One of the reasons why the affair between Vanderpump Rules stars Rachel Leviss (formerly Raquel, but we don't need to get into that right now) and Tom Sandoval was how close Tom's now ex, Ariana Madix, said she was to Rachel. For Ariana, the betrayal that viewers saw play out at the end of Season 10 of the Bravo series was a shot in the gut twofold.

But how close were Ariana and Rachel really? They both say they were friends at the time of "Scandoval," but Rachel took to her Instagram Stories to clear some things up on her end about how close she and Ariana were. Rachel also addressed if she believes Ariana will ever forgive her for what happened.

Is this an attempt to diminish the pain she caused Ariana, if she was indeed not as close as Ariana once claimed they were at the time of the affair? It's certainly possible. But Rachel is no stranger to sharing her thoughts at length on social media regarding what her former friends and Vanderpump Rules co-stars say about her on and off the show.

Were Ariana Madix and Rachel Leviss close friends on 'Vanderpump Rules'?

Early on in Season 10 of Vanderpump Rules, when rumors began swirling and there was speculation about Tom and Rachel, Ariana was quick to come to both Tom and Rachel's defense.

"Obviously I love Raquel dearly and she's one of my closest friends," Ariana said on the show, using Rachel's name that she went by for years before switching back to her legal name, Rachel. "I not only trust and love her, I trust and love my boyfriend."

As we now know, that comment aged horribly, given what eventually came out about one of Ariana's "closest friends" and her now ex-boyfriend. But according to Rachel more recently, and were talking April 16, 2024 recently, their friendship was very different.

In a long-winded wall of text Rachel shared in her Instagram Stories, she addressed a few things, including her former friendship with Ariana and even what happened between herself and Scheana amid Scheana's story about allowing Rachel to live at her apartment after her breakup with James Kennedy.

"Ariana and I were not best friends," Rachel wrote in her Instagram Stories. "We were acquaintances who became friends through the show. She's always been somebody who has been very sweet to me. She would stand up for me and encourage me to pursue whatever I was pursuing. And that was all great, but we never had, like, a deep conversation that I would have with a best friend."

Rachel also wrote that she never meant to hurt Ariana and admitted that she wasn't "thinking clearly" during her affair with Tom. Still, she added that she and Ariana were never really "best friends."

In fact, according to Rachel, most of the instances where she was seen with Ariana was because she was "hanging out with Tom." And for the record, Rachel doesn't expect Ariana to ever forgive her for Scandoval. Color us very unsurprised.

Rachel said she and Scheana Shay were best friends at one point.

While Rachel denied that she and Ariana were as close as they certainly appeared to be on Vanderpump Rules, she did say that she and Scheana were "best friends" before Sandoval happened. Yes, there was eventually that incident where Rachel filed a false police report and claimed that Scheana attacked her. But before all that happened, they were legitimately close.

"Scheana was [one] of my best friends," Rachel shared in the same Instagram Story. "She offered her apartment to me to stay in while I was figuring out my next moves after breaking up with James."

However, according to Rachel, the part of the story where Scheana created a "narrative" about giving her a home when no one else would after she and James Kennedy split and of being a familial figure to her is untrue.

"It's just unfortunate that she is trying to create this narrative that I have taken advantage of her when I feel like I contributed," Rachel wrote.

Whatever the truth may be about Ariana and Rachel's friendship, though, we're inclined to believe it lies somewhere in the middle of what they have both said. And even though Rachel is no longer on the Bravo series, that certainly hasn't stopped her from talking about it, so we'll stay tuned for more tea.