‘Vanderpump Rules’ Alum Accuses Jax Taylor of Drug Use While Filming

Getty Jax Taylor attends OK! Magazine's So Sexy NYC Event at HAUS Nightclub.

A former Vanderpump Rules star is speaking out about what she called the “toxic” environment on the Bravo reality show that left her “uncomfortable” and “depressed.” In a new interview on the 2 Servings of Fruit podcast, Billie Lee, the first transgender cast member on Vanderpump Rules, opened up about her bad experience on the show.

On the podcast, Lee said Jax Taylor “was very, very difficult to work with and was usually on drugs or something, and he was very agitated and angry.” She added that “producers would dance around that kind of behavior.”

She said she’s hopeful the show will “celebrate the positive people” more now that Taylor is no longer on it, though she added that “America still loves its drama.”

Lee said she wasn’t at her healthiest during filming. “When I was in it I was drinking a lot. You’re working at a restaurant, you’re filming, your nerves are going crazy, you’re working 12-hour days, and you’re drinking,” she said. “And I was drinking a lot, and I was hungover. … My suicidal thoughts started coming back. … I wasn’t aligned with anything I wanted to do in life.”

She left Vanderpump Rules at the end of season 7 after two seasons in a recurring role.

Taylor Previously Admitted to Smoking Weed & Taking Adderall

On what would be his last season of Vanderpump Rules, viewers saw Taylor on a  downward spiral. In one episode in May 2020, he admitted to his wife Brittany Cartwright that he was in a bad cycle of smoking too much marijuana, overeating and gaining weight, and then cause taking Adderall and going to the gym, according to Screenrant. At the time, some viewers speculated that Taylor was also doing cocaine, Screenrant reported.

Taylor’s concerning behavior came to a head on the season 8 finale as he declared to Lisa Vanderpump that Vanderpump Rules was “his show.”

In December, Taylor and his wife announced their departure from Vanderpump Rules. Taylor is now in a good place as he and Cartwright await the arrival of their first baby, due later this month.

Lee Previously Claimed That Jax Taylor Refused to Film With Her

The new interview is not the first time Lee has talked about Taylor. After last year’s Vanderpump Rules firing scandal, she called for him to be “canceled,” per Us Weekly.

After veteran cast members Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute were fired from the Bravo reality show due to their past racially insensitive behavior, Lee took to Twitter to write, “@BravoTV what about Jax Taylor? He refused to film with me because I was trans and called him out on his white cis privilege. Stop celebrating his disgusting actions. #canceljaxtaylor.”

In a scathing blog post on her website, the former SUR employee also detailed the “bullying” she suffered while on Vanderpump Rules. While she did not name Taylor in her post, Lee claimed that one of her co-stars demanded that she be fired because he “didn’t feel comfortable working with me.”

“His exact words were, “I’m not gonna lose all I have worked hard for something stupid I may say or do to offend her,’” Billie wrote. “Are we all supposed to tiptoe around her because she’s trans?”

While Billie has claimed that Taylor would not film with her, a source close to production told People that Taylor shot scenes with her on multiple occasions when she was a cast member on Vanderpump Rules from 2017 to 2019.

On the 2 Servings of Fruit podcast, Lee said she experienced “cis privilege” frequently on the show, describing one instance when her female coworkers didn’t include her in planning for a girls’ event at the restaurant.

Lee she said the Vanderpump Rules stars all had their own cliques and that she felt like she was “dropped back in high school.”

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