Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo
Jax Taylor wasn’t happy to see Lisa Vanderpump offering empathy to Tom Sandoval at the Vanderpump Rules season 10 reunion.
As the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum continues to face criticism for seemingly enabling Sandoval’s bad behavior, specifically his months-long affair with now-ex-girlfriend Ariana Madix‘s former best friend, Raquel Leviss, Jax offered an update on his feud with Stassi Schroeder, discussed his potential return to the show, and named James Kennedy as the new “#1 Guy in the Group.”
James has “grown a lot” and is “really funny,” Jax admitted during a May 31 interview with Rolling Stone, saying that the DJ deserves the title, “especially when you look at all the guys who are left.”
While Jax is an OG of the series, he left in December 2020 for reasons even he doesn’t seem to understand. When asked if Bravo ever gave him an “official reason for why [he was] let go,” Jax replied, “No. I don’t know,” before adding that if they didn’t like him, they wouldn’t have welcomed him back to Watch What Happens Live in March — or allowed him to star in three episodes of Peacock’s Watch With.
“I think the water is under the bridge with that. We had time to take a refresher, and here we are now,” he stated.
According to Jax, he doesn’t believe his exit had anything to do with Faith Stowers, who he slept with before she accused Stassi and Kristen Doute of racism (resulting in their June 2020 firings), but he refused to answer how he feels about Faith now.
As for why he appeared in only three Watch With episodes, Jax said, “I think that’s just what they had in their budget. They wanted to test it out, and people liked it.”
“I think we’re doing something [pegged to the final episodes]. I’m not sure what we’re doing, but I think we’re doing something,” he continued, denying the episodes served as an audition to return to Pump Rules.
“If they came to Brittany and I and offered us something, we would consider it. But there are a lot of things in the works right now,” he teased.
But Jax couldn’t talk about season 11 or a potential spinoff based out of Valley Village, where he and a number of other past and present cast members reside.
“It’s definitely not dead, but I can’t talk about it,” he stated.
While Jax is currently in touch with a number of his former co-stars, he and Stassi are still at odds. And due to their feud, Katie Maloney has also been distant with Jax and his wife, Brittany Cartwright.
“It’s slowly, slowly coming back. [Brittany and Katie] talked at Scheana’s birthday a little bit, and they’re trying to fix that — which is bizarre to me, because it doesn’t have anything to do with Katie,” he shared.
As Pump Rules fans well know, Stassi and her husband Beau Clark cut ties with Jax and Brittany after they pulled out of attending their wedding in Italy at the last minute.
Looking back, Jax said that while he was planning on going before a number of circumstances posed problems, it would’ve been “a very expensive trip.”
“It would have cost, like, $20,000. And I have no help with the baby,” he revealed, giving a nod to his two-year-old son Cruz. “So, it didn’t work out, and we felt bad, so we sent Stassi and Beau $500 to cover our food. And they didn’t really accept it, which I understand.”
“I miss my friendship with Stassi and Beau, and I hope it will be fixed soon,” Jax added.
Moving on to “Scandoval,” Jax said the worst part of it is Sandoval’s “lack of empathy.”
“He’s making a joke of it, putting it in his songs. It’s almost like he’s getting off on this a little bit. That’s where it’s next-level sociopathic,” Jax stated. “I found it really weird that he cried to Lisa and cried to [Tom Schwartz], but didn’t even shed a tear for Ariana. That was odd to me.”
“I don’t think he cares. I think he cares that it’s hurting his image,” he continued. “He’s never really cared about anyone else but himself. He’s very narcissistic … I have a son, and he never even asked about my son or my family.”
As for Ariana, Jax confirmed they’re in a good place today and admitted to having regrets about his past claims against her, which included comments regarding her sexuality.
“I regret a lot of things that I’ve said and done… We haven’t always gotten along… We have different views on things, and there’s nothing wrong with that… But that doesn’t mean we can’t be around and talk to each other,” he explained.
In addition to Ariana being hurt by the scandal, Schwartz has faced his own set of challenges as he owns a bar with Sandoval.
“Schwartz’s life savings [are] tied up in this. It’s not a fair thing to do to your friend. And yeah, Schwartz should have come forward, but what’s he supposed to do? It’s his best friend and business partner,” Jax noted.
Because he slept with Kristen, Sandoval’s ex-girlfriend, and the former best friend of his ex-girlfriend, Stassi, Jax has been accused of hypocrisy. However, according to him, Sandoval’s relationship with Raquel was far different.
“People think I was dating Stassi, but I was not dating Stassi at the time,” he clarified. “Tom was dating Kristen, but he was also hooking up with another girl on the side that I knew about. So, yes, what I did was horribly wrong, but in hindsight, he was hooking up with another girl on the side, and it’s not like he was madly in love with Kristen.”
Also during the interview, after confirming Randall Emmett‘s lawyer is “ghosting” his lawyer, and slamming him as a “really bad person” as he refuses to repay him $75,000 for a loan, Jax explained his many nose jobs.
“The reason why I got so many was because I never took the doctor’s advice after I got surgery… I did everything you weren’t supposed to do,” he confessed.
In other Pump Rules news, Jax recently took aim at Lisa on his and wife Brittany’s podcast, shading his former boss for taking up for Sandoval amid the season 10 reunion.
“This is what annoyed me the most. I can say this because I don’t care. Lisa annoyed me,” Jax shared on the May 30 episode of When Reality Hits, per Us Weekly. “I understand she has to be somewhat neutral about this.”
According to Jax, Lisa is “not around for 99.9 percent of that show” and just “taps in when she wants to, which is mainly the reunion.”
“I just felt that she was siding with Tom. She was kind of trying to be devil’s advocate a little bit,” Jax continued to guest Scheana Shay. “I just feel like she was siding with Tom, and it really annoyed me because she never did that with me when I was on the show. She went against me like crazy.”
Lisa “kind of treats us like little kids sometimes. We’re grown adults. … She barely is on the show. It just irks me sometimes,” he added.
But as Scheana noted, Jax was merely a co-star and employee of Lisa’s while Sandoval is one of her business partners.
Jax then shared that he liked seeing Lala Kent stand up to Lisa, who denied that Sandoval was “a dangerous human being” due to his treatment of Ariana.
“It definitely bothered Lala [Kent]. I was like, ‘Yes, girl, yes!’ It was nice to see Lala do that. I loved it,” he added.
Still, Scheana made it clear that Lisa wasn’t excusing Sandoval’s behavior.
“[Lisa] felt like it was literally everyone against him. She needed some sort of seeing the other side to keep the conversation going,” Scheana explained. “I think there was more to it than her just trying to blindly defend him. She wasn’t all just pro Tom that day.”
The Vanderpump Rules season 10 reunion concludes on Wednesday, June 7, at 9/8c on Bravo.