It’s been the topic of so much conversation since the news broke in February 2024 and she’s finally spilled on the reason why Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright split. The Vanderpump Rules stars were together for 9 years and married in her home state of Kentucky in June 2019.
Vanderpump Rules is Bravo’s reality TV series following the personal and professional lives of the staff at Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Lisa Vanderpump’s restaurant SUR Restaurant & Lounge in Los Angeles. The series—which premiered as a spin-off of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2013—started with original cast members including Jax. Brittany made her debut on Vanderpump Rules as a guest in Season 4. She was promoted to a recurring cast member in Season 5 and became a main cast member in Season 6. She left the series after Season 8.
Jax and Brittany’s marriage was documented on VPR after dating for four years. They welcomed their first child, their son Cruz, in April 2021. “I’ve never in my life thought it was going to be like this,” Jax wrote on Instagram. “It’s 10,000 times better. Dad mode just kicks in. I don’t think I have ever been as happy as I am right now, everything else in life seems so insignificant now. I am crying just writing this message.”
But on February 29, 2024, Brittany announced the seemingly happy couple were taking time apart. “I made the decision to move into another home to take some space for the sake of my mental health,” she said on her and Taylor’s podcast, When Reality Hits With Jax and Brittany. Here’s why Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright break up.
Why did Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright break up?
Why did Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright break up? In an interview with Page Six, Brittany gave her side of the story. “We’ve been together nine years, and people stop appreciating and take you for granted after some time — and that should never happen in a marriage,” she said. “So that’s what I’m trying to get back,” she continued, “and if it doesn’t come back, then we won’t get back together.”
It was ahead of the premiere of The Valley, her new show with Jax which premiered on March 19, 2024. She continued, “I think I just had to be like, ‘I’m hot as hell, and I’m not going to listen to this bulls—t anymore,’” she said.
When news of their split first broke, some fans accused the former couple of breaking up as a kind of publicity stunt as a way of promoting The Valley. But Jax himself told Bravo that’s not the case. “The most important thing is I don’t want people thinking this is a publicity stunt,” Jax told The Daily Dish. “I think when people start watching this show, and they understand that we started filming this almost a year ago, they’ll know that this kind of stuff has been happening with my wife and I — I would never use my family as a publicity stunt.”
Brittany previously told Page Six that she moved herself and Cruz into an Airbnb on January 24, 2024, and has since asked her estranged husband to do “four little things,” none of which he’s done. “I asked him to do little things — four little things — and … go to therapy was one of them. He hasn’t done that yet. So there’s little things that I’ve asked him to do. We’ll see if he does it all, but we’ll also see if it changes anything,” she said. “I’m not saying that I’m perfect by any means, but I had to step out and take care of myself and my son,” she said.
She later revealed the exact moment she knew that they weren’t made for each other. “We just had a horrible fight and it was like a veil was lifted, and I noticed everything wrong,” she said on Watch What Happens Live. “They always say a woman can hit her breaking point, and it’s hard to come back from that.”
“[He] kind of made up a story in his own head and started a fight over something that never happened,” she shared, cryptically.
“We fought about everything,” she added and called their marriage a “very toxic situation” from which she needed to “remove” herself. She however said that he was a good father and dispelled cheating rumors “Jax is a great father. I will give him that. [Cruz] is our main priority no matter what.
On if he cheated on her, she said, “I don’t think so. I really don’t think so,” she said. “I did all the digging. … We made sure that wasn’t true.”
Brittany and Jax were allegedly fired from Vanderpump Rules in 2020 after he was took to Twitter to wrongfully accuse castmate Faith a crime she didn’t committ. When asked if he thought Faith would become a permanent part of the Vanderpump Rules cast, Jax said, “She’s wanted by the police for grand theft auto and ‘awol’ from military, bad idea to be on a reality show, dude … Someone’s going to jail.”
The married couple took to Instagram to announce their respective departures in December 2020; she was pregnant at the time. “The last 5 years on Vanderpump Rules have been some of the most challenging, rewarding and fulfilling years of my life,” Brittany wrote. “Although this is difficult to share, Jax and I will not be returning for another season of Vanderpump Rules.”
The Valley, per a Bravo press release: “Vanderpump Rules alums Jax, Brittany and Kristen have all traded in their wild nights at SUR for a suburban life in the Valley. In the series premiere, their couple-friends Danny and Nia are trying to juggle three kids under 2 years old. Jesse and Michelle are navigating the complicated world of being both toddler parents and business partners. When Brittany goes all out, throwing a lavish birthday party for best friend Janet, things take a turn for the worse when the group focuses less on the festivities and begin judging Kristen’s life-altering decisions.”
The Valley airs on Bravo at 9pm on Tuesdays.
