‘I Would Feel So Dumb’

While appearing on the I Do, Part 2 podcast Tuesday, Cartwright said while there were moments she waxed and waned over reuniting with her ex, she didn’t give in.

“I’ve had, I’m not gonna lie, I’ve had like a couple of times where I was, like, lonely and was, like, ‘Whoa, what might happen?” the Vanderpump Rules alum revealed. “But we never got back together and we will never ever get back together.”

While she admits that there have been moments she’s felt “weak” around her ex in the months since their split, there’s a “confidence” she’s gained since the former couple decided to go their separate ways.

“You miss them and you feel lonely. And that’s happened to me a lot,” she explained. “But I know I’m worth so much more and I can do so much better than what he put me through. That’s a confidence that I never had before.”

Cartwright, who now stars on the VPR spinoff The Valley with her ex, said, going back to him now would just make her feel “dumb.”

“I feel like I’ve gained so much more strength and I’m getting into such a better headspace. I’m so much happier and so much more confident since I’ve left him,” Cartwright continued. “If I went back to that, I feel like my peace would be all messed up again.”

Cartwright’s latest comments come a little more than a year after news broke of the pair’s split in February 2024. She filed for divorce six months later, citing irreconcilable differences and requesting legal and physical custody of their son, Cruz, whom they welcomed in 2021.

Per court documents obtained by TMZ, Taylor agreed to give Cartwright full legal and physical custody of Cruz in September.

Since then, Taylor shared that he had decided to receive in-patient treatment for his mental health before informing his followers that he was diagnosed with both Bipolar Disorder and PTSD, and more recently, battling addiction issues, marking 83 days sober earlier this month.

While Cartwright has said she’s skeptical about Taylor’s sobriety and criticized her ex for the things she says he put her and their son through, Taylor did not fault his estranged wife for her comments about him — noting in a recent episode of the Inside the Mind of a Man podcast that it must have been “very hurtful” for her to see him open up publicly for the first time about it.

Taylor went on to emphasize that Cartwright is an amazing mother and person and that their breakup can’t be laid at her feet, either.

“She’s a human being and she was pushed. She was pushed to her limits and I don’t blame her,” Taylor explained.

He also made it clear that “there was other things that went on [in the] relationship too, that had nothing to do with drinking and alcohol that she’s still upset about,” but he did not elaborate on what those might be.