weekly at BravoCon 2022, some of Tom and Raquel’s Vanderpump Rules co-stars opened up about their flirtatious friendship and weighed in with their own opinions.
Naturally, Raquel’s former fiance James Kennedy didn’t hold back with his feelings about Raquel stepping back out into the dating world as told the outlet, “It was weird. But honestly, I’m living my life, and everyone gets to live theirs. I mean, Raquel was, like, flirting with Peter [Madrigal]. Like, she had her tongue down Peter’s throat during my See You Next Tuesday party [during] the first week [of filming].”
James later told the outlet how he felt about Raquel’s friendship with Tom specifically and revealed that from his perspective Raquel is “homey-hopping a little bit.”
He continued to state that because this new season deals with “real friendships,” there are “real emotions” involved.
“So that’s why it gets so deep,” James teased.
James’ longtime friend Lala Kent also spoke up about what viewers can expect come the premiere of Season 10.
“Well because I know the behind-the-scenes story that you guys will see, it is up there with Jax Taylor and Kristen Doute‘s [hookup],” she spilled.
Tom Schwartz and Raquel Leviss share their thoughts on newfound friendship
Us Weekly also caught up with both Tom and Raquel who dished on their friendship and had nothing but kind words to say about one another.
According to Raquel, it was their respective breakups that ended up bringing their friendship together. The beauty pageant winner elaborated, sharing that understanding how the other was feeling after such a long-term break up meant that they were able to step up and “support each other.”
“I wasn’t expecting that friendship to blossom,” Raquel continued. “But I’m happy that it did.”
As for Tom, he admitted that prior to building their current friendship, the two costars didn’t really know each other all that well despite filming with each other quite regularly.
“Before I would say, ‘Hi Raquel’ and she would say ‘Hi Tom’ and we would walk by each other,” he explained.
However, now Tom gushed that the two have “forged a really solid, deep friendship.”
“We’re tight now,” he concluded.
Vanderpump Rules is currently on hiatus.