The 'VPR' star is speaking out about Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss' affair.
Lala Kent is pushing back on a Scandoval fan theory. On the latest episode of her Give Them Lala podcast, the 32-year-old reality star denied that Tom Sandoval's affair with Raquel Leviss, which he had amid his nine-year relationship with Ariana Madix, was staged for ratings.
"This is not a staged thing. Ariana didn't sit with a producer and go, 'Yeah, I'm OK with my life blowing up for ratings,'" Kent said. "None of it is staged."
Even so, Kent acknowledged that the current season of VPR has evolved in the wake of Scandoval.
"You also can't just drop at the very end this bomb, 'Oh, and by the way, Tom and Raquel were f**king.' You have to fit it into the story somehow," she said. "There were, like y'all say, Easter eggs the whole time that may have been insignificant at the time that are actually very pertinent to this case."
Kent noted that, in recent episodes of the show, "We're starting to have scenes that may not have made it, that were absolutely filmed pre-Scandoval, that were maybe insignificant at the time, that became very significant."
Kent also said that, if Scandoval hadn't happened, the May 10 episode of VPR would have been the finale. "So, lucky for all of us viewers, you get two finales!" she said.
That doesn't mean that the now-penultimate episode is any less dramatic, though. "I think anyone who says this was all staged for a story line, in this episode, you're gonna see that this is very much real life," Kent said.
When ET spoke to VPR matriarch Lisa Vanderpump, she opened up about the show's success in the wake of Scandoval.
"When people talk about their real lives and their feelings, it's what keeps people engaged," Vanderpump said. "There's a lot of people that have tried to mimic us and tried to create shows but without the authenticity of real friendship. That's why it hurts, that's why people bleed for Ariana. Because they were invested in real relationships, and that's what people are talking about."
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