Let’s go back... back to the beginning, back to when “Laguna Beach” tore friends, families and our great nation apart over the eternal Team Kristin or Team LC divide.
Nearly 20 years and many more Ste-PHENs ago, MTV first introduced the reality TV series following a group of high schoolers, including Kristin Cavallari and Lauren Conrad, who were locked in a multi-season (and heavily edited) feud over a boy named Stephen Colletti.
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For the first time ever, all three former co-stars sat down and unpacked their love triangle on Cavallari and Colletti’s “Back to the Beach” rewatch podcast.
“Watching it was so much worse than I imagined it would be,” Conrad said, noting that she’d never seen a single full episode of the series. “It was really cringe-y.”
Ranking highest on the cringe scale for Conrad is calling Cavallari a “slut” for dancing on the bar during the show’s infamous first season cast trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
“My biggest regret was, watching it, I called you a slut. I’m so sorry,” Conrad told Cavallari, who said she accepted the apology.
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“Watching it, it was my, like, ‘Oh, I couldn’t believe I did that.’ Because I think where I’m at now, I would never call another woman that, or girl,” Conrad continued. “And it was, for me, like, the most embarrassing moment. I was like, ‘Oh gross.’”
Cavallari regretted calling her former co-star the same name in a different episode, admitting that she also “said some really dumb stuff.”
She added: “When I watch it now, I’m like, ’I wasn’t confident at all. I was actually so insecure. And I took it out on you in a lot of ways. And I’m so sorry for that.”
While both admitted there was a kernel of truth to their feud, they agreed that the cameras “kept it alive and made it way worse than it ever would have been.” While MTV portrayed Colletti carrying on a simultaneous romantic relationship with both women, he insists they never overlapped.
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“At no point ever whenever we were together, you know, would I step out on you in that way,” Colletti said of his real romance with Cavallari at the time. “And they really paint [it like] that’s what I’m doing throughout the show — which I have a huge problem with.”
During the show’s first season, Conrad actually carried on various other relationships, including a fling with fellow cast member Talan Torriero, which was never shown on camera.
“The thing that’s funny is that I think Season 1 is our senior year? I had several boyfriends during this time, so I’m, like, I feel so bad for them if they ever watch this!” she revealed.
“Laguna Beach” concluded its run in 2006 after three seasons ― the final installment featured neither Conrad nor Cavallari. Both, however, would eventually star in “The Hills,” a spinoff that initially followed Conrad’s life in Los Angeles. Cavallari later replaced Conrad midway through the show’s fifth season, but the two never appeared on camera together.
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Conrad has since gone on to launch various businesses, as well as start a family with her husband, William Tell. The two reside back in Laguna Beach, California, with their two sons.
Cavallari, meanwhile, returned to reality television with her E! series “Very Cavallari,” which ran for three seasons and featured her then-husband, football star Jay Cutler. The former couple, who share three children, have since divorced, announcing their separation in 2020 after 10 years together.
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