Brittany Cartwright is clearing up some rumors about her health started by her husband, Jax Taylor.
During a recent episode of the couple’s podcast, “When Reality Hits,” Cartwright, 34, called out Taylor, 44, for claiming on E!’s House of Villains that she had a stroke.
“I want to say 60 seconds after I was voted off, I got handed a phone. And it was my manager saying, ‘Listen, I didn’t want to call you because I know you’re filming right now but I feel like it’s necessary. Brittany’s in the hospital. She collapsed,’” Taylor recalled about the offscreen conversation he mentioned on the show. “We didn’t know what it was. The doctors didn’t really know what it was. But it was stroke-like symptoms. I just assumed it was a stroke.”
Late last month, viewers saw Taylor tell his costars that Cartwright was in the hospital after she collapsed. He has since said the health scare took place moments after he was eliminated from the competition series.
“She’s, like, crying on the phone. She’s like, ‘I don’t want you to leave the show, but I just want to let you know I’m in the hospital,’” he recalled on House of Villains. “I’m panicking. So I raced to Cedars, stayed there for two nights, making sure that my wife doesn’t have cancer, doesn’t have spinal issues, doesn’t have MS. Turns out, she had a small stroke. She’s 33.”
Cartwright pointed out on the podcast that Taylor made a statement “without being sure” of the facts. Taylor, however, defended his instinctual response.
Cruz Cauchi, Jax Taylor and Brittany Cartwright. Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images
“We live in a day where every hour if you say something, people are going to criticize you like crazy about it,” he noted. “It’s crazy that people take everything you say literally. I apologize. I shouldn’t have said that. It was a scary time.”
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According to Cartwright, Taylor’s biggest mistake was how he delivered the news.
“You shouldn’t have said it so matter of fact,” she added. “I will say, this was terrifying for me. My whole right side of my body went completely numb. I couldn’t even hold my cell phone up. I could barely walk. I fell and bruised up my whole side because my right leg gave out. So, it was actually very, very scary.”
Cartwright also recalled being concerned about the pair’s 2-year-old son, Cruz, while she was dealing with the health issue.
“I had Cruz at the house and I was by myself because obviously Jax was filming House of Villains. This was filmed months and months and months ago so I’m completely fine now. I want to make that clear but it was such a scary situation,” she shared. “My friend Janet came over and she took me to the hospital. Kristen [Doute] met her up there and they both took Cruz home.”
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Despite getting multiple tests done, Cartwright still doesn’t have answers about what happened. “It was like an ongoing thing. They never really knew exactly what was wrong with me. It could have been stress induced. It could have been a pinched nerve in my spine,” she continued. “It could have been — I have no idea. But I haven’t felt that sensation since.”
Cartwright ended the podcast segment by thanking the listeners who checked in on her, adding, “It was very nerve-racking and I do feel a lot better now. I do appreciate the love and people being concerned about it. … I had no idea that Jax was going to go on the show and say that either so yeah. I don’t want to say that he was lying by any means. He was just worried about me.”