Tom Schwartz Admits He 'Wrote Off' Raquel Leviss While Married to Katie Maloney: 'She Has So Much Depth'

Tom Schwartz acknowledges there's potential in his relationship with Vanderpump Rules costar Raquel Leviss — be it platonic or otherwise — that he didn't see previously.

"I was so caught up in my own little world and I was married [to Katie Maloney]," Schwartz, 39, said on Scheana Shay's Scheananigans podcast. "I never took time to get to know Raquel."

But now that he and Maloney are divorcing, the Schwartz & Sandy's co-owner is getting to know Leviss, 27, better.

"She was always cool. I just never really took [the] time to invest in her — wait, that's a horrible way to phrase it. I never really gave her a chance," he continued of the former beauty pageant competitor, who was in a long-term relationship with, then engaged to, costar James Kennedy until 2021.

"She has so much depth and character," added Schwartz. "I think I wrote her off."

When Shay, 37, advised, "Okay, well, maybe don't keep writing her off," Schwartz admitted, "I think I do that with a lot of people."

"I think people do that in general," he said. "You know, you put someone in a box as a matter of necessity, right? It's like, we got a lot of s--- going on, yeah. Everyone's got their own problems. This is this type of person, this is this type of person."

Schwartz had been with Maloney, 35, for 12 years — nearly three of which they were married — before she announced their separation on Instagram in March and filed for divorce later that month.

"Ultimately, I just wasn't happy," she then said on her You're Gonna Love Me podcast. "For a long time, I sat with it. I thought about it and I didn't talk to anyone about it for a long time. I wanted to know, if it was just something else that was making me feel this way [and] that it was coming from a different place."

But the former couple has since reached a good place in their post-breakup relationship. When Schwartz recently appeared on her podcast, he said the pair had "done a damn good job divorcing each other."

"I'm happy that we're still close," he added.

Leviss, meanwhile, publicy broke off her engagement to Kennedy, 30, while filming VPR's season 9 reunion in December 2021.

Sharing what led to the breakup, Leviss said on Shay's podcast that it "wasn't one thing" but an "accumulation of things."

She confessed she harbored fears that, "if we had a baby, James would make my parents out as like the not-good grandparents and kind of put that in [our kids'] heads. Just foreseeing this future and what it was all coming down to and I was like, 'I don't want that.'"

She 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."

Following their respective breakups, speculation began to swirl in April that Schwartz and Leviss had kissed at Coachella. But Schwartz quickly denied the rumors in a tweet: "Guys hate to break it to you but I wasn't at Coachella 😂."

Hookup rumors resurfaced recently as the duo attended Shay's Mexico wedding to Brock Davies, where Schwartz and Leviss were a part of the now-married couple's bridal party. Kennedy — who is now dating Ally Lewber — was also in attendance for the ceremony. (Maloney was also in Mexico, though Davies recently claimed, "She was disinvited and rocked up anyway for a 'girls trip.'")

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Schwartz also revealed in his conversation with Shay that he'd had to personally convince Kennedy he and Leviss hadn't crossed a line.

"We've had like five heart-to-hearts over this," revealed the TOMTOM co-owner. "It took, like, three conversations for him to believe me, I think."

The "Good As Gold" singer then asked Schwartz whether he'd want to "make the rumors true," and he coyly responded, "I don't know what to say."

Shay then mentioned Schwartz's name had been dropped during a chat with Leviss: "The other night, we were talking about how this got brought up, and she was like, 'Yeah, I haven't made out with Schwartz... yet."

"She said that?" asked Schwartz.

Shay confirmed, "She said that."