Did an ill-timed text message lead to Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright’s split?
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Brittany offered up some surprising new details on the final “straw” that led to her separation from husband Jax Taylor on the Season 1 finale of The Valley.
Why did Brittany Cartwright break up with Jax Taylor?
At a laid-back girls night with Nia Booko, new mom Janet Caperna, and the recently separated Michelle Saniei Lally, Brittany revealed the unexpected catalyst that caused her to pack her bags and move out of the home she shared with Jax — and it was something as innocuous as a text message.
According to Brittany, Jax had been increasingly on edge after opening their new sports bar, Jax’s Studio City in October 2023.
“He was like going out to the bar and stuff, coming home and like, having these horrible hangovers that would make him mean as a f-cking snake,” she told her girlfriends.
After one such spirited night out, Brittany said Jax came “barreling” into her bedroom and woke her up after receiving a text message from Luke Broderick asking if he needed someone to talk to because of “everything” that he was going through.
The text message may have been sent with the best intentions, but, according to Brittany, it ignited an epic fight that caused Jax to start “screaming at me for hours” in front of the couple’s young son Cruz Cauchi.
As the verbal barbs continued to fly, Brittany decided she had enough and “packed my bags, packed Cruz up and we got the hell out of that house.”
Are Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright still separated?
Yes. Months later, Brittany has yet to return to her home with Jax and has been living at an Airbnb while the couple contemplates their next steps.
“There’s been a lot of things that I’ve taken back Jax for,” Brittany told producers. “I’ve been cheated on, I’ve been disrespected, I’ve been humiliated. I have been through a lot of pain in this relationship. It’s been very public, the pain that I’ve had to deal with. I just can’t deal with it anymore.”
Brittany publicly announced in February on the podcast she cohosts with Jax, When Reality Hits with Jax and Brittany, that the couple was taking a much needed break from one another.
"Jax and I are taking time apart, and I made the decision to move into another home to take some space for the sake of my mental health," she shared. "I won’t get into too many details right now because this is still very hard to talk about and I’m taking things one day at a time."
When filming picked back up in March to capture some of the drama, Brittany still wasn’t sure she wanted to be in the relationship, pointing to Jax’s lack of action to try to win her back.
Although Jax freely admitted he needed “to go to therapy” after he pushed Brittany “over the edge” and made an appointment to see a doctor just one day before the cameras returned, Brittany questioned the timing and sincerity of the move.
“Jax has been saying that he’s going to go to therapy for years now. The day before we picked the cameras back up he all of a sudden has an appointment to go see the doctor? This is all a front,” she told producers. “This is what he wants everyone to see and believe that he’s actually going to do these things and change. I bet you money he will not do it.”
It turns out, Brittany was right. Jax confessed to producers that he “didn’t go” because the appointment was “really far” from his home.
It’s that lack of action that had Brittany fuming during one final confrontation on The Valley as Brittany packed up some of her belongings.
“Do you want me back or are you gonna just sit there and let me go? Because I will go,” she told him.
While Jax insisted that he did want her back, he also admitted that having the time apart had been good for them.
The season finale ended with Brittany driving away, leaving the couple’s future in jeopardy.
“I’ve come into my own. I make a lot of money and I just feel like I have woken up, like I feel so much stronger now,” Brittany shared in her confessional. “I know I’ll be OK, but I know my worth and I know I do not deserve to be in a relationship like this. What was I thinking? Staying with him this long?”
To see how all the drama played out this season or catch up on episodes you may have missed, watch The Valley Tuesday nights on Bravo or available streaming on Peacock.
