Jax Taylor is back on Vanderpump Rules.
The show alum — who appeared on the series from 2013 to 2020 — made his long-awaited return on Tuesday night’s episode, coming back at Tom Schwartz’s request to dole out advice to Tom Sandoval amid his cheating scandal.
Schwartz thought the reunion was a good idea since Jax had previously successfully navigated a cheating scandal — Jax cheated on Brittany Cartwright when they were dating and went on to marry her — but Sandoval disagreed.
“Nothing brings Jax more joy than celebrating other people’s failures and misery,” Sandoval told the cameras, alluding to his cheating scandal with Rachel Leviss amid his relationship with Ariana Madix.
“I know what you did was wrong, but what I did was wrong, too,” Jax told the table, which consisted of Sandoval, Schwartz, James Kennedy and Brock Davies. “The only problem I had with this whole situation is just the way you handled it. Sometimes it’s OK to tuck your tail between your legs and be like, ‘You know what? I f**ked up.”
Sandoval insisted that he had done that, but Jax disagreed, saying, “It’s a humbling experience.”
“It must humbling to only have something interesting to say when you’re talking about me,” Sandoval fired back, before adding, “I don’t need to humble myself to you, dude. You don’t deserve it, homie… You’ve been relentlessly talking s**t about me!”
Jax insisted that the whole world was weighing in on Scandoval, but the other man was still mad, saying, “When the whole entire world was talking s**t about you, when you were going through it, did I f**king dog pile on you?”
“Yeah, you did,” Jax answered. “… You’re not a friend at all. You’re me seven years ago… If not worse. At least when I did it, I owned my s**t.”
As for his life today, Jax said it’s “the best it’s ever been.”
“I’ve grown up. I’ve worked my ass off to get to where I am right now,” he said. “I have a great wife, a great home. I’ve got everything in the world I could possibly ask for and I’m happy.”
The conversation ended with one more dig towards Sandoval, as Jax told him, “You’re literally a disgrace.”
In a confessional, though, Jax said that he does “totally understand where Tom’s at,” before reflecting on his VPR firing.
“I know what it’s like to hit rock bottom. I had the best job in the world on Vanderpump Rules, but I let my ego get ahead of myself a little bit and I f**ked it up,” he admitted. “I was in such a dark place because I felt like I lost it all. Financially, we were kind of like, ‘S**t. What are we going to do now?’ My wife was pregnant at the time. It was rough… But I can’t sit there and be ‘poor me,’ I’ve got to figure something out, put my big boy pants on, start from ground zero.”
Jax then told Sandoval that he wanted the best for him and that he was there if he needed anything, before standing up to hug his one-time pal.
When 360aproko spoke to Jax earlier this month, Jax discussed his “triumphant return” to VPR.
“Here’s the thing, I stepped into that and it was not about cheating. I want to make it very clear, there was nothing to do with cheating. It was how he treated Tom Schwartz in the process of all of this,” Jax said of Sandoval’s post-scandal actions. “He caused this huge thing. He’s very aware of that, but instead of taking ownership and saying, ‘This is what I did,’ he has a hard time taking ownership of anything. What I was upset about is how he handled it with Tom Schwartz. He took off and left Tom kind of to deal with the restaurant and all of this, and that’s what I was angry about.”
“I was not angry about the cheating. I don’t really have a leg to stand on when it comes to that, so I wasn’t yelling at him about that. That wasn’t what it was about,” he continued. “It’s how you treat your friends and that wasn’t OK. You screwed up. You need to sit up and own it and… stop running away. You decided to do this, own up to it and take it like man.”
Apart from the back-and-forth between the former friends, the scene is likely to get the attention of Bravo fans because it was filmed before news of Jax and Brittany’s separation broke.
Brittany, who’s set to star on VPR spinoff The Valley alongside her husband, revealed the relationship news in February.
“Marriages — in general — are very hard and I’ve had a particularly rough year in mine this last year,” she said in part on their When Reality Hits podcast. “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.”
Shortly thereafter, ET exclusively reportedthat The Valley cameras were back up and filming to capture the fallout of Jax and Brittany’s separation.
When 360aproko spoke to Brittany at the premiere of The Valley, she teased what fans will see about her and Jax’s relationship on the show.
“Throughout the season, you’re going to see things here and there and then it just got worse once the cameras went down,” Cartwright said. “I just kind of hit my breaking point and I can only take so much after nine years, you know? I don’t know how much I can give away right now but just like being put down constantly. Honestly, I deserve to be lifted up like the queen that I am.”
