Jax and Brittany Share Details on Their Separation in 'The Valley's Season Finale

After four years of nationally televised wedded bliss, Vanderpump Rules alums Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright announced in late February 2024 that they had split.

But fans noticed that they looked happy in the promotional photos for their Bravo show The Valley — so what went wrong?

Brittany — who shares a son, Cruz, with her estranged husband — has said plenty about the reason for the breakup of a couple that many people didn't exactly think would last forever. And Jax appeared on Watch What Happens Live after the May 7, 2024 Vanderpump Rules finale to share his own reasons behind their separation. After that, during The Valley's Season 1 finale, both of them opened up to friends about the why of it all.

Let's start at the beginning. On her shared podcast with Jax, When Reality Hits, Brittany broke the news of the marriage being less than solvent.

"Many of you guys have been asking me about Jax and I and our relationship — I just think it's important to be real and honest with you guys because… we've shared so much of our life with you guys," she explained in the Feb. 29, 2024 episode.

"I don't want to seem like I'm lying or anything like that, so I think it's important for me to say this… Marriages in general are very hard and I've had a particularly rough year this past year. 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," she added.

As for Jax, he told Page Six after their separation announcement: "We’re just spending some time apart and just trying to re-assess, you know, our situation. We have a child involved and we just wanna do what’s best for our kid."

Later on in March 2024, Brittany had more to say on the subject of the breakup to Bravo.

“It just wore on me after nine years of dealing with a personality like that,” Brittany noted about her combative spouse. “We’re very different in a lot of ways and he has grown in many ways as well.”

“He’s just not the best partner right now and if, you know, if he works on some things, maybe in the future, we could get back together," Brittany further said. "I’m not really sure about that situation yet, but for right now, the space is much needed for both of us. I’m just glad that I had the strength to finally take myself out of that situation ‘cause I didn’t think I would ever, ever, ever leave him.”

Then, on the April 2, 2024 episode of Watch What Happens Live, Brittany revealed to Andy Cohen that the "final straw" for the relationship was a blowout argument they had after a night out.

"Yes, we just had a horrible fight, and it was like the veil was lifted and I noticed everything wrong. You know, they always say [that] a woman can hit her breaking point, and then it's hard to come back from that," she said.

During the season finale of The Valley on June 4, 2024, both Jax and Brittany shares more details about what went wrong.

"He was like, going out to the bar and stuff, coming home and having these horrible hangovers that would make him mean as a f--king snake," Brittany explains to her friends in the episode.

She says that after one incident like this, where Jax had screamed at her "for hours," she made the decision to leave their home with their son.

Brittany says she "hit this point" where she finally noticed everything that was wrong in the marriage. And, because Jax didn't want to leave the house, she made the decision to leave herself so she and Jax could live separately.

Elsewhere in the episode, Jax tells Jason Caperna, "I really think I just pushed her over the edge."

When Jax appeared on Watch What Happens Live on May 7, 2024, he took the blame for the lack of sex in his marriage with Brittany, and he cited multiple reasons for their breakdown in communication.

According to Jax, there were a number of things that led to their need for a separation.

"Going what we went through, and you know, COVID, and you know, obviously losing our job on Vanderpump, and then going through all that, and then having a baby, there was just a lot of stuff that was piling down on me," Jax shared.

He also said that his and Brittany's main issue is communication and that he would like to find the right therapist to work through his own issues.

As fans know, Jax previously stepped out on Brittany with an employee at SUR. Some remember the name of the woman that Jax had the affair with: Faith Stowers. But somehow, despite breaking up at that time, and tempers flaring, the couple managed to work through the cheating drama and ended up walking down the aisle in 2019.

When Andy Cohen asked Brittany on the April 2 episode of WWHL about whether she believes Jax cheated on her after their vows, Brittany said, "Not that I'm aware of. I don't think so. I really don't think so."

And when Jax made his own appearance on the Bravo talk show, he had a similar answer: "There is absolutely no infidelity."