The ruling landed Wednesday in California, where the Second District Court of Appeal held that Ariana Madix cannot use the state’s anti-SLAPP law, a statute that lets defendants kill lawsuits targeting protected free speech, to throw out Rachel Leviss’ privacy case against her. The published opinion, a designation that makes the ruling citable precedent statewide, upholds the lower court and sends the claims marching toward trial.
The heart of the decision is one sharp distinction. Madix argued Scandoval was a massive public story, making her actions around it protected speech. Per TMZ, the appellate panel rejected that logic, finding that the affair being public did not make Leviss’ private videos public too. Critically, the judges stressed they are not ruling that the allegations are true, or that Madix actually shared anything beyond what Leviss claims; they held only that the case cannot be killed on free speech grounds.
Leviss’ attorney Mark Geragos wasted no time. “Signing up for Reality TV doesn’t give someone immunity from revenge porn,” he told Los Angeles magazine. “Quite the contrary and now we have a published opinion that says just that.“
The underlying claims, stated at their legal core: Leviss alleges Tom Sandoval recorded explicit FaceTime videos of her without her knowledge during their affair, and that Madix accessed and copied them from his phone before sharing them. Madix has denied distributing the videos, and her attorney Jordan Susman said after the original 2024 loss that his side was “confident that the ruling will be reversed by the California Court of Appeals.” On Wednesday, that court declined.
The case has been grinding toward this moment for years: Leviss filed in February 2024 alleging revenge porn, eavesdropping, invasion of privacy, and emotional distress, a Los Angeles judge refused to dismiss it that summer, and Madix appealed. The appellate panel had telegraphed its skepticism at oral arguments back in May, when court watchers noted the tentative opinion leaned against Madix, before making it official this week.
Scandoval’s Longest Shadow
The scandal that started it all, Sandoval’s monthslong affair exposed in March 2023, ended a nine-year relationship, detonated a Bravo dynasty, spawned a revenge dress, a bestselling book era, and a Broadway run, and minted Madix as a cultural folk hero. Three years later, the courts are examining the part of the story that never fit the redemption arc, and a published California opinion now says the question deserves a trial.
Whatever a jury eventually decides, Wednesday settled one thing beyond appeal: Scandoval’s final chapter will not be written on Bravo. It will be written in a courtroom.
