Brittany Cartwright‘s priority is her son, which is why she wants to make sure he is in “good hands” with his father, Jax Taylor.
After revealing her 3-year-old son Cruz’s autism diagnosis, Cartwright, 36, recalled weathering her split from Taylor, 45, telling People on Thursday, April 10, “It got so bad, and he was just so aggressive and horrible to me, yelling at me in front of our son [Cruz]. I had to take Cruz out of the house.”
Cartwright said she had “enough” of Taylor’s “come downs” related to his substance abuse issues. After moving on, Cartwright has been making sure that Cruz is adjusting well to the changes.
“I’m going to put my foot down, and I’m going to make sure he’s doing what he needs to do: drug testing, everything,” she added. “As much as me and Jax are not getting along, I want Cruz to grow up with his dad in his life. So if he can stay consistent, I think that’s very important in coparenting.”
Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright’s Quotes About Coparenting Son Cruz
Despite sometimes being at odds with Taylor, Cartwright wants him to be in Cruz’s life.
“He’s done so much damage, and me and Cruz weren’t enough for him to get help for a very long time,” she continued. “I want his dad to be in his life, but it’s just really hard when you can’t trust somebody. It’s going to take me a long time to regain trust in him, and that makes coparenting extremely hard. I can just hope and pray that one day he will completely knock this, because I’m not sure yet.”
Bravo viewers were introduced to Taylor and Cartwright’s romance on Vanderpump Rules. The couple documented their rocky road to happily ever after, which included having their 2019 nuptials filmed for the show. Taylor and Cartwright announced their departure from Vanderpump Rules in 2020. After taking a break from reality TV, Taylor and Cartwright expanded their family with son Cruz, whom they welcomed in 2021.
Taylor and Cartwright returned to the spotlight on Bravo’s The Valley, which premiered in 2024 shortly after they announced their separation. In June 2024, Taylor entered a 30-day treatment program to address his ongoing mental health struggles, but Cartwright ultimately filed for divorce. After hinting at larger struggles, Taylor revealed he went to rehab twice for cocaine addiction.
“I’ve been in and out of using cocaine for a while. I wouldn’t use it every single day. There would be months I would take off,” he exclusively told Us Weekly in March. “And then I would do it like a week here, maybe two times a month or three times a month. It got really bad though. When the divorce started, I felt like I was doing it recreationally.”
Jax Taylor Takes Care of Son Cruz Whenever Brittany Cartwright ‘Allows’ Him
Taylor noted that he is still working on himself every day.
“I had all these other issues because I’m masking loneliness,” he added. “I’m masking the texting women by doing drugs and drinking alcohol. I have all these other issues. So it’s a slow process, which is hard for me because I always look for the quick fix. This is one of those things in life that it’s not a quick fix. You have to work at it. I’m not used to that.”
Taylor concluded: “This is not gonna work that way. That’s not how addiction, sickness and mental health works. People are like, ‘Jax, you’ve done a lot of freaking damage. Like a lot.’ And this is just not going to go away anymore. People have had enough.”
Cartwright, for her part, shared their son’s autism diagnosis earlier this week.
“It can be difficult because I’ve never heard him say, ‘I love you.’ But he is so loving, and he shows me he loves me every single day. He is such a mommy’s boy,’” she told People. “He crawled early, he walked early. He was talking, he was saying, ‘Mommy,’ ‘Daddy.’ Then, as he got closer to 2, we started noticing that he was regressing in his speech. He stopped talking almost completely.”
