Billie Lee Slams Jax Taylor, Says He Should Be Fired From 'Pump Rules'
Called out! Former Vanderpump Rules star Billie Lee thinks Jax Taylor deserves to be fired from the series along with Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute.
“@BravoTV what about Jax Taylor? He refused to film with me because I was trans and called him out on his white cis privilege. Stop celebrating his disgusting actions. #canceljaxtaylor,” Lee, 36, tweeted on Tuesday, June 8, hours after the network confirmed that Schroeder, 31, and Doute, 37, would not be returning to the series.
Earlier that day, the trans activist thanked Bravo for taking the initiative to fire two of the show’s original cast members, along with newbies Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni, for past racially insensitive actions. “Please cast more black and LGBTQ+ people on ALL your shows,” Lee added in an Instagram statement on Tuesday.
News of Schroeder and Doute’s firings comes less than one week after former costar Faith Stowers claimed they falsely reported her to the police in 2018 for a crime she didn’t commit based on a Daily Mail article that featured a woman they thought looked like her. Two days after the Challenge alum, 31, shared her story, her former colleagues each apologized via social media. An insider later told Us Weekly exclusively that neither Schroeder nor Doute reached out to Stowers before making their statements.
“Racially insensitive comments from my past have resurfaced. It is important that I continue to take accountability for what I have said and done, while pushing myself to do better,” the Next Level Basic author wrote via Instagram on Saturday, June 7, after losing endorsements in the wake of the scandal. Us later confirmed that she was also dropped by her PR company.
The James Mae T-shirt designer, for her part, reassured her fans that her mistakes were “not racially driven.” She also admitted to being unable to recognize “the reality of law enforcement’s treatment of the black community, and how dangerous my actions could have been” because of her privilege.
Though Taylor, 40, wasn’t implicated in the network’s recent firings, controversial tweets from his past were also resurfaced amid the scandal. In 2017, he alleged that Stowers, who he had an affair with during the show’s fourth season, was “wanted by the police for grand theft auto and ‘awol’ from military.”
Shortly after news broke of the Vanderpump Rules cast shake-up, a source exclusively revealed that the show’s remaining stars were “shocked” and “just finding out the news about the firings” with the rest of the world. “There was still no word to the cast about the plans for starting up filming for next season,” the source added on Tuesday.
