Jax Shares His Brutally Honest Thoughts on Marriage Now: “You Drive Each Other Nuts”
Too much togetherness may hurt a marriage, per Jax Taylor. “My parents never saw each other,” he said. “That’s why they were together for 40 years.”
Jax Taylor is suddenly getting philosophical about tying and severing the knot.
Just as the new Bravo series The Valley with Jax and his estranged wife, Brittany Cartwright, premieres March 19, marriage — his own and others in general — has clearly been on Jax’s mind.
The series follows five couples, a group that includes a few Vanderpump Rules alums, plus two other friends. It’s a front-row seat for watching how they negotiate the highs and lows and twists and turns of life in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles.
Jax and Brittany announced they were separating in February 2024. Then, one of the show’s other couples, Jesse and Michelle Lally, announced on March 14 that they were splitting as well.
“Everybody’s been down that road,” according to Jax. He shared that insight about breakups on the Vanderpump Rules After Show, while seated with Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz.
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“I feel like it’s weird if you haven’t been, almost,” Jax added, claiming he thinks marriage certificates should be treated like driver’s licenses.
Jax Taylor Reveals True Feelings About Marriage
After meeting in Las Vegas in 2015 and becoming a couple, Jax and Brittany got engaged in 2018. She declared she was “beyond excited for this next chapter of our lives!”
On June 29, 2019, the couple wed in the bride's home state of Kentucky at a castle in front of family, friends, and more loved ones. “We’re just really excited. Just really happy with where we are right now,” Jax told PEOPLE at the time.
In April 2021, their adorable son, Cruz, was born. In August 2023, Jax and Brittany had another baby of sorts, and launched the L.A.-area sports bar, Jax’s Studio City.
Jax now appears to have been doing some deep reckoning about all of their togetherness — and considering the best strategic approach to a long-running marriage. He’s actually taking cues and inspiration from the Department of Motor Vehicles.
“I think there should be, like, a 10-year thing, where you get married and after 10 years, you can re-up or walk away,” Jax told Vanderpump Rules After Show. He recommends a “DMV kind of thing and you say, ‘Hey, we’re coming up on 10 years.’”
If couples “want to keep going,” he added, “we can extend it or walk away amicably. None of this craziness with the lawyers and money.”
Jax also said that he thinks life in 2024 is a world away from previous generations: “Marriage is so much different nowadays. Everyone’s like, ‘How did our parents stay together?’”
Jax’s answer suggests that he truly believes that absence may make the heart grow fonder.
“My dad worked from 8 to 5, and he was never home,” Jax pointed out. “Now everybody works from home. Of course when you’re together all the time you drive each other nuts.”
Recalling his childhood, Jax said, “I never saw my dad. I saw my dad on the weekends, and that was it.”
The same holds for his mom and dad.
“My parents never saw each other,” Jax said. “That’s why they were together for 40 years.”
Although Jax and Brittany haven’t pinpointed one precise reason for their separation, a teaser for the series has hinted that things have gotten boring in the bedroom.
"We don't have sex ever," is what Brittany told The Valley castmate Janet Caperna.
News of Jax and Brittany's split came from Brittany herself.
“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,” Brittany explained on a February episode of the duo’s podcast When Reality Hits with Jax and Brittany.
Maybe distance will prove true the saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder — and have other benefits, too.
Stay tuned to find out more about the couple and their friends. The Valley premieres March 19 on Bravo.
