Giving your pet up may not be an easy choice, but several celebrities including Rachel ‘Raquel’ Leviss and Andy Cohen have stood by their decision.
The Vanderpump Rules alum and her dog Graham Cracker were introduced to viewers during Leviss’ relationship with James Kennedy. Following Leviss and Kennedy’s split in 2021, Leviss initially remained Graham Cracker’s primary guardian because the pup was a gift from her parents.
Leviss’ ownership was called into question after she had an affair with costar Tom Sandoval, which ended his nearly decade-long romance with Ariana Madix. During spring 2023, Leviss checked herself into a mental health facility and some fans assumed that her dog was in her family’s possession for the 90-day stay.
In July 2023, Kennedy revealed that he was looking after Graham Cracker, who has since been renamed Hippie, after the dog was surrendered to trainers following an incident with Leviss’ mother. The trailer contacted Lisa Vanderpump who rehomed the pet with Kennedy.
Cohen faced a vastly different situation with his dog Wacha, who he adopted from a kill shelter in West Virginia in 2013. Seven years later, Cohen announced that out of an abundance of caution for his son, Benjamin, Wacha found a new home.
“Numerous professionals led me to the conclusion that my home is simply not a good place for him,” Cohen wrote via Instagram in May 2020. “Keeping him here could be catastrophic for Ben and worse for Wacha.”
Cohen, who later welcomed daughter Lucy, has publicly documented his reunion with Wacha over the years.
Keep scrolling for more celebrities who candidly discussed what led to them rehoming a pet:
Lily Allen
“We actually did adopt a dog already, but then it ate my passport and so I took her back to the home,” Allen said in an August 2024 episode of her “Miss Me?” podcast about how she rehomed her family’s pet dog. “She ate all three of our passports and they had our visas in. I cannot tell you how much money it cost me to get everything replaced, because it was in COVID and so it was just an absolute logistical nightmare.”
She added: “Because the father of my children lives in England, I couldn’t take them back to see their dad for like four months, five months, because this f–king dog had eaten the passports. I just couldn’t look at [the dog anymore]. I was like, ‘You’ve ruined my life.’”
After Graham Cracker bit Leviss' mother, the dog was enrolled in behavioral classes.
"My dog Graham bit my mom’s hand down to the bone, and it was so bad she couldn’t even get stitches. I had the decision to either leave the Meadows and go back and take care of my dog, or try to get him rehomed and finish out my treatment, because I knew I had more to work on," she said on Bethenny Frankel's iHeartRadio’s “ReWives” podcast in August 2023. "So I chose myself and we researched a breed-specific dog rescue, and they took him in besides his biting behavior. Bottom line, he couldn’t get rehomed.”
Leviss continued: “It was supposed to be a confidential, anonymous [decision] because it’s nobody else’s business,” she added at the time. “I thought it was a joke at first [when I saw Graham with James]. My heart dropped to my stomach. There was a picture of James walking Graham, and I was like, ‘No.’ Immediately, my mom called the foster who was working with Graham, and she said, ‘Oh, it’s so lovely. Lisa adopted him.’ So now the narrative is, I dumped my dog at a shelter and he was hours away from being euthanized and that’s not true.”
Kennedy has since offered glimpses at how the dog has been adjusting after their reunion.
