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Vanderpump RulesstarRaquel Levissis addressing the cause ofher splitfrom ex-fiancéJames Kennedy.
On Friday’s episode ofScheana Shay’sScheananiganspodcast, Leviss, 27, revealed that she and Kennedy “broke up the night before” the show’s season 9 reunion taping. The pair, whogot engagedin May after more than five years together, announced their breakup last month ina joint statementon Instagram.
Speaking with Shay, Leviss said she realized her “heart wasn’t in this relationship anymore” around the time costarLala Kentbroke upwith her fiancéRandall Emmettin October.
Two days after Kent, 31, and Emmett, 50, split, Leviss learned that another friend had ended her marriage. Upon hearing of the breakups, Leviss said Kennedy, 29, had wondered if they were “next” to break up. But at the time, she reassured him that they would be okay.
Addressing “the final straw that broke the camel’s back,” Leviss said there “wasn’t one thing” but a “cumulation of things.”
James Kennedy and Raquel Leviss in 2019.Jerritt Clark/Getty Images
Leviss 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. So I wasn’t planning on saying anything until he went out of town. He doesn’t even know this.”
Leviss and Kennedy visited Disneyland together the Tuesday after Thanksgiving with costarsAriana MadixandTom Sandoval. While on that joint outing, Leviss said she felt she “had to put on an act for that just to make sure that I was safe.”
But the breakup discussion didn’t come until before the reunion taping when Leviss and Kennedy watched screeners from the current season.
“It was the scene where Tom Sandoval andTom Schwartzwere having their [temporary friendship] breakup and James laughs and he’s like, ‘Why couldn’t I have a funny storyline?’ And I was like, ‘Seriously, you could have if you wanted to,’ " she recalled.
Tibrina Hobson/Getty
“I explained that to him and he was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that you felt that way.’ And the conversation just kept going … and it was like word vomit. This is what I’ve been feeling and I can’t keep it in any longer because I’m not being an honest person and I’m lying to you and I don’t feel comfortable with this,” she continued.
“So I just told him, ‘Truly, my heart isn’t in it anymore. I don’t appreciate the way that you treat other people; it’s not how I treat other people. And a piece of me dies inside every time you mistreat somebody.’ So he’s like, ‘What do I need to do? Can I change your mind? Is there anything? Please give me another chance.’ I was like, ‘I gave you another chance and that led us here … and no, no.’ He was like, ‘Okay, I see it in your eyes. It’s over,’ " she said.
Leviss noted that Kennedy “was calm” and “was listening” to her at that moment, but she had previously been “preparing for the worst” despite it being “the best possible outcome.”
“He respected my decision. ‘If your heart isn’t in it anymore, then I understand. We need to go our separate ways,’ " she recalled.
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Also during the podcast appearance, Leviss addressed concerns regarding Kennedy’s previous collision with her nose while kissing, stating that he never physically harmed her despite speculation. (A previous episode in season 9 showed Leviss visiting a plastic surgeon’s office for a consultation about fixing her nose job after Kennedy accidentally bumped into it while trying to kiss her.)
“I understand the concern that you guys have because you’ve seen James be verbally abusive and he hasn’t been there for me when I needed him to be there for me emotionally as well,” she said. “So it wouldn’t be that far-fetched to assume that James has been physically abusive to me, but I want to set the record straight that he has never laid a hand on me. He has never been physically abusive to me, and I just think that’s unfair to him.”
Leviss and Kennedy are “still speaking occasionally,” she said on Shay’s podcast.
“We are still friendly with one another. We still follow each other on Instagram and like each others' posts,” she continued. “My goal would be to maintain a friendship with him because he was my best friend for so long and it’s really difficult to just cut that off and pretend it never happen because it did happen.”
Leviss added, “We spent so much time with each other and he was the love of my life at one point, but more than that he was my best friend and we shared everything together. We’re going to try our best to be friends.”
Vanderpump Rulesairs Tuesdays on Bravo.
source: people.com
