As is the case with most things these days, The Valley‘s Brittany Cartwright and Jax Taylor were on opposite sides of the fence regarding his new condo next door to Tom Schwartz. (And Jax’s therapist didn’t exactly bridge the gap either.)
Following their off-camera park meeting on Season 2, Episode 7, Jax explained on The Valley After Show that he “was very scared” to have a one-on-one with Brittany, which is why he invited his therapist as “a third party” to help mediate when he debriefed her on his post-rehab living arrangement plans.
As far as Brittany was concerned, though, “It felt like it was very one-sided because these people run the facility that he was in, so they were hearing all of his stuff,” she said, later claiming that Jax had likely “charmed” them.
“He tells me that he signed a lease, and then he was like, ‘Didn’t I?! Didn’t I?!’ to the therapist,” Brittany recalled, adding that she “wouldn’t even have believed it” otherwise.
Why Jax Taylor moved out of his house and into an apartment near Tom Schwartz
From Jax’s point of view, he was contributing to “this growth thing” by allowing Brittany and their son Cruz to return to the home “that they’re used to,” rather than moving from rental property to rental property. Ultimately, he thought his estranged wife would “really appreciate” the gesture.Â
“I’m standing up, being a man, leaving the home, and going somewhere else, a mile down the road, so I’m right there if she needs me,” Jax elaborated. “I’ll even have the place even before I get out. I’ll have it signed, sealed, delivered, and she’ll be happy with this. It totally backfired on me.”
Doubling down that it was “the right move,” the Jax’s Studio City owner said that his therapist agreed that it was a “great” idea.
“I was thinking of my kid,” Jax insisted. “I still stand by it. My therapist stood by it. We, honestly, did not see that conversation going the other way. It was bad. It was bad. [Brittany] stormed off.”Â
Why Brittany Cartwright was upset that Jax Taylor moved out of their shared home
What “really bothered” Brittany about the whole thing, though, was that Jax “knew how much money” she’d spent on the rental properties, which, by her estimate, totaled approximately $100,000.Â
“And I had that rental property I was in. There was still two and a half months left on that [lease] that I had to prepay for, and it was a lot of money,” she said. “That means that I have wasted all this money whenever I could have been in my own home where I needed and should have been the entire time. But Jax wouldn’t leave because of his ego and made me and his son move out.”Â
Jax, for his part, claimed he “was unaware” that Brittany had signed a three-month lease, conceding that he “probably should’ve” asked her before renting his own condo. However, he didn’t think it would be “that big of a deal” for Brittany to “just ask for the money back or re-rent it out.”
Brittany Cartwright opens up on Jax Taylor not paying their mortgage
Adding insult to injury, Brittany found out during Episode 7 that Jax had not paid their mortgage for several months, prior to entering the mental health facility. “He never asked me for help. He never told me anything. He never did anything,” she vented to Schwartz and Jasmine Goode, after previously estimating that their mortgage was $14,000 a month. “And then he goes and signs a lease to live in an apartment.”
Explaining that she would also be on the hook for the unpaid balance because both of their names are on the mortgage, Brittany continued, “If he hasn’t paid it since then, [the debt] could be up to, like, $100,000 by now.”
Her shocking discovery seemed to be the final blow to any hopes of them getting back together: “We’re done,” she concluded. “There’s no Jax and Brittany anymore.”
Get more intel from the above After Show clip, and don’t miss a sneak peek at what’s next for Brittany and Jax, post-rehab, in The Valley Season 2’s midseason trailer.
