Lala Kent at the Brent Shapiro Foundation’s Summer Spectacular in Beverly Hills.Photo:Tiffany Rose/Getty
Tiffany Rose/Getty
Filming for season 11 ofVanderpump Ruleshas concluded, andLala Kentis feeling some major relief.
Kent, 33, told PEOPLE she’s “so happy” that filming is over for the Bravo show’s newest season while attending an event for the Brent Shapiro Foundation in Beverly Hills on Saturday.
“It was a very, very difficult season,” she says of the cast returning for the first time sinceTom SandovalandRachel “Raquel” Leviss’scheating scandalwas played out in theseason 10 finaleand tensions piqued during thethree-part reunion. “We’ve never had a divide like this in the group that you literally cannot repair.”
Kent says she’s “in such a healing place” that the actual filming process is “a little bit of a mind fog.”
“I don’t remember much about the season,” she shares, adding, “I was just very in my own zone this season, which is very different from last year. I was ripping everyone’s heads off.”
Lala Kent and Tom Sandoval attends the “Vanderpump Rules” Party For LALA Beauty Hosted By Lala Kent at Beauty & Essex on June 30, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.Amy Sussman/Getty
Amy Sussman/Getty
In the wake of Scandoval — which originated with Sandoval, 41, and his girlfriend of nine yearsAriana Madix’s Marchbreakupand intensified with the later revelation of hismonths-long affairwith her close friend — the entireVPRcast has been in disarray.
On Sandoval’s new podcast,Everybody Loves Tom, the Bravo star revealed that the discovery of his affair with his co-star, and the ensuing onslaught of backlash,pushed him to contemplate suicide.
“He seemed happy, or, I don’t know, he was just animated, energetic on the phone. I saw him. I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Chester.’ Literally, days later, he died,” Sandoval said on the podcast’s premiere episode. “I could never understand why, but when you get into that headspace, it’s like a domino effect. Your world starts collapsing on itself and you cannot see outside of your feelings. Your peripheral goes away. Your sense of like, thinking about the future, like your ability to snap out of it goes away. And there were some times where I was, you know, felt very, very close.”
Raquel Leviss at the season 10 premiere of ‘Vanderpump Rules’.Todd Williamson/Bravo via Getty
Todd Williamson/Bravo via Getty
Kent told PEOPLE on Saturday that she hasn’t listened to her costar’s podcast yet, but that she thinks “it’s great” that he’s started one.
The podcast also saw Sandoval address how his infidelity towards Madix, 38, taught him some valuable life lessons.
“It has been such a learning experience, you know, with going through everything and with what I did and taking time to actually see the repercussions of my actions,” he said. “And, you know, when you’re in a scenario like that and you’re so emotionally wrapped up in your feelings, you don’t think logically and you’re just f—ing selfish.”
While the scandal pushed Leviss, 29, to pull back from filmingVPR, Sandoval chose to return for the newest season. He and Leviss split following the controversy, and on the podcast episode, he revealed that he hasn’t spoken to her since the end of June.
While he revealed just how deeply the backlash had affected him, he also shared that whenLeviss was in a treatment facilityin the spring — she voluntarily sought out “mental health and trauma therapy,” her rep confirmed, following the affair — he found himself quite lonely as she was difficult to get in touch with.
“I was like at her beck and call in a sense because you couldn’t have your phone in there. No access to anything. And so I had to wait for her call, which can only happen maybe twice, once a day,” he said on the podcast.
Breaking her silence in August, Leviss, 29, toldBethenny Frankelthatshe is “disappointed” in herselfwhen she looks back on her actions.
She revealed she “would do everything differently” if she could, and that she has “a lot” of regrets.
“That is not the person that I want to be. I wasn’t happy. I was really hurting.”
Levis also shared that she opted not to return to season 11 ofVPRdespite the fact that she considered it.
A source later confirmed toEntertainment Tonightthat she was instead going to remain “focused on her mental health journey.”
‘Vanderpump Rules’ season 10 reunion.Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty Images
Nicole Weingart/Bravo via Getty Images
As for Kent, sheexpressed regret over her and her costars’ attack of Levissduring theVPRseason 10 reunion, after which Leviss checked into the mental health facility
Kent added of Leviss’ breakdown, “I did sit there and go, ‘Oh s—, she needs some real help,’ and I’m hoping she got it.”
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Vanderpump Rulescan be streamed in full on Peacock.
source: people.com
