NBCUMV Vanderpump Rules Season 7 cast
During a December 2020 interview with Heavy, Bravo friend and host of the Behind The Velvet Rope podcast, David Yontef, told us what he thinks about Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright’s departure from Vanderpump Rules.
Stassi Schroeder, Kristen Doute, Jax Taylor, and Brittany Cartwright will all not be returning to the Bravo franchise. Taylor and Cartwright both announced earlier in December that they were leaving the Bravo franchise.
The couple posted similar farewell Instagram captions, with Cartwright writing, “The last 5 years on Vanderpump Rules have been some of the most challenging, rewarding and fulfilling years of my life,” Cartwright wrote on Instagram. “Although this is difficult to share, Jax and I will not be returning for another season of Vanderpump Rules.”
Yontef Believes Cartwright & Taylor Were Fired
During the interview – which took place shortly after Taylor and Cartwright announced their departure – Yontef said that in his opinion, Bravo fired Taylor and Cartwright.
“Yeah, Jax and Brittany were fired,” Yontef told Heavy. “The bottom line to me is who is going to leave a job when you’re getting paid a significant amount of money – whatever amount of money that may be – if you don’t have another job? When you have two working parents and a baby on the way, you’re not going to quit.”
Yontef added that he doesn’t believe the theory that contract negotiations were unsuccessful between the two and Vanderpump Rules. “I’ve read a lot of stuff that says that negotiations broke down and contract negotiations broke down and Jax wanted too much money and that’s why, but that makes no sense to me at all,” he told Heavy. “Because that means contracts were being negotiated, but they’re not being negotiated, because the show’s not even coming back now. Like even if this didn’t happen, there’s no SUR, like SUR’s not open [due to COVID-19]. So nobody’s negotiating contracts in December for a show that’s not about to start filming. It makes no sense.”
Yontef Added That Taylor Probably Got Fired in Relation to Schroeder & Doute’s Firing
During a June 2020 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Taylor’s former Vanderpump Rules costar Faith Stowers called for Taylor to be fired from the show. Both Schroeder and Doute were fired from Vanderpump Rules this summer after it came to light that they had called the police on Stowers in 2018 for a crime that she didn’t commit, according to Page Six.
“He’s said very, very mean things to new cast members,” Stowers said about Taylor to ET. “He did not receive me and Lala Kent very well when we first started. He said very mean things to us as well, later on apologizing. But it seems like he continues to get away with everything he does and I’m not sure why, especially at his age. It’s not like he’s doing this as a young adult, as a kid and just making these little mistakes young people sometimes do.”
Yontef believes that Taylor was fired for those same reasons. “The only thing that makes sense is that it is somehow tied to, and related to all that stuff that happened with Stassi and Kristen,” he told Heavy. “I don’t think they’ve been investigating it this whole time, but to me it’s like alright we’re heading into the new year, let’s just make some programming decisions about what’s coming back and what’s not coming back.”
The Behind The Velvet Rope podcast host added, “I think Jax was fired, and I think it had to do with the Stassi, Kristen stuff. It makes no other sense, because there’s no contract being negotiated now. It’s not like Jax wanted too much money, and they just decided to part ways.”
Yontef stands by his statement that Taylor and Cartwright voluntarily leaving doesn’t add up. “You’re telling me, Jax with a baby on the way with him and his wife working, they left this job where they both have an income? It doesn’t make any sense for what for zero. It doesn’t make any sense, so they were fired.”
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