Jax Taylor is opening up about what to expect from his upcoming sit-down with Tom Sandoval on Vanderpump Rules.
“I want to make it very clear. I did not go after Tom Sandoval about cheating. That had nothing to do with it,” Taylor, 44, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Thursday, March 14, premiere party at Jax’s Studio City for Bravo’s The Valley. “Let’s be honest. Everybody on the show has cheated. Nobody has a leg to stand on.”
Sandoval’s affair with Rachel “Raquel” Leviss was revealed in March 2023 as news broke of his split from Ariana Madix, his girlfriend of nearly a decade. Taylor has since spoken about his former VPR costar’s infidelity on multiple occasions.
“My anger issue was how Sandoval handled it afterwards,” Taylor continued. “He didn’t stay here. He didn’t take the bullets. He deflected them on to Tom Schwartz, who had to sit there, take a beating.”
Following the success of Sandoval and Schwartz’s restaurant TomTom, the pair decided to open a bar called Schwartz & Sandy’s. After the public learned of Sandoval’s affair, Schwartz & Sandy’s was slammed with negative Yelp reviews, and Schwartz, 41, claimed in April 2023 that it had been vandalized. (In January, Schwartz claimed Sandoval, 40, is now “mostly a silent partner” but is still financially involved.)
“Because Tom Sandoval wasn’t around, his restaurant took a beating,” Taylor said of the situation. “He was going through a lot of stuff with his family and I just felt like, ‘Dude, why did you take off? You should have never left L.A. You should have stayed here and said you know what, I f–ked up. I made a mistake. And I’m gonna own it and I’m gonna be here for my business partner, my best friend.’”
He continued, “That’s what I had a problem with. The fact that he left his best friend slash business partner. I want to make that very clear. I don’t give a s–t who he cheats on. I don’t care.”
As for where his friendship with Sandoval stands now, Taylor shared, “He’s been coming to my bar singing karaoke on Monday nights.”
Taylor added that “everybody has made mistakes, especially on Vanderpump Rules,” saying, “He cheated on Ariana. It’s been a year now. I feel like it’s time to move on. She’s happy. Clearly, she’s doing very well. She has a new boyfriend.”
Madix, 38, has since moved on with fitness coach Daniel Wai.
“It’s time to stop talking about Scandoval,” Taylor continued. “There are other things to talk about, like The Valley.”
The Valley premieres on Bravo Tuesday, March 19, following a new episode of Vanderpump Rules and will stream the next day on Peacock. Beginning Tuesday, March 26, the series will move to its regular time slot of 9 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Mike Vulpo
