Brittany Cartwright is done

We’re a few weeks away from the highly anticipated season premiere of season two of The Valley – and in anticipation of it, Jax Taylor spoke at length in an exclusive interview about the changes he’s been navigating lately, which include his recent admission to a long-standing struggle with substance abuse, and his highly publicized split from his wife and the mother of his son, Cruz, Brittany Cartwright. 

Jax tells Us Weekly that while he used to be the ‘lead singer of the band’, he is now ‘taking a backseat’ and becoming the ‘guy who plays the triangle’. Despite the difficulty of that and not being accustomed to it, he said it was a necessary step for him to take, saying that if he continued on his previous path, he would’ve died.

The interview comes several months after he checked himself into an inpatient facility in July 2024 to get treatment for his bipolar disorder and PTSD diagnosis – a move he credits Brittany with helping him make, but earlier this month, we learned that he didn’t only go to the facility to deal with mental health issues, he also went to get a handle on his substance abuse issues. 

On the March 4 episode of Bravo’s Hot Mic podcast, he made the revelation, out loud for the very first time, that for over 20 years, he has been struggling with an on and off cocaine addiction. 

His reflections and the conversation about his substance abuse issues with Us Weekly were incredibly honest and I was impressed by his vulnerability and transparency. He spoke about how he turned to drugs in the wake of his split from Brittany, opening up about what he felt was his ‘rock bottom’: 

“I was in that house by myself for a good 3-4 months. The fact that I’m still here physically after that is crazy. Because I wasn’t eating, I was drinking, and I was doing enough cocaine to kill a small horse,” he said. “I could probably buy a house with the amount of money I spent on drugs.” 

He also talked about how alcohol and cocaine went hand-in-hand for him, forcing him to have to walk away from both:

“I can’t have a drink. If I have a drink, I’m looking for a bag of cocaine. So I had to quit both.”

He said something interesting about societal changes in the last five years and needing to make adjustments to himself in order to be “more acceptable”, which, for anyone reading between the lines is an allusion to his previous world views, for which he was frequently called out by both cast members on Vanderpump Rules and the show’s audience and included anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments, which I wrote about here.

Despite the interview going swimmingly up until this point, it wasn’t until he began to discuss his feelings and conduct toward Brittany that his old, seemingly narcissistic tendencies made it clear that while he may have made a lot of progress in his journey to sobriety, he still has a long way to go when it comes to taking accountability for his inability to be a good partner and husband.

“I will never, ever talk negatively about Brittany,” he said near the end of the interview, before launching into a monologue about his anger over her behaviour, and “things” that the audience is not privy to. He questioned why Brittany didn’t do more to help “fix” their relationship, saying:

“I’m not blaming, but I’m like why didn’t you say, ‘Let’s go to therapy’, ‘Why don’t we fix this?’, ‘Let’s figure out these problems’. I’m not putting it on her at all. Marriage is a team thing, you’re partners, and I felt like I lost my partner a little bit and I feel like she lost hers too.’”

He also posed a series of questions that perfectly encapsulates what people get wrong about women who choose to stay in incredibly difficult relationships:

“If it was so bad all these years, why did you stay? If it was so bad, why did you ask me to have another kid last year? If it was so bad, three months prior, why did you ask me to have sex with you?”

The idea that if a woman, particularly one with a child, stays in a relationship, that it ‘must not be that bad’ is a shifting of blame that is often used to excuse terrible and abusive behaviour. The idea that if a woman, particularly one who wants more children and faces the pressure of a ticking biological clock, the logistics of divorce and finding another partner who is suitable to procreate with all while believing the narrative that another child will “make it better”, should dare inquire about expanding their family with her current partner translates to the marriage ‘not being that bad’ demonstrates a clear lack of understanding about the sheer significance of her decision to ultimately walk away.

I’ve written at length about “turnaround time”. But I don’t think I’ve touched on the idea of the sunk cost fallacy. It’s best summed up as the willingness to keep investing either money or time - or any other given resource - into something (think a project, a slot machine or in Brittany’s case, her marriage) even if it’s evident that what it’s costing you is far beyond what you’ve already invested.

Anyone who tuned in to Vanderpump Rules, particularly the season where Jax cheated on her, lied to her face about it, and still managed to hold onto her, can attest to the fact that she very much wanted this to work. More importantly, she wanted her family to work, which is why she stayed for so long. She was riding at dawn for that man, and while I may have disagreed, it’s not to say I didn’t understand. Because I understood that she was also riding at dawn for her son to grow up in a nuclear family.

The question left to be answered is, what is Brittany’s reaction to this interview? To his revelations? Well, a laughing emoji, followed by a coffin. No, seriously.

With the pair in talks with several different outlets and podcasts since their split, and currently on a press tour to help promote the show (and also get their side of the story in the public) there are a lot more revelations to come. And with Brittany protecting Jax for almost the entire duration of their relationship, it’s anyone’s guess what else we’ll learn. But if there’s one thing we have learned by way of her filing for divorce in the first place, but also, this brutal reaction, it’s that sober or not, Brittany is done with Jax Taylor.

Attached - Brittany at iHeartRadio Music Awards.