The Valley‘s Luke Broderick just shed some light on why he kept Brittany Cartwright in the dark about his top-secret Hawaiian proposal for Kristen Doute — and, yes, Jax Taylor was involved.
On The Valley After Show for Season 2, Episode 12, Luke began his explanation by insisting that he loves Brittany.
“However, she definitely still has a big soft spot for Jax, and he can get stuff out of her, without her even realizing what she’s doing,” he said, naming Danny Booko and Nia Sanchez Booko (who were on the fishing boat during the perfectly timed sunset proposal) as the only couple in the group that he believes “can keep a secret.”
As Kristen separately added, “One extra person could’ve ruined everything.”
Even so, the new mom could certainly see why Brittany would be upset that she wasn’t included in her best friend’s major milestone: “If the roles were reversed, I would’ve felt the same way. I would’ve been like, ‘Wait, I wanna be involved.’ But I totally understand why Luke didn’t.”
Brittany Cartwright reacts to being “left out” of Luke Broderick and Kristen Doute’s engagement
Elsewhere on the After Show, Brittany confirmed that Luke told her she was excluded “because of Jax,” though she didn’t fully understand his reasoning. “I was like, ‘But IÂ divorced him,'” she said.
Insisting that she was still “so happy for them,” Brittany continued, “I was just salty that I wasn’t involved, but, like, Zack [Wickham] was, Nia was, Danny was. And I was just kind of like, ‘But I’m her best friend!’ … I would’ve loved to have been able to help.”
Those comments echo what Brittany said during The Valley‘s July 1 episode, during which she also struggled to understand why Luke didn’t “include” her in his proposal plans.
“I cannot help but feel a little bit left out,” she admitted on Episode 12. “Kristen is one of my very best friends. She’s literally a sister to me, and I would’ve loved to have been there and been in that moment. And, like, I feel like all these other people knew about it but me. It just doesn’t really make sense to me.”
Back on the After Show, Brittany chalked her “selfish” reaction up to several factors, including that she was “already pissed off” because she actually wanted to go fishing, along with her “drinking all day” amid processing her then-fresh divorce filing. Plus, planning theme parties is kind of her “thing,” after all.
“Not that Zack didn’t do great — not that everything wasn’t great — it’s just I was a little off,” Brittany elaborated. “I’m like embarrassed of myself of like how weird of a space I was in. … I was not myself.”
Zack Wickham shares more intel on Luke Broderick excluding Brittany Cartwright from the proposal
Zack, who was one of the few members in on Luke’s plan (and also coordinated the post-engagement celebrations), added on The Valley After Show that “the one thing” Luke wanted was for Kristen “to actually be surprised” by his proposal.
“He reiterated a thousand times, ‘Do not tell anybody. If you tell Brittany, like, I’m gonna be so mad at you,'” he recalled. “He didn’t want anybody to know. He thought that’s what was best. It’s not my engagement. I have to respect his wishes.”
Acknowledging that Brittany, indeed, was “super salty” when she found out, Zack revealed that she later apologized for apparently telling him that she could have decorated the hotel’s Presidential Suite “so much better” than he and boyfriend Benji Quach did.
“She just missed out,” he concluded. “And I’m like, ‘I just schlepped decorations across the f–kin’ Pacific for this. … And did it all by myself with Benji’s help.”
Don’t miss all the new details on Luke and Kristen’s post-engagement life as first-time parents including new baby photos of their newborn daughter, Kaia.
