Jax Taylor explained why Tom Schwartz was initially “nervous” about him moving in next door and alleged that it was he who initiated his divorce from Brittany Cartwright on Thursday.
As he clarified when and where their split was decided upon, admitted to being against working on their five-year-marriage, and explained his recent custody mistake, the 45-year-old star of The Valley and Vanderpump Rules revealed why his son Cruz, 3, hasn’t yet visited his new home, praised Tom Sandoval, 43, and shaded Rachel “Raquel” Leviss‘ lack of accountability.
“He was nervous in the beginning. He’s like ‘I’m still dealing with the ‘Scandoval’ thing. People think I’m a frat boy. This is gonna be terrible’,” Jax shared on the November 14 episode of Bravo’s Hot Mic podcast. “But to be honest, he’s the one that comes over to my house all the time. We’ve been good. It’s been working out really well. It’s been better than expected.”
While Jax continued living in his and Brittany’s marital home after their separation, he was alerted to a good buy during the 30 days he spent in a mental health facility.
“Halfway through the facility, my boy called me and said, ‘There’s this new building that just popped up and Schwartz just moved in. Two townhouses.’ He’s like, ‘They’re gonna go quick. They’re beautiful. Why don’t you look into it?’ So I did it all over the phone,” he revealed. “We have our own unit. He lives on one side, I live on the other side. We have patios that connect.”
Since Jax moved in next to Schwartz, 42, Brittany, 35, has been living at their main home with Cruz as their attorneys attempt to sort out their divorce.
“We’re right in the middle of it. We’re like, the divorce lawyers are going after it and it’s like, there’s days where we’re good and she’s happy and there’s days where she’ll call me every name in the book,” Jax shared.
Although it was Brittany who was first to file for divorce, Jax said he initiated the process during his second week of rehab.
“I emailed Britany and said, ‘I’m getting a mediator.’ People don’t realize that. I’m the one that initiated this,” he clarified. “I got a mediator and I emailed Brittany and she was like ‘Oh no, I’m getting a divorce lawyer’ … Three or four days after, I was served papers.”
According to Jax, he wanted to go through their divorce with a mediator, rather than an attorney, to save money, and feels that Brittany filed for divorce while he was in treatment so that it looked like it was her decision.
Once Jax exited treatment, he was served with her divorce documents as cameras rolled for The Valley season two.
“I’m not sure if they were looking for a bigger reaction from me but I was just kind of like, ‘Okay.’ It needed to happen,'” he recalled.
While Jax claimed to have “blindsided” Brittany with his desire to divorce, rather than work on their marriage, which was her goal, he admitted to checking out.
“I’m very happy right now,” he explained. “Even if we did go back, the things that happened, it would just take one argument to go back into the old ways. Brittany and I have changed over the years. I think I’ve done a lot of negative things that really tarnished our relationship, which is sad. I’m just not there anymore.”
”I love her. She’s the mother of my child. I will always be there for her for the rest of my life. I just don’t think I can love her like she needs to be loved,” he added.
Looking ahead, Jax said he doesn’t have a problem with her dating — as long as it’s not one of his friends.
“I want her to meet somebody, just not somebody I know,” he stated.
After then suggesting that Brittany didn’t want him to change, but also saying she knows he’s changed but doesn’t want to admit it, Jax confessed to hurting her “bad.”
“Over the years, I’ve really worn on her and put such a bad taste in her mouth and I think that fact that I’ve decided to not work on the marriage, I think that was a huge blow to her and I think she was a little shocked by that,” he suspected. “It’s easier for me to be the a**hole. It’s expected for me to f*ck up.”
Following Brittany’s divorce filing, Jax offered a response, giving her the full physical and legal custody of their son Cruz, which he ultimately corrected.
“She told me right off the bat, ‘These are the things I want, full custody and all this but you’re gonna see Cruz everyday. I’m just saying this because I’m protecting myself.’ So I figured, I’m not gonna fight her on this,” he explained. “I thought, ‘I get him on the weekends and every Wednesday. I think that’s a pretty fair deal.’ I think people just thought I was giving up and that was not the case at all.”
“I want to be involved in the medical and I want to be involved in his schooling,” he added.
According to Jax, he wants his son Cruz to grow up in the home he has lived in for the first three years of his life. And, thus far, Cruz has remained in the home, not spending any time at Jax’s apartment at all.
“Cruz hasn’t been to my house yet. He’s got a beautiful room all set up, his bed, his toys are all in there. Brittany is just not ready for me to have him [there],” he revealed. “But I think it’s gonna happen soon cuz it’s a lot of work for her to deal with Cruz full time … I’ve taken pictures of Cruz’s room and shown her. I said ‘I’ll put some cameras in the house that you can see if it makes you more comfortable.’ But the more easy I make it for her, the harder she makes it for me. I feel like she wants a fight.”
Moving on to his friendship with Sandoval, Jax applauded his longtime friend for showing up for him during hard times.
“You really find out who your friends are when you go through something like this and I gotta say, Sandoval and my mom, believe it or not, are the ones that checked on me the most,” Jax stated. “I didn’t see that coming because I really haven’t talked to Tom during this whole thing, I’ve kept my distance. I didn’t even tell him I was going, but I did not expect the calls from Tom. We kind of picked up where we left off.”
Also on the podcast, Jax shaded Raquel, 30, for blaming others for her affair with Sandoval.
“I don’t personally like how she attacked the show, attacked the network. I don’t like what she said on [Bethenny Frankel‘s] podcast,” he stated. “We’re all adults here. We all are responsible for our decisions. Don’t blame other people and don’t knock the job that gave you what you have today.”
The Valley season two is expected to begin airing on Bravo sometime in early 2025.
