It shouldn’t have been breaking news when Jax and Brittany announced their separation, but it sure felt that way. We’re talking about a man who cheated on his then-girlfriend, now-wife, next to an unconscious 96-year-old woman in hospice care — Jax is a monster who is capable of anything. At the same time, Brittany willingly showed up at a castle in Kentucky to marry that monster four years ago. Sure, it seemed to be a truth universally acknowledged that Jax is Bravo’s worst Jason (which is saying a lot considering Bethenny’s ex), so living with him couldn’t be easy. But since the pair got booted from Vanderpump Rules in the show’s 2020 Red Wedding, for all we knew, they living in pseudo-marital bliss.
They launched Mamaw’s Beer Cheese (coming to Erewhon any day now), Jax’s recently opened Studio City sports bar, and I’m sure most proudly, their almost three-year-old son Cruz. It seemed like Jax and Brittany were in it for the long haul. That is until Brittany dropped a bomb on their podcast When Reality Hits, that the couple would be taking some time apart, conveniently announced weeks before the March premiere of their new show The Valley.
Despite public consensus that their announcement was probably just a thinly veiled publicity stunt, both Jax and Brittany (even when their stories differ), have insisted this chunky knit sweater-sized bump in the road is very real. Since they won’t shut up about it, here’s a painfully detailed overview of Jax and Brittany’s relationship status.
February 23, 2024 – Shutting Down the Rumorz and Nastiness
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Prior to officially spilling the beans, Brittany and Jax got vague and defensive on their podcast, as rumors the couple was on the outs hit the internet. Brittany tossed out a couple of classic Housewives-style deflections saying “marriage is hard,” and that “people go through things,” and then topped it off by blaming “the media” for sensationalizing normal relationship woes. A brief pause to imagine Brittany hanging out with Erika Jayne on RHOBH… okay, moving into the good stuff.
February 29, 2024 – The Official Announcement
A week later on another episode of When Reality Hits (are you sensing a pattern here?), Brittany updated that though “marriages in general are very hard” her marriage in particular was in trouble. She wasn’t exactly wishing for Jax to rawt in hail, but she did admit to moving into an Airbnb to “take space for her mental health.” After nearly a decade of living with Jax Taylor, zero surprises there. Worth mentioning that this was revealed on an episode they were recording with their Valley co-star Michelle, who is separated from her man-child husband Jesse. I’m sure the vibes in that studio were sick.
February 29, 2024 – Jax’s Clap-Back
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Jax finally breaks his heroic less than 24 hours of silence when Paige Six conveniently locates him leaving a 10 p.m. gym sesh. In the interview, he contradicts everything Brittany literally *just* said when telling the outlet “We’re together. We’re living in our home right now.” Soooo…which is it guys?
March 2, 2024 – Brittany Chirps Back
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Not to be outdone, Brittany arranged a v casual run with TMZ where she clarified that she is, in fact, separated from her husband. She tells TMZ that she and Cruz “deserve better” from Jax but she’s hopeful that if he can change a number of things in their life, like attending marriage counseling, they could potentially work it out. The ‘if’ in that sentence was working overtime. She also vehemently denied that any of this was shared for publicity… before going on to name-drop each of their businesses that they will continue to run together, divorce or not.
March 5, 2024 – Lala Kent Enters the Chat
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It was inevitable Lala would voice her opinion about this because she’s close friends with Brittany (and has an opinion on virtually everything). On an episode of Watch What Happens Live, Lauren from Utah confirms the Brittany/Jax break-up drama is very real. She knows first-hand that things have been bad between her bestie (remember that season where the VPR girls were borderline fist-fighting over who loved Brittany the most?) and her sometimes nemesis, Jax, for a while now. Lala has advised Brittany to run for the hills, but she supports her either way.
March 14, 2024 – The Valley Premiere Party
On the red carpet for the show’s premiere, Jax and Brittany both had a lot to say. Jax continued to downplay the split as temporary and most importantly not in response to any infidelity on his part, as he told E! News, because when it comes to Jax Taylor and break-ups, that’s a pretty educated guess. In her conversation with Us Weekly, Brittany seemed most upset that fans (using the word loosely here) could think she would leverage her relationship for clicks when she only opened up about this because “Internet Sleuths” had already figured it out. Both made it clear despite taking this time apart, nothing is set in stone for their future, and Cruz comes before all their bullshit. Kudos mamas.
March 18, 2024 – A Message From The Queen
She rarely has anything positive to say about her former employee, but Lisa Vanderpump honestly kept it pretty mild in her interview with E! to promote The Valley and her upcoming newest spinoff Vanderpump Villa. She speculated that without knowing the details, it was safe to assume the couple’s rift “was probably something to do with Jax’s bad behavior,” which she’s all too familiar with. But LVP also kinda threw Jax and Britt a bone when reminiscing that no one thought she and Ken Todd (former bad boy of the London streets) were gonna make it either, so maybe this couple can overcome the odds too. Thanks for the positivity, queen!
March 18, 2024 – Final Words
In a slew of daytime interviews, Jax and Brittany were asked to elaborate further about WTF went wrong and if they’re going to fix it. Jax gave big King Curtis energy all morning, borderline refusing to talk about the situation, because “he doesn’t have much fight left in him.” Awww, poor baby. He did have enough energy to call Katie “a miserable human being” and reiterate his focus on Cruz. In that same sit down with E!, Brittany did go out of her way to say she still loves Jax, but there’s been so much fighting for so long that she’s happy to be taking time for herself. Kristen is also there playing referee between the two of them/pretending she doesn’t want to talk about herself the entire time. Ahhhh, the glory days.
