‘Vanderpump Rules’ Stars Jax, Brittany, and Kristen Open Up About Their New Spinoff Series
After spending years in development and being the worst kept secret in the Bravo universe, the long-awaited Vanderpump Rules’ spinoff The Valley finally premiered on Tuesday night in a crossover episode. On the most recent episode of VPR, viewers watch as Jax Taylor makes his grand return to the series that birthed his reality TV career, after leaving it all behind in 2020. His surprise appearance at a guys’ night with Tom Schwartz, Tom Sandoval, Brock Davies, and James Kennedy ended in a tumultuous confrontation with Sandoval, addressing the cheating scandal that took the world by storm last year. Taylor might not have left the get-together on great terms with Sandoval, but at the end of the episode he leaves West Hollywood and heads back to Valley Village, taking fans into the new, yet somewhat familiar world of The Valley.
The new spinoff series stars Vanderpump Rules alums Jax Taylor, Brittany Cartwright, Kristen Doute, and a handful of new cast members. The show is supposed to depict a group of friends who are in the next phase of their lives — buying houses, raising kids, and navigating marriages and serious relationships. But because this is a cast adjacent to Vanderpump, they also aren’t without their own drama.
At the premiere for The Valley, Taylor, Cartwright, and Doute opened up to Rolling Stone about filming the Vanderpump spinoff at the height of Scandoval, their hesitations — or lack thereof — to get back in front of cameras again, and addressed the rumors around Taylor and Cartwright’s recently announced separation.
“I’ve said this many times, but I think the world’s a better place when I’m on TV,” Taylor tells Rolling Stone.
At the time Taylor filmed the VPR/Valley crossover episode, he wasn’t in a good place with Sandoval. Their friendship was rocky, as viewers witnessed it unfold in their last season on television together, but Taylor says his motive to have a conversation with Sandoval was because he was bothered Sandoval left town to tour with his band and abandoned Schwartz to deal with their bar, Schwartz & Sandy’s.
“I don’t give a shit if he cheated. Everybody on the show has cheated so nobody can judge when everyone’s done it. My issue was how Tom Sandoval handled it,” Taylor says. “I was personally witnessing Tom Schwartz go through hell and I just don’t think that was right. So that’s why I wanted to confront Sandoval on camera,” Taylor says. “I’ve done a lot of screwed up things in my life but I’ve owned everything I’ve done and I’ve taken the bullets. I’ve said, ‘I fucked up.’ That’s what he should have done.”
Since their confrontation on camera over the summer, Taylor says he’s in a good place with Sandoval. According to the reality star, Sandoval regularly shows up to Taylor’s bar in Los Angeles and participates in karaoke nights, even if Taylor isn’t there, and he’s been spending time with Sandoval and Schwartz off camera.
“All three of us have great banter. We love filming together and we have a lot of history. We all love each other very much, regardless of what’s going down. Those are my brothers,” Taylor says. “I love them to death and I would do anything for them.”
Taylor was following in Doute’s footsteps by returning to Vanderpump Rules; last season, Doute filmed a scene with Ariana Madix to discuss Sandoval’s cheating. After being away from cameras for four years, Doute says she was ready to come back full-time.
“It’s just like riding a bike. I did this for 10 years of my life. It wasn’t as simple as I thought it would be but it was very natural at the same time,” Doute says. “I had an ample amount of time to really work on myself, feel comfortable with myself, and confident that I was ready to have my voice be heard again.”
Joining Doute on camera in The Valley is her boyfriend Luke Broderick, who has absolutely no experience in reality TV and was initially nervous to film. Those anxieties have since calmed, he says, despite having made this show at a time when all eyes were on the Vanderpump cast members.
“I did not feel any pressure from Scandoval to try and make a good reality show,” Doute says. “I know this cast and I think when we’re having fun and things are light-hearted that’s a beautiful thing to watch, but without failure it turns on a dime.”
In November, Doute opened up about experiencing a miscarriage on her podcast with Broderick, Sex, Love, and What Else Matters. It wasn’t easy for her to share such a vulnerable moment with fans and listeners, but it felt gratifying to have heard from countless men and women who related to her story. Her fertility journey is something depicted on The Valley, which is also something that Taylor spends most of the premiere episode discussing, culminating in a scene at the end of the episode where Doute calls him out for talking about her business with other people.
After he watched the premiere episode for the first time, Taylor says he called Doute and her Broderick and apologized for being so invested and talking something that was not his business. Doute says she was surprised to get an apology from Taylor but believed it was genuine.
“I started getting apology texts before I even saw the email about being able to watch the episode,” Broderick says. “It’s not the first time someone apologized to me over the summer, or about the summer.”
The intention of The Valley was to show the cast members maturing in the next chapter of their lives, but drama seems to follow this crew wherever they go, whether they’re in West Hollywood or Valley Village. Taylor says he felt like he was filming Vanderpump Rules halfway through production because of all the drama, pointing out how Doute says in a trailer for the show, “I didn’t sign up for this all over again, I’d rather be on Vanderpump Rules.”
“That was a great line, and I love when producers break the fourth wall,” he says.
Vanderpump alums and mutual friends Lala Kent, Scheana Shay, and Brock make appearances in The Valley’s first episode. They all attend cast member Janet Carperna’s birthday party, hosted by Taylor and Cartwright. It also doesn’t look like the last time there might be some crossover into the VPR universe, since Tom Schwartz appears in a trailer for The Valley’s first season. Former Vanderpump star Stassi Schroeder who was fired from the show in 2020 and has estranged relationships with some of her former castmates, including Taylor and Cartwright, recently discussed being asked to take part in the spinoff but ultimately turning it down.
“Every fiber of my being voted no,” Stassi told SiriusXM. “First of all, it wouldn’t be a reflection of what my reality is … it’s just not my group of friends. I’m friendly with some of them, I’m acquaintances with some of them — and some of the new ones too that I think are lovely. But it’s not my crew.”
While some OG cast members have been supportive of The Valley, others have taken the opportunity to throw shade. Longtime Sur manager Peter Madrigal who has appeared on Vanderpump Rules over the years said on the Bravo & Blaze podcast that he watched a trailer for the spinoff and thought, “It looks like garbage.”
While Taylor had no qualms getting back in front of cameras for the world to see, Cartwright had slight hesitations about reentering the reality TV world. “It’s always felt like a lot to me.” Cartwright was worried about other people’s judgments, especially when it comes to featuring her 2-year-old son Cruz.
Even though she tries not to pay too close attention to what people have to say online, it’s hard for Cartwright to completely ignore viewer comments. She says, for example, she felt compelled to publicly share that she and Taylor were separating after strangers online started noticing that Cartwright was posting photos and videos speculating that she and Taylor were living apart.
“The only reason I even addressed it was because the Instagram sleuths were like, ‘Oh, Cartwright is living in a different house.’ I would not have even said anything, I would’ve kept it quiet. That’s another thing that upset me. I would have kept it quiet and I would have kept it to myself.”
Cartwright is no stranger to public scrutiny. Ever since she entered the world of reality TV as Taylor’s girlfriend in Season Four of Vanderpump Rules, fans and viewers have questioned her for staying in a relationship with him despite his lying and cheating. With the announcement of their separation aligning with The Valley’s premiere on Bravo, some fans accused the longtime couple of trying to pull off a publicity stunt in order to gain attention heading into the launch of their new show. This is deeply upsetting to Cartwright who says it’s frustrating that people forget she’s more than just a character on television.
“If people have actually watched me over the years, I feel like they should know that I would never do that. I guess people think I’m just a TV personality but this is my real life. I’m a real life person, I’m not just on your TV screen” she says. “So many people think we’re faking it for a TV show and I’m like, absolutely not. Are you kidding me?”
She says she’s happy that production wanted to capture what’s been going on recently so they can shed light on the reality of their relationship to skeptical viewers who think the breakup is staged. She also appreciated that production didn’t pressure them to film if they didn’t want to; they approached the cast members asking if they would be willing to bring up cameras again instead of demanding they do so.
On last week’s episode of Vanderpump Rules, Katie Maloney makes a comment about rumors she heard about Taylor “running around town,” which Lala and Scheana also say they’ve heard. Taylor says he’s not watching the current season of VPR but knew about the scene in question.
“That’s what Katie does. She sits on her couch because she’s miserable and she likes to talk about other people,” he says. “That’s what she does. That’s a Katie move. She’s been doing that forever.”
Taylor denies any speculation about him cheating on Cartwright despite his past mistakes before they got married, which were documented on VPR. He agrees with his estranged wife that it’s disgusting anyone would think they separated as a publicity stunt. They’re still spending time with each other every day and co-parenting their 2-year-old son.
While she’s successfully co-parenting with Taylor, Cartwright says she’s weary about where things will go with their romantic relationship and with their professional ventures; they’re partners in businesses they own together, like Taylor’s Bar and their podcast When Reality Hits With Taylor and Brittany.
“For right now I can deal with it. But if he pisses me off in the future, I don’t know how I’m going to deal with it. It’s very up and down right now,” Cartwright says. “Cruz is our focus. I say to him all the time, ‘Don’t talk to me unless it’s about Cruz.’”
Tuesday night’s episode isn’t the last Vanderpump fans will see of Taylor on the show’s current season. In a trailer that sheds light on what’s to come for the remainder of the season, there’s a clip of another scene showing Taylor and Lisa Vanderpump having a heated conversation on camera for the first time since he left the show in 2020. It was tough for Taylor to film that moment with Vanderpump, he says.
“That was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in a long time. I was very upset that I’d given Lisa Vanderpump a huge chunk of my life. I was very honest and open on camera, and I was just really upset that when we had a baby, she didn’t give us a call,” Taylor says.
Regardless of what happens on The Valley, the three Vanderpump alums tell Rolling Stone they unequivocally want to film a second season of the show.
“I signed up for the show and it comes with the good and the bad,” Taylor says. “I’ve always been very open and I’m not going to stop now,” Taylor says.