Jax Taylor on Son’s Autism Diagnosis & Why He’ll Never Get Married Again (Exclusive)

Jax Taylor is confronting his demons in “The Valley” Season 2 and opening up about turning his life around.

“Extra” spoke with Jax, who admitted that the upcoming season is "embarrassing" for him personally after the worst year of his life.

Taylor said he was "disappointed" at "watching back how bad I was, how rock bottom I was, how I treated people, especially Brittany... just how I was literally hanging on by a thread for a lot of the season, a majority of the season." He insisted, "I can't express enough how this by far was the worst year of my life. It was very tough, and the fact that I am standing right now is a blessing."

He noted, “This show was not shot in real time. It was a year ago. So, I'm in a very different place. The dynamics have shifted, the relationships have shifted. Everything is completely different. I have worked super hard to get to this point. I'm actually at about 132 days sober. Really proud of myself, I've worked extremely hard to get here."

As for how he felt screening the first episode of the new season, Taylor said, “I decided to take some ownership and see how I acted and I gotta be honest, I started crying the first five minutes in. I don't know who that person is. It was a shell of a human being. I was disgusted. I look sick, I look angry, I look depressed. I just don't know who that person is."

He continued, "It was a very, very tough year for me. I've gone through a divorce, I've gone through rehab twice, I've gone through AA, therapy, losing friends, bipolar, PTSD, OCD, you know, losing my house, like, almost losing my child... The fact that I'm still here right now after going through all that says a lot, it really does."

Jax opened up about how his son Cruz kept him going amid his darkest days.

He shared, “It's my kid. He is my sold force, my driving force to being here today. That little boy is my angel. I love him more than anything in the world, and, you know, when I was at my darkest moment, which was a lot, there was times I just didn't want to be here. I didn't want to be here. I wanted to throw in the towel and be like, ‘Nobody will care if I'm gone. I’ve literally destroyed a lot of relationships, friendships, I've destroyed my marriage. Who cares? Let’s just go. We'll call it a day.’ You know what I'm saying?

“But then I thought, I'm like, ‘Listen, my son's gonna grow up one day and he's going to not have a father, and I just could not be that selfish... I would hurt more people, I think, than anything else, and I just really, really want my son grow up one day knowing that his dad had a problem and he fixed it and he rose above and he's a good man now.”

Jax said his son is his priority right now, so dating is not something he's interested in. He explained, “Of course, I'm going to date again someday, but one thing I know, I will never get married again, that's for sure. That will never, ever happen again. That was a one and done thing."

He added, "But who knows, you know? I don't wanna be lonely for the rest of my life, but right now, my main focus is my little boy and getting to a good place with Brittany and for us to be like, 'Okay, we beat this divorce. We beat the odd and we can be good friends and we can raise our child together."

Jax insisted, "I love being a dad more than anything... Being a husband is tough for me. It's just tough for me."

He said of his ex, who filed divorce in August, "Brittany deserves so much better. She deserves so much better. She doesn't deserve, you know, half the crap I put her through, and I feel bad. I feel like I destroyed something that was pretty good. We had our problems, but I definitely threw a wrench in a lot of it."

According to Jax, divorce was what was best for them, saying, “Absolutely. I think regardless of all this we would have separated anyway. We just were not getting along, and then all the stuff that happened, which you'll see, you can't come back from. There's just too much toxicity and there's too much hurt and there's too much anger, and you'll see as the season plays out, there's just some stuff I cannot come back from. I just can't."

As for where he and Brittany stand now, Jax answered, “It is day by day right now. My goal is to, I want to be amicable for our son. I want Brittany and I to put this aside for the most part and be like, our son is our priority. Our son deserves two loving parents to be with him all the time. Even if we're not together, he needs to know we're both there for him and we love him more than anything in the world."

He went on, “In fact, I was texting her just now and being like, 'Are we gonna have Easter?' I want to keep certain things as a family, Mother's Day, Easter. We need to put our sh*t aside and we need to be there for our son."

His son Cruz, who turns 4 in just a few days, was recently diagnosed with autism.

Taylor noted, “We've known for a while… Brittany and I have been going back and forth on how we wanted to tell everybody. My little boy is amazing. He's so beautiful. He's so delicious. He's such a smart individual, you know, but he's obviously got some issues with autism… I want to be affiliated with autism for the rest of my life. I want to be in charities. I want to be, whatever I can do to spread awareness, to help financially, physically, mentally, I want to be a part of it all. I feel like this is a sign from somebody that I need to be a part of this world, and I want to help out other parents. I want to meet other parents.”  

Jax pointed out, “It's tough for parents, it really is, especially when you see other kids, you know, progressing a little bit further than your son and you're like ‘Why? Why aren't they understanding?’ It can be a little frustrating, but I know he'll get there. He's just taking a little longer. That's okay."

The proud dad added, "He's doing great and, like I said, we are doing everything to make his life perfect, you know?"