What’s Tea? Ariana Madix Moves the Last of Her Things Following Settlement Over Home Once Shared with Tom Sandoval, Plus Rachel Leviss’ Lawsuit Against the Former Couple
- Chinyere Ibeh
- 3 minutes ago
- 5 min read
The former couple continued living in the home together following their breakup, leading to a lengthy legal battle.
Former couple and “Vanderpump Rules” co-stars Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval reached a settlement in the legal battle over their shared Valley Village home.
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, legal representatives for Madix filed a notice of settlement in the case against Sandoval. The specific details were not outlined in the document, but the dismissal happened due to the “satisfactory completion of specified terms.”
Both Madix and Sandoval were due for court on Feb. 5 for a final status conference, with the case potentially going to trial on Feb. 17 if an agreement was agreed on. According to court documents, the final status conference ended up not happening — in turn, neither did the trial.
This has resulted in an upcoming case hearing on March 16, which will allow for Madix’s legal team to explain why they filed for settlement. The specifics of the settlement are unclear as they haven’t been made public.
Madix filing the settlement comes almost three years after her split from Sandoval in March 2023. The couple called it quits after nine years together following the news of Sandoval’s affair with fellow “Vanderpump Rules” co-star Raquel “Rachel” Leviss.
As the scandalous news garnered headlines, popularly dubbed “Scandoval,” the exes would move to separate parts of their shared home. Madix would later move out of the house into a Los Angeles home complete with a black and gray design and wooden accents.
The $1.6m home was originally built in 1962, though it had been renovated to have stainless steel appliances and brass hardware in its kitchen. It also features three bedrooms and two bedrooms with both the dining room and living room connecting to the kitchen.
“It’s funny because my first night in that house wasn’t until a while after I had gotten it,” Madix said about purchasing her new home. “I was in New York when I got the house.”
As Madix made her way into a new home, Sandoval offered a $600k buyout for their Valley Village home. Sandoval discussed the situation with his then-assistant Ann Maddox. He read aloud an email he sent to Madix about the potential sale of the house.
“‘I will give you $600k cash. Based on the math, this is a buyout equivalent to us selling the property for $3.1m, which is way above Zillow and Redfin value and definitely above market value,” Sandoval read.
He explained that after refinancing the home and taking Madix’s name off of the loan, the monthly payment would go from $10k to more than $20k. Maddox asked if he could afford such high monthly payments — to which he said he could “for six to eight months.”
Not only has Madix and Sandoval been entangled in a legal dispute, Leviss would join the fray by suing the former couple for sharing intimates video of her.
“Lost in the mix was that Leviss was a victim of the predatory and dishonest behavior of an older man, who recorded sexually explicit videos of her without her knowledge or consent, which were distributed disseminated and discussed publicly by a scorned woman seeking vengeance, catalyzing the scandal,” Leviss alleged in her complaint.
According to the lawsuit, Madix obtained Sandoval’s phone and “found sexually explicit videos of Leviss.” The video was allegedly recorded around February 2023 without Leviss’ consent. She believed that Madix possibly sent out the explicit videos to other people, but Leviss wasn’t sure who.
Sandoval would also file a lawsuit against Madix, essentially alleging the same thing as Leviss. Though, he would later drop that lawsuit in July 2024, according to PEOPLE.
Leviss would allegedly offer to drop her lawsuit against the former couple if Sandoval would implicate NBCUniversal for the discovery of the affair — NBCUniversal is the parent company of Bravo, the network “Vanderpump Rules” airs on.
“Her team came to my team and basically offered to drop all the charges against me if I were to blame the way the affair was found out on NBCUniversal,” Sandoval said during an October 2024 episode of his “Everybody Loves Tom” podcast. “So it was like, NBCUniversal’s fault that my phone fell out of [my pocket] and put me up to it? It’s all about the f–king money.”
Leviss never confirmed Sandoval’s claims, though a trial setting conference has been rescheduled for April 14, 2026. The hearing will serve as a status update on the case, allowing for all parties and their legal teams to figure out the next steps.
According to her suit, Leviss was in New York City on March 1, 2023 following her appearance on “Watch What Happens Lives with Andy Cohen.” While at a bar after the show’s taping, she received a text from Madix that read:
“You are DEAD TO ME”
— Ariana Madix, allegedly via text
The text message allegedly included two explicit videos of Leviss from Sandoval’s phone, according to Leviss’ suit. Not only did Madix have such an illicit reaction, fellow "Vanderpump Rules” co-star Scheana Shay allegedly “lashed out at Leviss” after finding out about the affair.
“Reacting to the revelation in apparent shock and anger, Shay violently assaulted Leviss, shoving her aggressively into a brick wall, punching her in the face, and throwing her phone into the street,” the lawsuit said. “The blow to Leviss’ face caused a rupture above her left eyebrow and severe swelling and bruising above her left eye.”
Not only did Leviss include Shay in her lawsuit, she also got a temporary restraining order against her co-star for the alleged attack. This would result in the two filming separately during the show’s tenth season reunion.
Shay denied Leviss’ claims via her lawyer, Neama Rahmani, who released a statement to Entertainment Tonight. Rahmani claimed that Leviss filed a fake police report as well as a fake medical report.
“[Leviss] filed a false police report, a false medical report, and a frivolous petition for a restraining order,” Rahmani said. “[Shay] didn’t punch [Leviss]. [Leviss] didn’t get a black eye. [Shay] pushed [Leviss] but only after [Leviss] grabbed her wrist, and [Leviss] did not suffer a concussion.”
A hearing for the temporary restraining order would be held, though Leviss didn’t show up. Rahmani alleged that Leviss realized she would likely lose in court, and she couldn’t drop it, so she just didn’t appear.
The judge dismissed the restraining order, both temporary and permanent, and he didn’t mention any communications or filing from Leviss.
“The only reason the case was dismissed is because [Leviss] wasn’t there. Any statements from her camp to the contrary are inconsistent with the judge’s ruling.” a representative for Shay said at the time.
A representative for Leviss described the situation differently:
“Scheana and her attorney were notified from the reunion to emails that [Leviss] wasn’t moving forward with the [restraining order]. The court was notified by [Leviss’] counsel that we were not attending and are not moving forward and we had filed the paperwork requested by the court clerk which is stamped received.”
As for right now, the legal disputes and lawsuits between Leviss, Madix, and Sandoval are in limbo as the court system takes its time to get around to each of them.