Tom Schwartzacknowledges there’s potential in his relationship withVanderpump RulescostarRaquel Leviss— be it platonic or otherwise — that he didn’t see previously.
“I was so caught up in my own little world and I was married [toKatie Maloney],” Schwartz, 39, said onScheana Shay’sScheananiganspodcast. “I never took time to get to know Raquel.”
But now that he and Maloney aredivorcing, the Schwartz & Sandy’s co-owner is getting to know Leviss, 27, better.
“She was always cool. I just never really took [the] time to invest in her — wait, that’s a horrible way to phrase it. I never really gave her a chance,” he continued of the former beauty pageant competitor, who was in a long-term relationship with, then engaged to, costarJames Kennedyuntil 2021.
“She has so much depth and character,” added Schwartz. “I think I wrote her off.”
Katie Maloney, Tom Schwartz and Raquel Leviss.Tommy Garcia/Bravo
When Shay, 37, advised, “Okay, well, maybe don’t keep writing her off,” Schwartz admitted, “I think I do that with a lot of people.”
“I think people do that in general,” he said. “You know, you put someone in a box as a matter of necessity, right? It’s like, we got a lot of s— going on, yeah. Everyone’s got their own problems. This is this type of person, this is this type of person.”
Schwartz had been with Maloney, 35, for 12 years — nearly three of which they were married — before sheannounced their separationon Instagram in March andfiled for divorcelater that month.
Chelsea Lauren/Getty
“Ultimately, I just wasn’t happy,” she then said on herYou’re Gonna Love Mepodcast. “For a long time, I sat with it. I thought about it and I didn’t talk to anyone about it for a long time. I wanted to know, if it was just something else that was making me feel this way [and] that it was coming from a different place.”
But the former couple has sincereached a good place in their post-breakup relationship. When Schwartz recently appeared on her podcast, he said the pair had “done a damn good job divorcing each other.”
“I’m happy that we’re still close,” he added.
James Kennedy and Raquel Leviss in 2019.Jerritt Clark/Getty Images
Leviss, meanwhile, publicy broke off her engagement to Kennedy, 30,while filmingVPR’s season 9 reunionin December 2021.
Sharing what led to the breakup, Levisssaid on Shay’s podcastthat it “wasn’t one thing” but an “accumulation of things.”
She continued, “It was kind of at Thanksgiving where I realized that I didn’t want to be in this relationship anymore, and because James does have a history of acting out and being angry, my mom and I were both concerned that he wasn’t going to have a good reaction when I told him.”
Hookup rumors resurfaced recently as the duo attendedShay’s Mexico weddingtoBrock Davies, where Schwartz and Leviss were a part of the now-married couple’s bridal party. Kennedy — who isnow dating Ally Lewber— was also in attendance for the ceremony. (Maloney was also in Mexico, though Davies recently claimed, “She was disinvited and rocked up anyway for a ‘girls trip.'")
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Schwartz also revealed in his conversation with Shay that he’d had topersonally convinceKennedy he and Leviss hadn’t crossed a line.
“We’ve had like five heart-to-hearts over this,” revealed the TOMTOM co-owner. “It took, like, three conversations for him to believe me, I think.”
The “Good As Gold” singer then asked Schwartz whether he’d want to “make the rumors true,” and he coyly responded, “I don’t know what to say.”
Shay then mentioned Schwartz’s name had been dropped during a chat with Leviss: “The other night, we were talking about how this got brought up, and she was like, ‘Yeah, I haven’t made out with Schwartz… yet.”
“She said that?” asked Schwartz.
Shay confirmed, “She said that.”
source: people.com
