What did Jamie do to Beth in Yellowstone?

Jamie and Beth’s toxic relationship is one of the most polarizing elements of Yellowstone, but what did he do to make her hate him so much?

The Dutton family tree is overflowing with hate, resentment, and complicated love. But no relationship in Yellowstone is as awful as the one between Jamie and Beth Dutton. Many Yellowstone episodes see the two physically beating each other, or using any opportunity they can to cut the other one down with fierce words.

Indeed, they’re easily the most brutal duo in the Western TV show. But Beth seems to hate Jamie a lot more than he hates her, and hints are dropped throughout the series that there’s one major reason why she despises him so much.

So, what did Jamie do to Beth? Here’s everything you need to know about how their ongoing battle started.

What did Jamie do?

Jamie is the reason Beth cannot have children, since he gave consent for her to be sterilized during an abortion without her knowledge.

This all goes down in Yellowstone Season 3 Episode 5, wherein a teenage Beth gets pregnant after sleeping with Rip. She goes to Jamie for help, asking him to take her to get an abortion.

So, Jamie takes her to a clinic on the Broken Rock Reservation. He goes in ahead of her to arrange the appointment, and the receptionist encourages him to go to a clinic in Billings instead. However, that’s not an option: they don’t want to go to a well-known clinic in town in case the word gets out and causes a blemish on the wealthy family’s reputation.

The receptionist then tells him of a key caveat: all clinics on the Reservation require a serialization procedure at the same time. This is likely based on a very real and well-documented practice that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, in which Native American women were sterilized (often without their consent) by the Indian Health Service and collaborating physicians.

Instead of going back outside and giving Beth the information or the option, he goes ahead and confirms the appointment, not warning her of the sterilization. As a result, Beth has the abortion, but she can no longer have children of her own.

We never witness her finding out this information — we only know that she must have learned of it at some point. As a result, Beth has spend her entire adult life hating Jamie, abusing him physically and emotionally for what he did to her all those years ago.

Who knows about it?

The only people confirmed to know about this situation are Jamie, Beth, and John Dutton.

It’s possible that more people know, such as Jamie’s ex-flame Christina (the mother of his child), his birth father Garrett Randall, or his new lover, Sarah Atwood. However, it’s not shown outright whether he tells these particular people.

Beth tells her dad, John Dutton about the event in Yellowstone Season 3 Episode 6. Their conversation isn’t shown, but John soon appears in the kitchen to confront Jamie. He chases him around the room, furious at Jamie for taking away Beth’s choice and her ability to have children. (Considering John’s dedication to legacy and keeping the Dutton ranch in the family name, this act is unforgivable to him.)

Kayce then enters the room and stops the fight from going any further, asking: “What the hell is going on here?” John then leaves, telling him: “Ask your brother.” Kayce then comforts Jamie after he smashes his fist through glass, but the scene ends before Jamie does actually explain anything.

The most important person who could know is Rip. In the abortion flashback, it becomes clear that he knew about the potential pregnancy. When Beth visits him later that same night, he asks her what happened, but she told him the test was positive. Therefore, for a long time, he doesn’t know about the situation.

She does, however, eventually tell him that she can’t have children, but she doesn’t explain why.

What could happen next?

With everything that’s happened so far, the show has laid the groundwork for Beth telling Rip about the sterilization, and him potentially killing Jamie over it.

Beth literally uses this as a threat against Jamie in Season 4 Episode 10, after she becomes convinced that he orchestrated the assassination attempt against the family. She shows up at his office, gun in hand, and forces him to confess that it was his birth father all along. She then gives him a choice.

One: she tells John about it, a move which will ultimately end with Jamie going to prison. Two: she tells Rip about Jamie’s father, who’ll surely kill him, and then she’ll tell Rip about the sterilization. “He’ll tear you apart with his bare f**king hands,” she tells him. Jamie ultimately goes with the cunning third option, in which he kills his own birth father.

The Season 5 Part 1 finale ends with Beth and John deciding to go head-to-head with Jamie, who has threatened to unveil everything he knows about the Train Station. Beth still has the Rip card in her pocket, meaning she can choose to tell Rip at anytime about Jamie’s part in her inability to have children. No doubt Rip would want revenge for such a thing.

Don’t forget, Beth has personally sworn to Jamie that she would destroy anything and anyone he loves out of revenge. When Beth finds out in Season 5 Episode 4 that Jamie has a secret child, she’s heartbroken and completely enraged. “You have my womb cut out of me, and God gave you a boy?” she asks in horror before attacking him.

As such, it’s possible she’ll take matters into her own hands now that she knows this, taking Jamie’s child away from him.

Alternatively, if Jamie dies during the Yellowstone finale, the secret could die with Beth and Jamie (and John), though it’s not likely that Beth will let him off that easy.

We’ll find out what happens when Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 arrives. For more, take a look at all the most shocking Yellowstone deaths, and find out what’s happening with 1923 Season 2.