Katie Maloney on Real Reason Stassi Was Upset with Jax & Brit

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Credit: Astrid Stawiarz/Bravo

Katie Maloney is setting the record straight about Stassi Schroeder and Beau Clark‘s ongoing estrangement from Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright.

After Jax, 44, was seen confronting her about spreading cheating rumors on the latest episode of Vanderpump Rules, Katie, 37, looked back on the moments that led up to Jax and Brittany, 35, suddenly pulling out of Stassi, 35, and Beau’s wedding as Jax slammed her for cutting ties with Brittany — and for being “up Stassi’s a**.”

“[Jax] did tell me [about his fight with Katie] and I was upset because I was like, ‘Why? Why are you doing this?’ I don’t like confrontation and stuff … I get that he might be taking up for me or whatever but I didn’t ask him to do that,” Brittany shared on the April 23 episode of the Pump Rules: After Show.

“You better believe I went off on her,” Jax said. “My wife’s always trying to rack her brain, ‘Why is Katie mad at me?’ For her not to respond to her texts or messages, it hurt her. She was a big part of her life. And the fact that she just abandoned her after the fact that we didn’t go to Stassi and Beau’s wedding, that you just wrote her off, that bothers me. You had no part of that situation. So you’re mad just to be mad, or just because you’re up Stassi’s a**.”

“It’s one of the two. That’s the only two reasons I can think of,” he added as Tom Sandoval, 41, noted that flying to Italy for Stassi and Beau’s May 2022 nuptials was a “f*cking expensive trip,” especially so soon after Jax and Brittany exited Pump Rules.

“We just had a child. [It was] in the middle of COVID,” Jax added.

But Tom Schwartz, 40, clarified, “The reason they were so pissed is that you canceled last second.”

Looking back, Katie said that prior to traveling to Europe for Stassi and Beau’s wedding, she, Brittany, and the bride were “making plans and arrangements.” However, she couldn’t help but notice that something seemed off with Brittany.

“She was very sort of avoiding the questions and didn’t really want to get involved in the planning of it all, but she would still,” Katie explained. “She’d get excited and talk about it. But then right up until like the days before, she became very avoidant of it all. So then the morning that we’re all supposed to go to Italy, Brittany sends a message saying, ‘Oh my God, we’re not going to be able to make it, we didn’t get the passport in time, yada, yada, yada. Just excuse, excuse, excuse.’”

Still, Jax insisted he wasn’t “trying” to get out of going.

“I wasn’t gonna go because my son didn’t have a passport,” he explained. “We thought we were gonna get the expedited passport for Cruz. It didn’t come. So I said, ‘You know what? Somebody from our family needs to be at this wedding. So, Brittany, why don’t you call your mom, you guys you. I’ll stay back.’ And then when Brittany’s mom’s best friend’s husband died, it was just like, ‘You know what? It’s not in the cards for us to go.’”

Although Jax suggested that his decision to stay home was a last-minute one, Katie hinted that he had teased his pulling out in text messages shared with mutual friends.

“There was group chats where Jax was very openly talking about how they’re not going to the wedding; they had a golf tournament they’re doing instead,” she revealed. “It was just very kind of rude the way he was just speaking so freely to other people, not thinking it would get back to either of them.”

While Jax admitted to handling the situation “completely wrong,” he confirmed he apologized to Stassi and Beau, 44.

“Is it a reason to squash and ruin a whole friendship over? I don’t think so. I don’t know what else I can do. I beg. I plead,” he shared.

Overall, Katie said it was the amount of lies Jax and Brittany allegedly told that put her off to the now-estranged couple.

“I just feel like there were so many lies, and I don’t like lies. I just, I f*cking hate lies, man. Like, nothing more than that. So I’m just like, ‘You know, I need a break’ … and also Jax has just been such a f*cking a**hole to me for like no reason,” she stated. “I think one time Schwartz accidentally posted the name of their kid and he didn’t talk to him for like months, and then he decided not to talk to me. I got roped into it somehow while I was throwing Brittany a baby shower. I had literally nothing to do with it. He just is such a f*cking a**hole. I was just ready for a break.”

According to Katie, she didn’t intend for her break from Brittany to be permanent, but after going through her divorce from Schwartz and hearing nothing from Brittany, she’d had enough.

“[Brittany] never checked in on me, never once asked me anything. So I was like, you know, I’m good on you,” she explained, clarifying that Brittany did reach out to her when she moved.

“You can’t say she didn’t reach out because she did,” Lala Kent, 33, stated, defending Brittany. “You don’t get to decide how and when and what people say when they reach out. It’s sometimes hard to gauge with Katie because you’re like, ‘How do I approach this? Should I reach out? And if I reach out, is the timing okay? Is what I said okay?’ It becomes very intimidating.”

“Very intimidating,” Brittany agreed. “And I feel like she was the matron of honor in my wedding. Like, I love her so much. I still have a lot of love for her. But it’s just like, crazy how we just don’t talk anymore.”

Also speaking of Katie and Brittany’s estrangement, Ariana Madix, 38, said she remembered a time when they were all together and Brittany was “really sad” about their falling out.

“We were all together and she was really upset. I just remember her being really sad about it,” Ariana stated, then asking Katie if she and Brittany spoke after her and Jax’s confrontation.

“No,” she confirmed. “And they did a watch thing for the show, [and] she goes, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t know Katie was going through all this?’ Who picked up the phone then? She could’ve picked up the phone at any point but then there’s a sweaty f*cking dude in my face just screaming at me like I’m the worst person on the planet.”

“I’m good on both of them. They can have their time,” Katie added.

Vanderpump Rules season 11 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.