‘The Valley’ Trailer Zeroes In on Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright Tension

Jackie Strause
·3 min read
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Taking a page out of the Vanderpump Rules producer handbook, cameras on The Valley began rolling again after Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright shared publicly that the married couple was taking time apart.

Production had wrapped on the VPR spinoff series last year, but The Hollywood Reporter reported that the cameras fired back up to capture the fallout when, in late February, Cartwright announced on her and Taylor’s podcast that the parents to 2-year-old son Cruz were separating after four years of marriage.

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“Yes, marriages in general are really hard, and I’ve had a particularly rough year in mine this past year. 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,” she said, reading from a prepared statement. “I won’t get into too many details right now, because this is still very hard to talk about, and I’m taking things one day at a time. I don’t know what the future holds, but right now my focus is on being the best mom to Cruz. I love you guys, pray for us and everything will be just fine.”

Taylor was not present for the podcast episode and after Cartwright made the on-air announcement, he told Page Six the pair were not headed for a divorce and refuted some of her statement. “We’re together. We’re living in our home right now,” he said. “She was in a house for a while, but yeah, she’s back now.”

Now, two weeks later, Bravo has released an expanded sneak peek following up on the initial trailer. The new minute-and-a-half footage puts a spotlight on their tension, which is reminiscent of their rocky road to a relationship from their earlier days on Vanderpump Rules; they parted ways with that series in 2020.

VPR star Tom Schwarz first jokes in the trailer that Taylor will end up like him, “divorced and miserable,” before the footage shows the couple arguing about their family, and an online rumor is mentioned that Taylor allegedly cheated. “I don’t feel like he’s attracted to me; we don’t have sex ever,” says Cartwright at one point. “It’s so hard to be married sometimes,” says Taylor at another point. He is also seen dismissing her emotions and saying, “She has a [expletive] problem.”

Another former SUR staffer is among The Valley cast: Kristen Doute, who was fired from VPR in June 2020 after calling the police on former castmate Faith Stowers to implicate her in a crime she did not commit.

Of deciding to bring the trio back to TV, producer Alex Baskin told The Hollywood Reporter, “I think that they learned a lot, I think they appreciate what it means to be on television and have this opportunity when it’s taken away from them, so I think there’s that. We address the Kristen situation, as well, so it isn’t like we pretend that everything didn’t happen. That comes up and is part of what we cover on the show.”

The series follows a group of close friends as they “trade bottle service in West Hollywood for baby bottles in the Valley all while they navigate bustling businesses, rocky relationships and feisty friendships.” The cast includes five couples: Taylor and Cartwright, Doute and Luke Broderick, Danny and Nia Booko, Jesse and Michelle Lally, and Jason and Janet Caperna.

The spinoff premieres next week, March 19, following an episode of Vanderpump Rules, which has been capturing the fallout from Scandoval, the cheating scandal that became national news last season when Tom Sandoval and Rachel Leviss’ secret affair was made public. Similar to its flagship series, the Taylor and Cartwright fallout will air at the end of The Valley‘s season.

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