Katie Maloney and Jax Taylor’s heated conversation about rumors that he cheated on Brittany Cartwright during Vanderpump Rules Season 11, Episode 13 brought to light another point of contention — but not one for Katie and Jax.
How to Watch
Watch Vanderpump Rules on Bravo Tuesdays at 8/7c and next day on Peacock. Catch up on the Bravo app.
Instead, Jax confronted Katie on behalf of his then-wife: Apparently, the two aren’t friends anymore. Katie and Jax further expanded on the tension between Katie and Brittany during a new episode of the Vanderpump Rules After Show.
What happened between Katie Maloney and Brittany Cartwright?
Jax alleged on the April 23 episode of the Vanderpump Rules After Show that Katie “abandoned” Brittany after they didn’t go to Stassi Schroeder and Beau Clark’s 2020 wedding in Italy.
“For [Katie] not to respond to her texts or messages, it hurt [Brittany]. She was a big part of her life,” Jax said, insisting that Katie “had no part of that situation.”
“So you’re mad just to be mad, or just because you’re up Stassi’s ass,” Jax continued. “[It’s] one of the two. That’s the only two reasons I can think of.”
Katie, meanwhile, defended her decision to stop talking to Brittany.
“We were all planning to go to Italy. We were making plans and arrangements and all that, and I remember Stassi and I were talking to Brittany for the longest time about all that, and she was very sort of avoiding the questions and didn’t really want to get involved in the planning of it all, but she would still. She’d get excited and talk about it,” she explained on the Vanderpump Rules After Show. “But then right up until like the days before, she became very avoidant of it all. So then the morning that we’re all supposed to go to Italy, Brittany sends a message saying, ‘Oh my god, we’re not going to be able to make it, we didn’t get the passport in time, yada yada yada. Just excuse, excuse, excuse.”
For Katie, this was dishonest.
“I just feel like there were so many lies, and I don’t like lies,” Katie added. “I just, I f-cking hate lies, man. Like, nothing more than that. So I’m just like, you know, I need a break … and also Jax has just been such a f-cking asshole to me for no reason.”
Katie and Jax’s drama, explained
Elaborating on her comment about Jax being an “asshole” to her on the Vanderpump Rules After Show, Katie recalled a time when her then-husband Tom Schwartz “accidentally posted” Cruz’s name before Jax and Brittany had announced it.
“[Jax] didn’t talk to him for months, and then he decided not to talk to me. I got roped into it somehow while I was throwing Brittany’s baby shower,” Katie explained. “I had literally nothing to do with it, he just is such a f-cking asshole. I was just ready for a break.”
Why did Jax and Brittany skip Stassi and Beau’s wedding?
Jax shared on the Vanderpump Rules After Show that he and Brittany weren’t “trying to cancel” their trip to Italy for Stassi’s wedding.
As he recalled, “I wasn’t gonna go because my son didn’t have a passport. We thought we were gonna get the expedited passport for Cruz, it didn’t come in time. So, I said, ‘You know what, somebody from our family needs to be at this wedding, so Brittany, why don’t you call your mom, you guys go, and I’ll stay back.’ Then when Brittany’s mom’s best friend’s husband died, it was just like, you know what? It’s not in the cards for us to go.”
Still, Jax insisted he gave Stassi and Beau “lots of money.” More specifically, “I gave them $1,000,” he noted. “We said, ‘I’m sorry.'”
Katie, however, accused Jax of “very openly talking about how they [weren’t] going to the wedding; they had a golf tournament they [were] doing instead.”
“It was just very kind of rude the way he was just speaking so freely to other people, not thinking it would get back to either of them,” she added.
Jax, for his part, noted, “Did I handle it wrong? Absolutely. I handled it completely wrong. And I apologize. I made a mistake. Is it a reason to squash and ruin a whole friendship over? I don’t think so. I don’t know what else I can do.”
Katie and Brittany have conflicting views on their fallout
Katie clarified that she didn’t want her break from Brittany “to be permanent,” but her mind was ultimately made up after “Brittany texted me once [and] asked me how the move was going,” but “never checked in on me, never once asked me anything” during her divorce from Schwartz.
“So I was like, you know, I’m good on you,” Katie added.
Lala Kent, who appeared alongside Brittany on the Vanderpump Rules After Show, sees things differently, though.
“She says Brittany hasn’t reached out and I’m like, she did reach out while you were moving and asked if you need help,” Lala noted. “She’ll say, ‘Need help with what?’ And I’m like, well, then you can’t say she didn’t reach out, ’cause she did. Like, you don’t get to decide how and when and what people say when they reach out. So it’s sometimes hard to gauge with Katie because you’re like, how do I approach this? Should I reach out? And if I reach out, is the timing OK? Is what I said OK? it becomes very intimidating.”
“Very intimidating,” Brittany said in agreement. “She was the matron of honor in my wedding. Like, I love her so much. I still have a lot of love for her. But it’s just crazy how we just don’t talk anymore.”
Hear more about the drama in the above Vanderpump Rules After Show clip.
