‘Vanderpump Rules’: Why Did Jax Taylor Think He Was Right to Demote Tom Sandoval From Best Man?

Vanderpump Rules season 8 started with a bang as episode one revealed that longtime friendships unraveled. In addition to fractured friendships amongst the women in the cast, Jax Taylor distanced himself from close friend Tom Sandoval.

Sandoval was supposed to be a “best man” in Taylor’s wedding. However, Taylor shared in the episode that he became irritated with Sandoval when he felt ignored. He told new cast member Brett Caprioni that Sandoval “ditched” his pre-bachelor party even though Sandoval would attend Taylor’s actual bachelor party in Miami.

However, during the episode, Sandoval shared that he needed to travel back to his home state of Missouri to visit his family the same weekend as Taylor’s pre-bachelor party, so he had a conflict. Taylor sent Sandoval text messages about his absence but became more annoyed when Sandoval didn’t return his text message.

Taylor thought he was ‘doing Sandoval a favor’

“After not hearing from Tom for weeks I go, ‘Hey, man I know you’re apparently slammed with your house,'” Taylor said in a confessional as he re-read his text message to Sandoval. “‘So I’m going to change up my wedding party a little bit. That way it keeps the pressure off of you.’ I was kind of looking out for him.”

Taylor planned to keep Tom Schwartz as his best man because he rarely heard from Sandoval anymore. Sandoval seemed to shrug off the demotion. “You guys had that pre-bachelor party, but as it was getting planned I told him, ‘Dude I can’t make it, I gotta see my family,'” Sandoval told Schwartz. “I haven’t seen them in a really long time.”

“Because I didn’t cancel my flight back to see my mom for Mother’s Day and go to his pre-bachelor party which isn’t a thing, by the way, he demoted me to a groomsman from best man,” Sandoval says in a confessional. “F**, off dude.”

Taylor thinks he did the right thing

Taylor shared why he thought he did the right thing demoting Sandoval when he and Brittany Cartwright appeared on the Watch What Happens Live After Show. One fan asked why he was being such a Bridezilla. “I don’t really think I was a Bridezilla,” Taylor responded.

“I was just actually asking Tom, ‘Are you gonna be there?’ Give me a yes or give me a no,” Taylor added. But Cohen wondered if a pre-bachelor party was actually that important. But Taylor says it is very important. “Because it was my L.A friends,” Taylor says. Cohen reminded Taylor that Sandoval was seeing his mother. “But Jax Taylor is getting married,” Taylor responded looking frustrated. “I need the bachelor party to be epic.”

Cohen tries to get Taylor to understand that it wasn’t the actual bachelor party. But Taylor isn’t buying it because it was the bachelor party for those who couldn’t make it to the main party in Miami. “He was going to go to Miami,” Cohen said. “But he wasn’t helping plan this one,” Taylor insisted. During the episode, Taylor added, “I’m not trying to make it about me, but it’s about me.”