After a season of heartbreak, Brittany Cartwright is confident that Jax Taylor is a changed man.
“I see him every single day making efforts and he’s completely changed the way he treats me, the way he talks to me, the way he listens to me. Every single thing about our relationship is better,” the 29-year-old Vanderpump Rules star tells Us Weekly exclusively. “I know how much he’s wanting the wedding and how much he’s wanting to marry me, how much effort he’s putting into the wedding, just as much as me. I don’t know, whenever you know somebody as well as I know Jax, you can just tell.”
Jax, who popped the question in June, was caught cheating on Brittany with former SURver, Faith Stowers, during season 6. While Brittany, who briefly split from her now fiancé, tells Us that she is “very big on forgiveness,” she also admits that it’s difficult to forget what happened.
“It is hard, trust me, and there are still days, sometimes, when you can’t help but think of horrible things from the past,” Brittany explains. “But for the most part, we’ve moved mountains in this relationship. I feel like we’re almost starting over, but we’ve grown so much. He does things before I even ask him now. Even just helping around the house. I can just tell in our everyday lives that he’s changed.”
Jax, a Florida native, for his part, tells Us that he was “this person” Brittany is referring to before he moved to Los Angeles.
“I just kind of fell into kind of a deep hole and that happens out here sometimes. You get sucked into this lifestyle,” he says. “You start hanging out with people you probably shouldn’t, you start doing things you probably shouldn’t and sometimes, you know, you have to fall down to get back up.”
The former SUR bartender explains that he hit his “lowest” point in December 2017 after his father died.
“I hate to use my father as an excuse to pick myself up, [but] I don’t think I would have done it unless something happened, something traumatic needed to happen in my life, and it just so happens it was my father,” Jax tells Us. “He was kind of that turning point for me to be like, ‘Enough’s enough.’ I just felt like my dad kind of took my body over and was like, ‘This is how you’re going to live the rest of your life the way I think you should live it.’ I’m living my everyday — from now until I die — how my dad would live his life.”
He concludes: “My dad was the best father you can possibly imagine, the best husband you can possibly imagine, and I just want to be just like him. That’s my goal.”
Vanderpump Rules returns to Bravo Monday, December 3, at 9 p.m. ET.
