Jax Taylor "blindsided" his estranged wife Brittany Cartwright when he moved ahead with plans for a divorce

During an appearance on Bravo's 'Hot Mic' podcast, he explained: "The second weekend of rehab, I emailed Brittany and said: 'I'm getting a mediator'.

"People don't realise that I'm the one that initiated this. So when I emailed her, and I got a mediator, and I put that, I emailed Brittany, she was like: 'Oh, no, I'm getting a divorce lawyer.' And I was like: 'Okay, whatever'. But I was like: 'Why don't we just get a mediator? Like, why don't we save some money? We're not going after each other financially. There's no reason to spend all this money.'"

He went on to insist he thinks Brittany wanted to be the one who "served papers publicly".

Jax, 45, added: "I think she wanted to be the first one to serve me papers publicly. I think she wanted to get ahead of it while I was in there. I think she wanted to be the first to publicly say: 'I'm divorcing him', when, in all honesty, I was the one that initiated it."

He continued: "It needed to happen. I just think that I blindsided her a little bit. I think she really, really wanted me to work on the marriage. I think that was her goal. And I just was so checked out. By that time, I was just really checked out. I just couldn't come back anymore."

It comes after Brittany, 35, admitted she's endured the "hardest year" of her life, and she hopes telling her story will help other women to "find their strength".

In a post on Instagram, Brittany wrote: "This has been the hardest year of my life and this is just part of my story. At the end of the day I am learning as I go and trying to be a strong as I possibly can for my son.

"I hope I can help other women who go through things like I have gone through, to find their strength because it's no where near as easy as it looks. (sic)"

The former couple met in 2015 and married in 2019. They are parents to a three-year-old son named Cruz.