Jax Taylor offered some more insight into his feud with Katie Maloney — and it seems like the drama is just getting started.
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, which aired on Thursday, October 12, Taylor, 44, explained why he’s at odds with Maloney, 36.
“I think because of the situation that we didn’t go to Stassi [Schroeder]‘s wedding, Katie is just doing what Stassi says,” he said. “So she’s mad at my wife, [Brittany Cartwright], and I just don’t think that is fair. It had nothing to do with my wife, so I don’t think she should be so mean to her.”
Andy Cohen asked, “You think that Katie is Stassi’s puppet?” In response, Taylor nodded and said he agreed with the observation.
Schroeder, 35, and Taylor, who were part of the original Vanderpump Rules cast when the show debuted in 2013, faced their fair share of ups and downs over the years. Their tumultuous romance was a central story line in the early seasons of the hit Bravo series. Schroeder and fellow OG Kristen Doute were fired from the show in 2020, the same year Taylor and Cartwright, 34, announced their exits.
Following her split from Taylor, Schroeder moved on with now-husband Beau Clark, with whom she shares daughter Hartford, 2, and son Messer, 2 months. Taylor, meanwhile, found love with Cartwright, whom he married in 2019. They share son Cruz, 2.
The former costars sparked rumors of a feud shortly after Schroeder tied the knot with Clark, 43, in May 2022 in Italy. Schroeder was the first to address the suspected falling out that same month.
“To our faces, they are telling us that they are coming, but behind our back, the dude is texting Beau’s best friend that they’re not,” she said on her “The Good the Bad The Baby” podcast at the time. “Good friends don’t do that. They don’t talk s—t about your wedding behind your back or pretend that they’re coming and give a list of reasons why they’re not coming to other people. Friends don’t do that to each other.”
She continued: “Two weeks before the wedding, right before I left for the book tour, I was like, ‘We need to address this with them because I’m not playing this game.’ I ordered all the stuff we needed to have in terms of seat assignments and the place cards. That’s done. So I need to know if I need to quickly ask to get things rearranged. Because it’s not just, like, taking out two people.”
Cartwright, for her part, attempted to offer her side of the story one month later.
“We had actual reasons why we couldn’t go that were not talked about. Like, Cruz’s passport didn’t come in, my mom had a death in the family and had to go home,” she explained on the “Betches Moms” podcast in June 2022, shutting down claims that she and her husband waited until “the last minute” to cancel. “That was not the case. It was that I was literally trying to be there, up until the very last minute.”
Earlier this year, Schroeder said she wasn’t in a rush to forget the past. “I do miss them at times. They hurt me — they really did. It feels like I can’t trust them anymore,” she said while cohosting a June episode of “The Toast” podcast. “I am over it, but it doesn’t mean I have to go be besties with these people again.”
The Next Level Basic author admitted the lack of communication was what upset her the most, adding, “I gave them the opportunity to back out and they didn’t. Then as I was getting on the plane, I got a text from Brittany. That feels way more hurtful. I think that was a huge part of why it hurt even more. I had to cut family members and so many people I would have loved to have there. So, they took up two spaces.”
The drama has since caused a division in their friend group. Maloney, who was the maid of honor at Schroeder’s wedding, quickly sided with her longtime BFF, causing Taylor to put Maloney on blast earlier this month.
“She’s mean to my wife. She hasn’t returned calls and they haven’t talked forever. She did our gender reveal [party] and she was in our wedding,” he said at an event on Monday, October 9. “Katie’s got a little bit of a big head right now. She’s riding on Ariana [Madix]’s coattails.”
A Bravo fan account later claimed they received a message from Maloney about the footage of Taylor’s appearance. “Lol Brittany hasn’t called me. I also saw her on Scheana [Shay]’s birthday and we were fine. I’m not mean to her,” she wrote.
Taylor saw screenshots of Maloney’s response circulating on social media — and promptly responded. “Bull s—t.. you are a mean girl to my wife .. she’s done nothing to you but be your friend,” he wrote in the fan account’s comments section. “That’s lie we need to see proof!!! I can say s—t too show the proof that you called…”
Taylor admitted on Thursday’s WWHL that he is still hoping to mend fences with everyone.
“I wish I was good friends with Stassi and Beau still. I’m trying. Obviously, we didn’t go to their wedding and they are still kind of holding that over our heads,” he shared. “It hurts my feelings because I love them to death and I wish we could be friends again. I love them both dearly, but they just took it to heart that we didn’t go to their wedding.”
