Jax Taylor Teases His Explosive Confrontation With Tom Sandoval on 'Vanderpump Rules' (Exclusive)

Jax Taylor is opening up about his true feelings for Tom Sandoval and his cheating scandal ahead of the Vanderpump Rules alum's explosive return to the Bravo show Tuesday. Taylor explained to PopCulture.com that it wasn't Sandoval's cheating that had him heated in an exclusive new interview ahead of Tuesday's Vanderpump Rules, which acts as a lead-in to Taylor's new spinoff series The Valley.

"What I want everyone to understand is I didn't come after Tom to go after his cheating because ... nobody on [Vanderpump Rules] has a leg to stand on when it comes to cheating, okay. Everyone's done it. No one can talk about it," Taylor said of his reaction to Sandoval's months-long affair with Rachel "Raquel" Leviss. "My issue is how he handled it after the fact."

The Bravo star admitted that while he's "done a lot of bad things" in his life, he's always been one to own it. "I never backed down. I never crawled away," he explained. "So I had an issue when [Sandoval] kind of took off and left his best friend and my best friend, Tom Schwartz, alone to fend off these people coming after his restaurant, his life, coming after him – when Tom Schwartz had nothing to do with this!"

Calling Schwartz a "very innocent bystander" to Sandoval's cheating, Taylor said he "felt bad for him" when Sandoval left Los Angeles to tour with his band Tom Sandoval & The Most Extras in the immediate aftermath of the Scandoval fervor. "That's what I was mad [about]," Taylor revealed. "We're adults, we're grown men. [Sandoval] should have never left his friend like that to deal with all this mess. My poor friend [Schwartz] was going through his own problems at home with his brothers, his family, his mother, all that, and dealing with this mess. It's amazing he's still here. [Sandoval] stressed him out."

"So I was pissed. I was pissed," the Jax's Studio City owner noted. "And that was my main reason for coming to talk to him. Not about his cheating. It wasn't about that at all. Of course, that's bad too, but ... we've all done it. So I can't really talk about 'you shouldn't do that.' I would never do that."

Taylor also opened up to PopCulture.com about his return to Bravo on The Valley, which also stars Vanderpump Rules alum Brittany Cartwright and Kristen Doute. The reality personality, who shares 2-year-old Cruz with estranged wife Cartwright, said he's excited for Vanderpump Rules fans to see "the next chapter" of their lives. 

"I love Vanderpump Rules. It's given me so much. It was amazing. But I feel like we graduated from that," he explained. "We're in our forties now. Some of us are getting married, some of us are getting divorced, some of us are having babies or can't have babies. Just kind of the next evolvement." And while Taylor initially thought The Valley would be "less dramatic" than his first Bravo show, "I guess drama just follows myself, Kristen, [and] Brittany, unfortunately. ... It's just a little bit more of adulting issues now as opposed to going to clubs and cheating on people and that kind of stuff."

The Valley premieres Tuesday, March 19, on Bravo following Vanderpump Rules at 8 p.m. ET, and episodes will stream the next day on Peacock. On Tuesday, March 26, the series will move to its regular timeslot of 9 p.m. ET.