Brittany Cartwright Weight Gain Was Never the Real Story — The Truth Is So Much Harder

The way the internet treated Brittany Cartwright’s body is extremely unsettling. Uncomfortable in the precise, nauseating sense of witnessing a group of strangers dissect a woman who was, as it turns out, barely holding herself together behind closed doors, rather than in the general, hand-waving sense.

Almost as soon as Brittany Cartwright returned to television after giving birth to her son, Cruz, in April 2021, her weight gain became a topic of public conversation. The remarks were unrelenting. It was cruel to compare her to her castmates. She acknowledged that she sobbed when she was compared to other women’s bodies while her own was still healing from pregnancy. That particular detail sticks. It’s difficult to avoid picturing someone navigating new motherhood and, as we would eventually discover, a marriage quietly disintegrating while scrolling through hurtful remarks while crying.

The hives were what no one was discussing. Brittany had hives every single day for a full year. She frequently puked. When the left side of her body went totally numb at one point, she ended up in a hospital, where medical professionals said stress was the only physical cause. While the internet was preoccupied with discussing her waist size, someone experienced long-term stress that was severe enough to put them in the hospital.

Everything was reframed by the information revealed later on The Valley Season 2 After Show. Brittany disclosed that Jax Taylor would frequently make remarks about her appearance at home, calling her a “tree trunk” and pointing out her stretch marks following the birth of his child. Almost immediately after giving birth, Kristen Doute acknowledged that he was calling her fat. Cast member Zack Wickham claimed to have personally seen the texts, but Jax denied it. The specifics of what was discussed in private are still unknown, but Brittany’s physical symptoms speak for themselves. People occasionally lie, but bodies don’t.

This is especially noteworthy because of the public-private divide she highlighted. After going out and praising her to others, Jax would return home and, as she put it, “tear her to pieces.” The cycle of praise in public, cruelty in private, a 30-minute cooling-off period, and then pretending nothing happened sounds incredibly draining. It probably explains why she kept so much inside, which is precisely what her doctors thought was causing the hives.

In 2021, she began her weight loss journey with Jenny Craig, losing ten pounds fast and finding that early momentum inspiring. Depending on the timeline, the total recorded loss eventually amounted to between 27 and 30 pounds. Her “turkey gobbler”—a double chin that she claimed runs in her family—was the target of a recent cosmetic procedure. She has been open about everything, which almost seems like a radical move in the current media landscape. The majority of people curate. It seems that Brittany simply tells you what transpired.

The way the story of Brittany Cartwright’s weight gain developed is worth considering. What started as tabloid fodder—a later-disproved rumor that Jax left her because she had put on weight—turned out to be nearly the exact opposite of the truth. She wasn’t abandoned because of her weight gain, stress, or physical changes. They were signs of something she was enduring. She was not incapable of sustaining herself. She was raising a toddler, keeping up a public persona, and going through something subtly challenging.

She has expressed her desire to serve as an example for Cruz. Observing how candidly she’s handled everything, it appears that she already is—not because she lost weight, but rather because she continued to be open about the reasons behind it.