The explosive fallout of Scandoval continues to be felt as "Vanderpump Rules” alum Rachel Leviss filed a lawsuit on Thursday in Los Angeles against Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval for revenge porn, eavesdropping and invasion of privacy, Deadline reported.
The Bravo reality stars' lives exploded last year when it was revealed that Leviss and Sandoval had been having a year-long affair and keeping it a secret while Sandoval was still with Madix, his partner of nine years. The affair came to a boiling point when Madix found an intimate recording of Leviss, which was taken by Sandoval without her knowledge or consent, on Sandoval’s phone. Madix sent the video to herself and then to Leviss to indicate she knew about the affair.
However, the chain of events has led to Leviss suing both Madix and Sandoval, in a suit that alleges “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 then distributed, disseminated, and discussed publicly by a scorned woman seeking vengeance, catalyzing the scandal."
Madix and Sandoval have not responded to the lawsuit, however, it reinforces just how damaging revenge porn can be — and serves as a reminder that Leviss isn’t the only celebrity who has been impacted by it.
While the lawsuit acknowledged the role Leviss played in the affair and "that her actions were morally objectionable and hurtful to Madix,” it states that the fallout of the affair has taken a toll on her mental health, forcing her to check into an in-patient mental health facility and leave "Vanderpump Rules." More troubling, however, are claims that there could be "additional illicit videos and/or photographs of [Leviss] that she has not yet seen."
Leviss further believes that "Madix has obtained at least two illicit videos of Leviss and distributed them and/or showed them to others with Leviss' knowledge or consent.” According to the suit, Levis is asking the court to issue an order so that all copies of the video are destroyed and an injunction to shut down anyone from ever viewing it again.
There are no federal laws against revenge porn, but each state across the U.S. has its own statute on revenge porn. In California, the state's laws have criminalized spreading videos of intimate sex acts without a person's consent. Additionally, the state's invasion of privacy laws covers both photos and footage that were initially taken with consent, but later distributed without a person's knowledge or consent, The Hollywood Reporter stated.
“Rachel has apologized for her part in an affair,” Leviss' attorney said in a statement to NBC News. “That’s not a crime. Tom and Ariana are alleged here to have engaged in criminal acts.”
The statement continued: "They then doubled down and used those actions to shame, bully, belittle, and intentionally try to destroy Rachel’s mental health. The law makes it clear that recording someone without their consent and distributing that illegal recording is punishable by law.”
While Leviss' actions sparked national outrage, the exploitation of her personal and intimate moments with someone she trusted, from her own words, led to the deterioration of Leviss' mental health, further crystallizing just how damaging revenge porn can be to a person. However, she isn’t the only celebrity who has faced the very public fallout of revenge porn.
Technically, revenge porn isn't always revenge-driven as its name suggests. It includes a broader definition of non-consensual pornography. Icon Pamela Anderson, reality television mogul Kim Kardashian, Grammy-winning singer Rihanna and victims of the infamous 2014 "celebgate" — wherein celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton had their iCloud accounts hacked — have all had their personal and intimate photos and videos leaked and distributed by third parties without consent.
Anderson’s sex tape with then-husband Tommy Lee, which was stolen from a safe in their California home and sold to a video distribution company in 1995, really kickstarted the frenzy for similar content. Anderson told CBS This Sunday Morning that the leaking of the tape was "very hurtful" and “that it was stolen property, that it was two crazy naked people in love. . . Those tapes were not meant for anybody else to see.”
Eventually, the couple sued, won and then signed an agreement with the distribution company, NJ.com reported.
A little over a decade later, Kardashian and then-boyfriend rapper Ray J, was released without the couple's consent in 2007. Kardashian then sued Vivid Entertainment for ownership of the tape. She later dropped the lawsuit and settled for $5 million, NJ.com reported.
In episodes of the reality show "The Kardashians," the beauty mogul attempted to gain control of the nonconsensual footage. Eventually, her then-husband, rapper Kanye West, gave her the computer and hard drive on which the original recording had been stored. Kardashian’s statements about the gift really encapsulate how dehumanizing being the victim of revenge porn is and what it means to regain autonomy over one’s most private moments.
“I want to shield [my kids] from [this] as much as I can,” Kardashian said. “If I have the power to or if Kanye has the power to, that is just the most important thing to me and I am so emotional because of it. It just means a lot to me.
