When Your Publicist Becomes the Problem: Brittany Cartwright's Messy Split Decision

Sometimes the person you trust to manage your image becomes the story themselves. Brittany Cartwright has learned this lesson the hard way—by firing her publicist of over a decade after poolside photos surfaced that made it impossible to look the other way.

The Vanderpump Rules star cut ties with Lori Krebs on Monday, July 14, after learning that Krebs had spent a cozy weekend in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with Cartwright’s estranged husband, Jax Taylor. The pair wasn’t trying to hide it either. Photos obtained showed them getting close in the infinity pool at Hotel Mousai, standing chest to chest and wrapping their arms around each other. A witness claimed they were even cozier than the cameras captured, hugging throughout the day without any attempt to keep their closeness private.

What makes this especially awkward: Krebs actually called Cartwright before the story broke to give her a heads up. A well-intentioned move, perhaps, but it clearly didn’t help her case. The Puerto Vallarta getaway was part of a larger group celebration for Jax Taylor’s birthday on July 11, which raises the question of how a publicist hired to protect a client’s interests ended up in such a compromising position with that client’s ex. You don’t need to be a crisis management expert to see how this blows up.

For context, Cartwright filed for divorce from Jax Taylor in August 2024 after five years of marriage. The two continue to co-parent their son, Cruz, while navigating what the article describes as a rocky post-split relationship. So when your publicist—the person responsible for controlling your narrative—gets caught in an intimate moment with your estranged husband, it’s not just unprofessional. It’s a betrayal of trust that no courtesy call can undo.

Cartwright’s now in the market for a new publicist. The real question is whether Krebs’decade-long relationship with her client was worth throwing away for a weekend that was never going to stay private. In the age of social media and paparazzi, nothing stays off the record—and certainly not pool photos at a resort.