How Brittany Cartwright and Jax Taylor dealt with firing pastor Ryan Dotson

May 2024 · 3 minute read

Brittany Cartwright and Jax Taylor are finally able to tell their side of the drama with their supposed-to-be wedding pastor.

Kentucky native Ryan Dotson found himself at the center of the drama on Tuesday night’s “Vanderpump Rules” episode, as Cartwright, 31, and Taylor, 40, were forced to explain to their friends that they did not support his anti-gay statements and fired him as a result.

The episode began with Lisa Vanderpump discussing the matter with Ken Todd in their Rolls-Royce, with the former “RHOBH” star beginning the conversation with, “I woke up this morning, okay, and plastered all over social media, the guy that is marrying Jax and Brittany has made these incredibly offensive remarks about the LGBTQ community. I mean, saying awful things, talking about the sin of same-sex marriage, all kinds of homophobic things.”

Vanderpump then went to SUR to talk to Ariana Madix about Dotson. She told Madix — who is bisexual — that she called the couple, who admitted they were horrified. However, the couple was made aware of the statements at least six months prior.

Cartwright even acknowledged them during a January 2019 appearance on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” saying, “I’m a huge supporter and always will be of the LGBTQ community, and no matter what, I would never try to ever make anybody feel uncomfortable. I talked to him myself and he promised me that he was not that way, that he was not saying anything about the community whatsoever.”

Finally, the couple began to talk about Dotson after completing a pre-wedding workout.

“It’s hard for me because it’s my family friend,” Cartwright told Taylor. “Nobody thought he would be this way.”

“I grew up with my pastor’s daughters. He’s a great family man,” she continued in a confessional, affirming that she does not believe in what he posted.

Taylor echoed that he didn’t care what Dotson believed in, but he just didn’t want him to post it on social media.

“Social media is really lighting me up about this,” Taylor said in a confessional. “They made it seem like we were holding flags up that like, ‘anti-gay!’ Like, I’m not going to like, KKK rallies down the street, man. Like you know what I’m saying? Just leave me alone.”

Cartwright later explained, “In LA we kind of live in this bubble, so whenever I go back home there are people who believe all different kinds of things. Some people believe in way different politics than we do, like there’s just so much you don’t really talk about, so when something like this does get brought up, it makes it very difficult because I don’t want to disappoint anyone in my life.”

Ultimately, the couple fired Dotson two weeks before their nuptials and Lance Bass officiated their June wedding.

Still, Dotson has no hard feelings.

“I want [Brittany] to have the very best day she possibly can,” Dotson told Page Six in June. “They asked me to be a guest, but I probably won’t. I’m too much of a distraction.”

He added of his beliefs, “I am neither transphobic nor homophobic. I as a Christian love and respect all human life, regardless of race, religion, nationality and sexuality, but as a Christian and a pastor, I must stand firmly on the Bible and its teachings, as to how we should live before God. I know not all people are accepting of this belief or religious point of view, but I am.”

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