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Jax Taylor took aim at Katie Maloney following Tuesday’s episode of Vanderpump Rules.
After hearing that a rumor about one of his work trips to Atlantic City had become fodder for gossip among the group, Jax, 44, credited Katie, 37, for the start of the “rumor train” as he accused her of pushing misery. A number of their castmates also weighed in, including Kristen Doute, 41, and Scheana Shay, 38, both of whom defended Jax, suggesting he would not cheat on now-estranged wife Brittany Cartwright, 35, again.
“Katie loves to just start sh*t. That’s what she does. She sits at home, plays on her phone, reads something on Reddit or some bullsh*t gossip thing. She’ll tell Scheana, tell Lala, and start the rumor train,” Jax stated on the March 12 episode of the Pump Rules: After Show. “She’s spreading all types of sh*t … ‘Oh I heard he was doing this.’ Shut up, Katie. She likes to find misery in other people or make misery and then just stir her pot. That’s what she does.”
According to Ariana Madix, 38, she’s found that often, where blind items about Pump Rules stars are shared, the topic mentions a “former bar star.”
“Who’s trying to be a reformed family man,” Katie added. “It’s very alluding; it’s easy to figure [out].”
“[The rumors are] not coming to me,” she continued. “It’s literally anyone and thousands of people have seen it … [And] when you see blind items about people that you know, you’re gonna send them to people you know. And so I sent it to [Lala Kent].”
Although Lala wasn’t too sure of the report, Katie said she told her she felt it may be true.
“She goes, ‘Is this true?’ And I was like, ‘Personally, I f*cking think so but what do I know?” she recalled.
Looking back, Scheana said the cheating rumor about Jax was sparked by a post on Reddit.
“There was one comment on Reddit that he followed a bottle service girl or something from a job that he had in Atlantic City, and because someone saw that he followed someone new and he was just there, they put those pieces together, that he must have cheated on Brittany,” she shared. “I think that is the only thing that I heard or saw.”
Explaining himself, Jax, who admitted to cheating on Brittany before they wed with former castmate Faith Stowers, said he simply took a photo with a woman who hired him for an event.
“That’s normal,” he stated.
As cast members of The Valley also appeared on the Pump Rules: After Show, Janet Caperna admitted to digging deep into the rumor before contacting Brittany.
“I don’t want to be like, ‘I don’t think it’s anything,’ and have it end up being something so I was like, I did my detective work,” she shared.
And Brittany did as well.
“We went and found all the photos, figured it out, and it was a girl that he worked, that he was doing a job with and it was like the bar owner’s wife, who was also there,” she explained.
Speaking of her frequent interaction with Jax and Brittany, Kristen said she’s never heard anything or thought that Jax would cheat in recent years.
“I would be the very first person to call him out if I thought so, and I would tell Brittany, but I never heard any of this until it came from Katie,” she stated, adding, “He might be an a**hole, but he’s not a cheater anymore.”
“Brittany is also fully logged into Jax’s Instagram. She has his passwords. She can check his DMs, his texts. There’s nothing there,” Scheana added.
Also on the Pump Rules: After Show, after Kristen’s boyfriend, Luke Broderick, said he didn’t think Jax would risk losing his two-year-old son Cruz “for some fun one night with a random girl,” Brittany’s longtime best friend, Zack Wickham, said, “I can 100 percent tell you he’s not cheating.”
“There’s just no way he’s cheating. Number one: Someone would come forward. It is too big of a thing. But number two, that’s not him anymore, in that regard. He’s not gonna cheat anymore. I don’t think he’s cheating,” Zack stated.
Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.