Vanderpump Rules alum Jax Taylor has spoken out about his ex-wife Brittany Cartwright dating his friend amid their divorce.
Taylor – whose real name is Jason Cauchi – opened up about the extensive divorce process during Thursday’s (November 14) episode of Bravo’s Hot Mic podcast. He confessed that when he and Cartwright separated earlier this year, there were “things that happened” during that time that he “couldn’t come back from.”
“Relations that she had with friends of mine,” he said during the podcast, before sharing how he learned that Cartwright was dating his friend Julian Sensley.
“We were sitting in my house, and her phone was on the coffee table,” he explained. “And a message popped up, and I looked at it, and it was a simple message from Julian. But it was at night, and it was just a very weird message.”
He claimed that when he discussed the message with Cartwright, he “caught her in a couple of lies” and discovered her fling with Sensley. “An hour into the conversation, she finally broke and told me,” he explained. “I was just in shock.”
While Taylor admitted that he and his ex could date other people after their split, he said they agreed not to date people they both know.
“I don’t think I would have been bothered by it if it was somebody else that I didn’t know. But the fact that it was one of my friends I brought into my group,” the Valley star said. “I just did a lot for this guy, and it felt like a slap in the face to me.”
He also explained that he wasn’t happy about how he found out about Cartwright’s relationship with Sensley, since she was “keeping it a secret.”
“There was a whole five or six months where I wasn’t seeing anybody, but this was going on,” Taylor continued. “Yes we were separated, but we were still hanging out with each other. Meanwhile, she was dating this guy.”
He then acknowledged that he “doesn’t have the best track record” and “got a taste of [his] own medicine” during his ex’s fling, since he previously cheated on Cartwright in 2017 with Faith Stowers.
The former couple met at a bar in Las Vegas in 2015, while Taylor was starring in the third season of Vanderpump Rules and Cartwright was working as a waitress. They tied the knot in June 2019 and welcomed their son, Cruz, in April 2021.
They both filed for divorce after publicly announcing their split in February, with Cartwright listing their separation date as January 24, 2024. However, in his court documents, Taylor stated they parted ways on September 26, 2024.
Taylor reportedly made a mistake in the divorce filing, as he checked a box indicating that he and Cartwright were never legally married. While he refiled for divorce in October, a representative for both Taylor and Cartwright later clarified that it was simply an error on Taylor’s part.
“While Jax made errors in filling out forms that are usually done by trained legal professionals, those errors will be amended without delay,” a representative told People.
During the new episode of the Hot Mic podcast, Taylor – who’s been open about being diagnosed with PTSD and bipolar disorder – claimed he was the one who initiated their divorce during his “second weekend of rehab.”
“I emailed Brittany and said, ‘I’m getting a mediator,’” he explained. “People don’t realize that I’m the one that initiated this. So when I emailed her and I got a mediator, and I put that, I emailed Brittany, she was like, ‘Oh, no, I’m getting a divorce lawyer.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, whatever.’”
Taylor continued: “But I was like, ‘Why don’t we just get a mediator? Like, why don’t we save some money? We’re not going after each other financially. There’s no reason to spend all this money.’”
However, he claimed that three days after his conversation with Cartwright, she served him with divorce papers.
