Another “Vanderpump Rules” couple’s love story is over.
Brittany Cartwright announced in February 2024 that she and her husband, Jax Taylor, have separated after nearly a decade together.
“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 said.
However, just hours later, Taylor claimed they had moved back in together.
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“We’re just spending some time apart and just trying to reassess, you know, our situation,” he told Pvnew. “We have a child involved, and we just wanna do what’s best for our kid.”
The reality TV stars, who share son Cruz, have had several ups and downs since they began dating in 2015.
See a timeline of their rocky relationship below.
2015: Taylor and Cartwright meet in Las Vegas
In between Seasons 3 and 4 of “Pump Rules,” Taylor met Cartwright at the Las Vegas bar Gold Spike.
“He fell in love with me at first sight,” she told the Daily Dish in 2016. “He was with another girl. I stole him away. We’ve been together ever since.”
At the time, Cartwright was working as a waitress at Hooters, one of Taylor’s favorite restaurant chains.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I see this beautiful girl, and I’m still looking at her,” he recalled on the Bravo reality show. “We start talking, [and] I ask for her phone number. She literally moved to LA two weeks later.”
2015: Cartwright moves to LA and stars on ‘Vanderpump Rules’
Shortly after hitting it off in Vegas, Cartwright packed up her things from her home in Kentucky and drove across the country to move in with Taylor in Los Angeles.
Fans first met Cartwright when she drove to SUR — the restaurant Taylor and several of his co-stars worked at for many years — and greeted him before moving into his place during Season 4.
“He begged me to move to LA, and I did,” she said in the 2016 Daily Dish interview.
Shortly after she entered SUR’s infamous back alley, she met cast members Lisa Vanderpump, Scheana Shay and Katie Maloney.
Cartwright initially tried to snag a job at the restaurant, but Vanderpump waited a few years to hire her due to her lack of serving and bartending experience.
Their relationship hit its first snag when Taylor asked co-star Lala Kent whether they could “f–k and not tell anybody” after denying Cartwright was his exclusive girlfriend. He initially denied making the comment — until it played out on TV.
Cartwright appeared on the Bravo series for two years before she became a full-time cast member during Season 6 in 2017.
2016: ‘Jax and Brittany Take Kentucky’
Taylor and Cartwright landed their own spinoff, “Jax and Brittany Take Kentucky,” in 2016.
The series, which aired in 2017, followed the couple as Taylor spent time at Cartwright’s farm in rural Kentucky.
Taylor met several of Cartwright’s family members, and he even helped pay for her brother to start IVF with his wife.
However, the show ended on a rough note when Cartwright decided to stay in Kentucky while Taylor returned to LA after an argument.
The duo faced breakup rumors when they unfollowed each other on Instagram, but Taylor quickly clarified to the Daily Dish that they were “still happy” and “still together.”
“When she came home, it was kind of like [we can] start fresh, clean slate, start over,” he said at the time.
Summer 2017: Taylor cheats on Cartwright
Perhaps one of the couple’s biggest relationship hurdles occurred during Season 6 of the show when Taylor admitted to cheating on Cartwright with one of their former co-stars, Faith Stowers.
Taylor briefly denied the rumblings, but he later fessed up and Cartwright memorably told him to “rot in hell.”
“This isn’t my first time being caught cheating,” he said in a confessional at the time. “In the past, I’ve gone through months and months of deny, deny, deny, and that didn’t work out for me. Brittany and I had been fighting for a long time. There’s just so many things.”
Cartwright ultimately forgave Taylor for his infidelity after he promised “nothing will ever happen again.”
“I love you too much not to try to work things out,” she told him in an episode that aired in January 2018.
“I know we’re probably going to get into arguments every now and then because that’s just how life is, but the way you talk to me has got to change.”
Fall 2017: Taylor breaks up with Cartwright
Toward the end of Season 6, Taylor dumped Cartwright because he admittedly was “not good in relationships” and believed she deserved “a lot better” than him.
“You deserve to be happy, you deserve to get married, you deserve to have kids, you deserve to have someone treat you like the princess that you are, and I just am not that person,” he told her in an April 2018 episode.
Cartwright became emotional and asked Taylor, “How can you do this to me whenever I’ve been through so much, and I’m trying to help you and trying to work on things with you?”
December 2017: Taylor and Cartwright get back together
As the Season 6 episodes continued to air, Taylor and Cartwright quickly cleared the air and confirmed that they were back together.
“We’ve kind of weathered the storm,” he told People in December 2017. “We’re still going through it … [but] we’re in a great place now — probably better than we’ve ever been. I can say the last eight months have been better than when we first started dating.”
Meanwhile, Cartwright explained to Us Weekly at the time that they had “moved mountains” in their relationship.
“I feel like we’re almost starting over, but we’ve grown so much,” she said. “He does things before I even ask him now. Even just helping around the house. I can just tell in our everyday lives that he’s changed.”
June 2018: Taylor and Cartwright get engaged
The couple announced they were engaged on June 8, 2018. Cartwright shared a photo of her 3-carat ring on her finger with Taylor smiling in the background.
“Omg omg!!!!!!!! We are ENGAGED! What a way to start our summer and season 7!! I am so happy, so in love, and so beyond excited for this next chapter of our lives! I can’t wait for all of you to see how he proposed! I am the happiest girl ever right now. love can win,” she captioned the Instagram post.
The proposal was filmed for Season 7 and showed Taylor treating Cartwright to a romantic sunset dinner at their favorite restaurant, Neptune’s Net in Malibu, Calif.
“Miss Brittany Cartwright, I love you so much. Will you please make me the happiest man in the world and be my wife?” Taylor asked while down on one knee.
Cartwright began sobbing and said “yes” while they hugged and kissed as patrons cheered them on.
The duo later went back to their apartment, where their friends and co-stars were waiting to surprise the bride-to-be with an engagement party.
May 2019: Taylor and Cartwright buy their first home together
The couple purchased their first home together in Valley Village, Calif. — less than a mile from two of their co-star couples’ homes — in April 2019.
The $1.9 million modern farmhouse included five bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, a pool and plenty of grass for yard work enthusiast Taylor to mow.
“I am feeling SO blessed! We have so much to look forward to,” Cartwright captioned a selfie in front of their home in May 2019. “We are moving into our first home together this week, we are getting married in less than 2 months, and we start filming season 8!! We are growing up, moving forward, & working for our forever happiness.”
June 2019: Taylor and Cartwright say ‘I do’
Taylor and Cartwright tied the knot on June 29, 2019, at the Kentucky Castle.
“It feels amazing,” she told People at the time. “We’re stronger and happier than we’ve ever been. We’ve been through a lot, but we came out on the other side. I feel like we’ve just gotten stronger and stronger.”
Taylor agreed, chiming in, “We know we love each other. We know we want to be together. We’re just really excited. Just really happy with where we are right now.”
September 2020: Baby on board
Taylor and Cartwright announced in September 2020 that she was pregnant with their first child.
“Mom & Dad. The love of our lives is coming soon,” she captioned an Instagram photo of them sitting on stairs while holding a reel of ultrasound photos.
Less than a week later, the couple revealed they were having a baby boy.
December 2020: Taylor and Cartwright leave Vanderpump Rules’
The then-expectant parents announced their departure from “Vanderpump Rules” in December 2020 prior to Season 9.
“The last 5 years on Vanderpump Rules have been some of the most challenging, rewarding and fulfilling years of my life. Although this is difficult to share, Jax and I will not be returning for another season of Vanderpump Rules,” Cartwright captioned a series of throwback photos from her time on the show.
Less than four years later, though, Taylor and Cartwright landed another spinoff with the network called “The Valley.”
April 2021: Taylor and Cartwright welcome their first child
Cartwright gave birth to a baby boy named Cruz Michael Cauchi on April 12, 2021. The new parents shared the news one day later with a snap of them kissing their newborn.
“I’ve never in my life thought it was going to be like this.. it’s 10000 times better. Dad mode just kicks in. I don’t think I have ever been as happy as I am right now, everything else in life seems so insignificant now. I am crying just writing this message. I have the most beautiful son a man could ask for, he’s an absolute blessing from god,” Taylor wrote on Instagram.
He also gushed about his “absolutely amazing” wife and how he “fell in love with her all over again.”
2021-2023: Parenthood and rocky friendships
After departing “Pump Rules,” Taylor and Cartwright focused on parenting and frequently shared posts celebrating milestones and anniversaries.
The duo stayed close friends with Kent and Shay, both of whom have daughters around the same age as Cruz.
However, Taylor and Cartwright made headlines in May 2022 when his ex (and former co-star) Stassi Schroeder claimed they had ditched her and Beau Clark’s Italian nuptials.
The foursome have not spoken since their falling out.
February 2024: Cartwright announces separation from Taylor
Cartwright stunned Bravo fans on Feb. 29, 2024, when she announced she and Taylor had split.
“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 said on their podcast, “When Reality Hits.”
Cartwright admitted to having a “particularly rough year this past year.”
“I’m taking things one day at a time. I don’t know what the future holds, but right now my focus is on being the best mom to Cruz,” she explained.
Pvnew later obtained photos of Taylor leaving their Valley Village home to visit Cartwright’s new place in Sherman Oaks, Calif., just days before they announced their separation.
However, Taylor vehemently told Pvnew they were still “together” and “living in our home right now.”
“She was in a house for a while, but yeah, she’s back now,” he claimed. “We’re just spending some time apart and just trying to reassess, you know, our situation. We have a child involved, and we just wanna do what’s best for our kid.”
Taylor emphasized that his separation from Cartwright was “not divorce” and that they were still trying “to figure out” a plan.
“It’s not evil or nastiness,” he explained. “It’s just two people that, you know, are hitting a 10-year mark in their [relationship].”
