Brittany Cartwright; Jax Taylor. Photo:Phillip Faraone/Getty; Vivien Killilea/Getty
Jax Taylor is reflecting on navigating a premiere night with ex Brittany Cartwright present.
On the Thursday, April 17 episode of Taylor's In the Mind of a Man podcast, the 45-year-old reality star revealed that "the day before" the premiere of the pair's Bravo show, The Valley, he "called" Cartwright, 36, to ask if she wanted him to attend.
Of course, the premiere came months after the couple announced they had separated in February 2024 following four years of marriage. Season 2 of The Valley picks up nearly nine months after their split as the show returned to Bravo this month.
"People keep asking how was it with Brittany on the carpet, and I was a little nervous," Taylor said. "In fact, I called her the day before and talking to her. I'm like, 'Do you want me to go Brittany?' I'm like, 'I don't have to go. I want to make sure you're comfortable.'"
"And I was like, OK. You know, 'I'll go' and my in-laws, my ex in-laws are in town. Don and Linda are in town. So they got to come to the premiere party. Looks like they were having a good time. But it was a little weird," he recalled.
Taylor added that it was "a little bit awkward" for himself and Cartwright to both be on the carpet together, but things went smoothly overall. "Just because like I said, what we're going through and now we're doing press separately," he said. "It's just it's just weird. But, you know, she did a great job. She looked beautiful."
Elsewhere on the latest episode of his podcast, Taylor revealed that he "sat in the corner and I cried my eyes out" while watching the premiere of the latest season.
"I was so disgusted about what I saw, about that shell of a human being that I was looking at, about how I acted," he told Tom Schwartz. "It was just utter disgust. And, you know, I looked at it like, 'Wow. I'm glad I watched this because I never wanna be that person again.'"
Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright attend Caesars Forum in Las Vegas on Nov. 5, 2023.Todd Williamson/Bravo via Getty
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Taylor and Cartwright, who share 4-year-old son Cruz, have been candid about their split both on The Valley and beyond.
During the latest episode of the Bravo hit on Tuesday, Taylor revealed that things were not "going well" following the separation, sharing that they were "allowed to date other people" and calling the situation "toxic." Cartwright later told Michelle Saniei that Taylor "flipped the coffee table and it hit my knee" after he spotted a text between her and his friend Julien.
“We did say we could hook up with other people, that was part of the deal. But a friend? Come on. Julian and I were friends. We were hanging out all the time," Jax said in the episode. "Meanwhile, she’s still hooking up with him and I had no idea.”
Jax later expressed that he “went full f------ unhinged rage” on Brittany, admitting that it was "the worst it's ever gotten." Since the events of the episode, the reality star has spent 30 days in an in-patient treatment facility for mental health. He also revealed that he had substance issues with cocaine, announcing in March that he was 83 days sober from both cocaine and alcohol. The latest season also captured his bipolar disorder and PTSD diagnosis.
Speaking with PEOPLE at the season 2 premiere this month, Taylor revealed that he was "dreading" how fans will see him on the latest iteration.
"The last thing in the world I want right now is for you guys to see what happened to me last year," he said. "But I gotta look at the silver lining, you know? I hope to help out somebody that's going through what I'm going through. I think men's mental health is kind of looked over. I want to share my story."
"It's going to be bad. It's going to be really, really bad," he added. "But you got to remember, this was shot a year ago. Everyone's in a different place. Everything's different now, different relationships, different dynamics."
The Valley airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.
