Kristin Cavallari Was Not 'Searching Out' Romance with a Man 13 Years Younger and Admits It Was a 'Hangup'

The 'Laguna Beach' alum, 37, recently hard-launched her relationship with 24-year-old Mark Estes on Instagram

Kristin Cavallari may be well on her way to falling in love with her 24-year-old boyfriend, but she admittedly had her doubts about his age at the beginning of their relationship.

Weeks after hard-launching her relationship with Mark Estes on Instagram — with a cute photo from their romantic getaway to Mexico — Cavallari, 37, opened up about how she really felt about their 13-year age gap in the early days of getting to know the former college football player.

“I want you guys to know that me dating a 24-year-old is not something that I was, like, searching out,” she said on Tuesday’s episode of her podcast, Let’s Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari.

“If you guys listen to the podcast, you know, I thought 30-year-olds were too young for me. I understand what it looks like to the outside world, I really do. I get that,” she said, adding that Estes “is not a typical 24-year-old.”

“When I met him, I was like, obviously I thought he was the hottest guy I've ever seen. There was — that attraction was always there. But when I met him I was like, he's actually a really nice, good guy. He's very sweet — from the jump, he was so sweet to me. Like the very first thing he said to me when we were standing there and [had] just met, he was like, ‘You're, like, really pretty.’”

Related: Kristin Cavallari Met New Boyfriend on Social Media: 'He's Not Your Typical 24-Year-Old' (Exclusive)

The Laguna Beach alum admitted that in the early days of the relationship — they went on their first date the day before Valentine’s Day — she had some major doubts. “I'm not gonna lie to you guys, like the age thing was a hangup for me at first," she said.

Now, though, she admitted: “I don't give a f--- and I'm all in with this guy and I don't actually care what anybody thinks.”

Addressing the widespread interest in her relationship after she shared it with the world at the end of February, Cavallari said her “entire career has prepped me for this moment because when this news came out, it's the first time in my entire life I 100% haven't given a s--- what anybody thinks.”

To her, all that matters is the opinions of her mom and her kids. “I think because I know that I'm happy, I know how Montana really is, I know what this is. I know that even my own mother has said how calm and great — she's like, my mom is noticing a difference in me. And that's what matters.”

Related: Kristin Cavallari Wears a Gold "M" Necklace amid Her Romance with Boyfriend Mark Estes

The relationship is the first one Cavallari has gone public with in the four years since her divorce from Jay Cutler, and she said that she’s had some hard conversations with Estes to make sure that he’s on the same page as her when it comes to what they need in a partnership.

“I've had a lot of conversations with him about that. I said, 'Here are my concerns. You're 24, you just moved to Nashville. This is when you should be going out. You're on TikTok, you know you've got this notoriety on TikTok. You guys should be going out every night. You should be hooking up with different girls. Like, this is when you should be doing that,’” she shared. “I'm following his lead on this, you guys.”

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While she said she doesn’t want to “put everything out there,” she clarified, “He's in a place where he's ready for a relationship and so here we f---ing are.”

“This man makes me really happy right now,” Cavallari said, adding, “We're just trying to have a little fun. Well, I mean, no it's — it's more than that. I don't wanna downplay it, because I really do like this guy and I actually think what we have is very serious.”

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