Jax Taylor knows the exact moment Vanderpump Rules producers decided his time on the show was over.
During the Thursday, March 13, episode of his “In The Mind of a Man” podcast, Taylor, 45, and executive producer Alex Baskin discussed his tumultuous final season on Vanderpump Rules.
“I think my final demise — which put the nail in the coffin for me — is towards the end. Obviously everybody who’s watched the show has always noticed that towards the end I would have a lot of diva moments where I’m like, ‘I’m done, I’m moving to Florida,’” he recalled. “I was just heated. There was a lot of arguing and fighting going on as per usual.”
Taylor recalled a specific scene he caused issues over, adding, “They wanted us to film at the beach, which was in Malibu. We all live in Hollywood. So I said that we can do the same scene at a park in West Hollywood. Like, why do we need to go to rush hour to get to Malibu to shoot a five-minute scene, which is going to take two hours to get there?”
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While reflecting on the issue, Taylor acknowledged he was “micromanaging” production.
“I was pulling a diva moment by saying, ‘I’m not going to the beach. We could literally get the same exact conversation that we’re trying to get at the park across the street.’ They wanted us to go to the beach and help clean — which is fine — but I just was not f—ing doing it,” he continued. “I was not going to drive three hours and that’s when I needed a piece of humble pie.”
Taylor told Baskin that was the moment Bravo probably “had enough” of him. Baskin, however, pointed out a detail from the story that Taylor missed. According to the producer, Taylor didn’t just refuse to film, he ” was telling other people not to go” as well.
“That’s what it was. So because that’s what got to us,is you were being a pain in the ass about it and you were saying, ‘I’m not going to go, this is so stupid.’ Then you were texting other people,” Baskin revealed. “So then of course, we saw those texts and were like, ‘Can you believe Jax is sabotaging the production?’”
Taylor was an OG cast member when Vanderpump Rules premiered in 2013. He remained on the show until his surprising exit alongside then-wife Brittany Cartwright in 2020.
“The last 8 years on Vanderpump Rules have been some of the most challenging, rewarding and fulfilling years of my life,” he wrote in a statement shared via Instagram at the time. “Although this is difficult to share, Brittany and I will not be returning for another season of Vanderpump Rules. We are excited to take this time to focus on our growing family and share with you our new endeavors. @bravotv, @evolutionusa and our Vanderpump castmates will always remain close to our hearts. Thank you to all the fans who have shared our journey with us and supported us through everything. We love you.”
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Cartwright, 36, hinted that the decision to leave may not have been solely up to them, replying to fans who asked about the vague goodbye message, “Do you guys really truly think we got to write whatever we wanted?”
Taylor and Cartwright have since returned to the VPR universe with their spinoff The Valley. Despite the professional success, Taylor still had regrets about his final season on Vanderpump Rules.
“It was such a dumb ass move. I feel like that was my nail in the coffin because I’ve rubbed [the producers wrong] throughout the years,” he added on Thursday. “That was just the final straw. They’re like, ‘Listen, he needs a piece of humble pie and he can’t be doing this. He can’t be texting other cast members trying to form a mutiny.’”
