EUGENE, OREGON: ‘Home Improvement’ star Zachery Ty Bryan has been arrested for domestic violence for the second time. Bryan, who became famous for portraying Brad Taylor, the oldest son, in ‘Home Improvement’, was previously arrested in 2020 on the same charges. As per TMZ, Bryan was arrested on Friday, July 28, 2023, for felony assault in violation of the Abuse Prevention Act. The action is taken when someone is accused of attacking a person who had previously been granted a restraining order in a domestic violence case.
As per TMZ, the police received a call regarding a dispute between a male and a female at a Eugene residence. When they arrived there, they did not find Bryan at the residence. He was later tracked down and arrested. In 2020, he was arrested for assaulting his then-27-year-old girlfriend. Later, however, he was handed two charges of lesser degree -- misdemeanor menacing, and misdemeanor assault.
Who is Zachery Ty Bryan's fiancee?
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Bryan is still in a relationship with Johnnie Faye Cartwright, who was also involved in the 2020 domestic violence case. While the latest charge does not mention the name of the other party, all the indications are that Cartwright is still with Bryan, according to TMZ. Deadline reported that Cartwright was 27 in 2021, making her around 29 years old now.
The Hollywood Reporter stated that following the 2020 charges, Bryan and Cartwright seemed to have attained at least a semblance of equilibrium. The former child star used to post snippets of their domestic bliss on his Instagram (which has since been deactivated). A year after the initial domestic violence charges, Bryan revealed via Instagram that he was engaged with Cartwright. He wrote, “You win some and you lose some,” with a photo of him hugging Cartwright who was showing off her engagement ring. At the time, Cartwright was pregnant and a girl was born in the spring of 2022.
In November 2022, Bryan took to Instagram to announce Cartwright’s pregnancy with twins as he wrote, “2 Heartbeats + 2 Sacks = TWINS! Here we go.” He posted an ultrasound photo along with it. In the interview with the news outlet, he further said of his fiancee, “We’re good friends, we’re partners.”
Cartwright, for her part, has also been arrested in April 2021 for assaulting two security guards at a bar in Eugene. She wasn’t allowed to enter the bar as she was too intoxicated. After she pleaded guilty to the assault charge and a misdemeanor, she was sentenced to 24 months of probation and 10 days in jail.
'I thank God for that'
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bryan spoke in detail about the 2020 arrest. In the interview, he appeared to have accepted his fate and was on the path of rebuilding his life. He said during the interview, “I do know when things get in the way of who you’re meant to be, where you’re supposed to go and what God has planned for you,” before explaining, “He sometimes challenges you to do some reflecting by looking in the mirror and taking responsibility.”
Commenting that the arrest “got so blown out of proportion” by the media, he said that the altercation wasn’t that “physical” as the police portrayed it. He also accepted that he was in an intimate relationship with Cartwright for two years before his divorce from his previous wife. He filed for divorce from his wife in 2020. Bryan said that Cartwright used to get upset about his “double life.” Even though he filed the divorce two weeks before the 2020 arrest, Bryan conceded that it was one of those nights when Cartwright got upset and they had “been drinking too much.”
Bryan continued, “We didn’t even really get that physical. We got really loud. We were screaming and because we were in a townhome that had [thin walls], everybody could hear. Johnnie was, at the time, just really upset about my situation. At the end of the day, [the police] throw a bunch of counts at you because they ultimately want you to plead to something.”
However, as per the interview by The Hollywood Reporter which has been published in June 2023, he felt thankful for that experience as he claimed it was a “wake-up call” for him to pull his life back. He said, “I thank God for that,” before adding, “I went through a situation that I’m sure plenty of people across the globe experience with their partners, and that was a learning experience.” He further added then that he was trying to imbibe lessons from his court-mandated Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART) classes and was trying to remain sober.