'Vanderpump Rules' Stars Jax, Brittany, Kristen Open Up About ...

After spending years in development and being the worst kept secret in the Bravo universe, the long-awaited Vanderpump Rules’ spinoff The Valley finally premiered on Tuesday night in a crossover episode. On the most recent episode of VPR, viewers watch as Jax Taylor makes his grand return to the series that birthed his reality TV career after leaving it all behind in 2020. His surprise appearance at a guys’ night with Tom Schwartz, Tom Sandoval, Brock Davies, and James Kennedy ended in a tumultuous confrontation with Sandoval, addressing his cheating scandal that took the world by storm last year. Jax might not have left the get-together on great terms with Sandoval, but at the end of the episode he leaves West Hollywood and heads back to Valley Village, taking fans into the new yet somewhat familiar world of The Valley.

The new spinoff series stars Vanderpump Rules alums Jax, Brittany Cartwright, Kristen Doute, and a handful of new cast members. The show is supposed to depict a group of friends who are in the next phase of their lives — buying houses, raising kids, and navigating marriages and serious relationships. But because this is a cast adjacent to Vanderpump, they also aren’t without their own drama. 

At the premiere for The Valley, Jax, Brittany, and Kristen opened up to Rolling Stone about filming the Vanderpump spinoff at the height of Scandoval, their hesitations — or lack thereof — to get back in front of cameras again, and addressed the rumors around Jax and Brittany’s recently announced separation.

“I’ve said this many times, but I think the world’s a better place when I’m on TV,” Jax tells Rolling Stone.

At the time Jax filmed the VPR/Valley crossover episode, he wasn’t in a good place with Sandoval. Their friendship was rocky, as viewers witnessed it unfold in their last season on television together, but Jax says his motive to have a conversation with Sandoval was because he was bothered Sandoval left town to tour with his band and abandoned Schwartz to deal with their bar, Schwartz & Sandy’s.

“I don’t give a shit if he cheated. Everybody on the show has cheated so nobody can judge when everyone’s done it. My issue was how Tom Sandoval handled it,” Jax says. “I was personally witnessing Tom Schwartz go through hell and I just don’t think that was right. So that’s why I wanted to confront Sandoval on camera,” Jax says. “I’ve done a lot of screwed up things in my life but I’ve owned everything I’ve done and I’ve taken the bullets. I’ve said, ‘I fucked up.’ That’s what he should have done.”

Since their confrontation on camera over the summer, Jax says he’s in a good place with Sandoval. According to the reality star, Sandoval regularly shows up to Jax’s bar in Los Angeles and participates in karaoke nights, even if Jax isn’t there, and he’s been spending time with Sandoval and Schwartz off camera.

“All three of us have great banter. We love filming together and we have a lot of history. We all love each other very much, regardless of what’s going down. Those are my brothers,” Jax says. “I love them to death and I would do anything for them.”

Jax was following in Kristen’s footsteps by returning to Vanderpump Rules; last season, Kristen filmed a scene with Ariana Madix to discuss Sandoval’s cheating. After being away from cameras for four years, Kristen says she was ready to come back full-time.

“It’s just like riding a bike. I did this for ten years of my life. It wasn’t as simple as I thought it would be but it was very natural at the same time,” Kristen says. “I had an ample amount of time to really work on myself, feel comfortable with myself, and confident that I was ready to have my voice be heard again.”

Joining Kristen on camera in The Valley is her boyfriend Luke Broderick, who has absolutely no experience in reality TV and was initially nervous to film. Those anxieties have since calmed, he says, despite having made this show at a time when all eyes were on the Vanderpump cast members.

“I did not feel any pressure from Scandoval to try and make a good reality show,” Kristen says. “I know this cast and I think when we’re having fun and things are light-hearted that’s a beautiful thing to watch, but without failure it turns on a dime.”

In November, Kristen opened up about experiencing a miscarriage on her podcast with Luke, Sex, Love, and What Else Matters. It wasn’t easy for Kristen to share such a vulnerable moment with fans and listeners, but it felt gratifying to have heard from countless men and women who related to her story. Her fertility journey is something that she depicts on The Valley, which is also something that Jax spends most of the premiere episode discussing, culminating in a scene at the end of the episode where Kristen calls him out for talking about her business with other people. After he watched the premiere episode for the first time, Jax says he called Kristen and her boyfriend Luke and apologized for being so invested in their fertility journey and talking about it so much when it wasn’t his business. Kristen says she was surprised to get an apology from Jax but believed it was genuine.

“I started getting apology texts before I even saw the email about being able to watch the episode,” Luke says. “It’s not the first time someone apologized to me over the summer, or about the summer.”

The intention of The Valley was to show the cast members maturing in the next chapter of their lives, but drama seems to follow this crew wherever they go, whether they’re in West Hollywood or Valley Village. Jax says he felt like he was filming Vanderpump Rules halfway through production because of all the drama, pointing out how Kristen says in a trailer for the show, “I didn’t sign up for this all over again, I’d rather be on Vanderpump Rules.”

“That was a great line, and I love when producers break the fourth wall,” he says.

Vanderpump alums and mutual friends Lala Kent, Scheana Shay, and Brock make appearances in The Valley’s first episode. They all attend cast member Janet Carperna’s birthday party, hosted by Jax and Brittany. It also doesn’t look like the last time there might be some crossover into the VPR universe, since Tom Schwartz appears in a trailer for The Valley’s first season. Former Vanderpump star Stassi Schroeder who was fired from the show in 2020 and has estranged relationships with some of her former castmates, including Jax and Brittany, recently discussed being asked to take part in the spinoff but ultimately turning it down.

“Every fiber of my being voted no,” Stassi told SiriusXM. “First of all, it wouldn’t be a reflection of what my reality is … it’s just not my group of friends. I’m friendly with some of them, I’m acquaintances with some of them — and some of the new ones too that I think are lovely. But it’s not my crew.”

While some OG cast members have been supportive of The Valley, others have taken the opportunity to throw shade. Longtime Sur manager Peter Madrigal who has appeared on Vanderpump Rules over the years said on the Bravo & Blaze podcast that he watched a trailer for the spinoff and thought, “It looks like garbage.”

When asked about Peter’s remarks, Jax says, “I don’t have any comment about Peter. He’s an idiot. I think he’s got to shift at Sur in five minutes, so maybe he’s just worried about that.”

While Jax had no qualms getting back in front of cameras for the world to see, Brittany had her slight hesitations about reentering the world of reality TV, saying “It’s always felt like a lot to me.” Brittany was worried about other people’s judgments, especially when it comes to featuring her two-year-old son Cruz. Being a mom on TV is a whole new journey for Brittany and she hopes people relate to some of the struggles she shares this season. Even though she tries not to pay too close attention to what people have to say online, it’s hard for Brittany to completely ignore everyone’s comments. In fact, it was incessant comments from people online who noticed she was posting photos and videos on social media from a different location other than her house that prompted Brittany to publicly share that she and Jax had separated.

“The only reason I even addressed it was because the Instagram sleuths were like, ‘Oh, Brittany is living in a different house.’ I would not have even said anything, I would’ve kept it quiet. That’s another thing that upset me. I would have kept it quiet and I would have kept it to myself.”

Brittany is no stranger to public scrutiny. Ever since she entered the world of reality TV as Jax’s girlfriend in Season Four of Vanderpump Rules, fans and viewers have questioned her for staying in a relationship with him despite his lying and cheating. With the announcement of their separation aligning with The Valley’s premiere on Bravo, a lot of people accused the longtime couple of trying to pull off a publicity stunt in order to garner attention heading into the launch of their new show. This is deeply upsetting to Brittany who says it’s frustrating that people forget she’s more than just a character on television.

“If people have actually watched me over the years, I feel like they should know that I would never do that. I guess people think I’m just a TV personality but this is my real life. I’m a real life person, I’m not just on your TV screen” she says. “So many people think we’re faking it for a TV show and I’m like, absolutely not. Are you kidding me?”

News of the separation prompted cameras to pick up filming again. Brittany says she’s happy that production wanted to capture what’s been going on recently so they can shed light on the reality of their relationship to skeptical viewers who think the breakup is staged. She also appreciated that production didn’t pressure them to film if they didn’t want to; they approached the cast members asking if they would be willing to bring up cameras again instead of demanding they do so.

“So much has happened since the cameras dropped last fall and I’m glad they wanted to film again [recently]. It’s been a long time so a lot has changed for every single person, not only us,” she says.

On last week’s episode of Vanderpump Rules, Katie Maloney makes a comment about rumors she heard about Jax “running around town,” which Lala and Scheana also say they’ve heard. Jax says he’s not watching the current season of VPR but knew about the scene in question.

“That’s what Katie does. She sits on her couch because she’s miserable and she likes to talk about other people,” he says. “That’s what she does. That’s a Katie move. She’s been doing that forever.”

Jax denies any speculation about him cheating on Brittany despite his past mistakes before they got married, which were documented on VPR. He agrees with his estranged wife that it’s disgusting anyone would think they separated as a publicity stunt. They’re still spending time with each other every day and co-parenting their two-year-old son, Cruz.

“We filmed almost a year ago and if you watch the show you’ll see we were starting to have issues then. Believe it or not, people can separate for reasons other than cheating,” Jax says. “I know we live in LA and people think, ‘He must have cheated,’ but no. We just don’t communicate. We have a communication problem. We’re working on it but we’re not sure what’s going to happen.”

While she’s successfully co-parenting with Jax, Brittany says she’s weary about where things will go with their romantic relationship and with their professional ventures; they’re partners in businesses they own together, like Jax’s Bar and their podcast When Reality Hits With Jax and Brittany. 

“For right now I can deal with it. But if he pisses me off in the future, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with it. It’s very up and down right now,” Brittany says. “Cruz is our focus. I say to him all the time, ‘Don’t talk to me unless it’s about Cruz.’”

Tuesday night’s episode isn’t the last Vanderpump fans will see of Jax on the show’s current season. In a trailer that sheds light on what’s to come for the remainder of the season, there’s a clip of another scene showing Jax and Lisa Vanderpump having a heated conversation on camera for the first time since he left the show in 2020. It was tough for Jax to film that moment with Lisa because he was upset over feeling abandoned by the reality show’s matriarch after working so closely with her for years.

“That was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in a long time. I was very upset that I’d given Lisa Vanderpump a huge chunk of my life, I was very honest and open on camera, and I was just really upset that when we had a baby, she didn’t give us a call,” Jax says. “Lisa was like my mother for 11 or 12 years and I just felt used.”

Regardless of what happens between Brittany, Jax, Kristen, and anyone else on The Valley cast, the three Vanderpump alums who spoke to Rolling Stone all said they unequivocally want to film a second season of the show.

“I signed up for the show and it comes with the good and the bad,” Jax says. “I’ve always been very open and I’m not going to stop now,” Jax says.