‘Laguna Beach’ Babes Kristin Cavallari and Lauren Conrad Finally Squash Love Triangle Beef
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Kristin Cavallari, Lauren Conrad, and Stephen Colletti talking about their love lives? No, you haven’t slipped back in time. The real-life stars behind Laguna Beach‘s most iconic love triangle reunited to discuss the show and their relationships on Back To The Beach, a Laguna Beach rewatch podcast. Hosted by former stars (and former flings) Cavallari and Colletti, the series unpacks behind-the-scenes moments from one of Hollywood’s first and biggest reality television series. And in Tuesday’s season finale, the co-hosts were joined by Conrad to talk about their infamous love triangle and where they stand today.
One of the earliest iterations of what is now several reality television empires, Laguna Beach was an MTV series that ran from 2004 to 2006 and centered around what else: high schoolers and their drama. The series documented the lives and relationships of several students at Laguna Beach High. Conrad served as the narrator for Season 1, which made her involvement in the season’s biggest plot point even more intriguing to viewers. Through the first 11 episodes, Conrad and Cavallari appeared to vie for the heart and favor of a young Colletti — a tension the two revealed had existed for a short while before the show began filming and was restoked by producers.
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“We had so much fun together! I just want everyone to know: We’ve had a handful of really great times together,” Cavallari said, with Conrad agreeing and telling Colletti, “As soon as you left, it was great.”
“You were the problem, Stephen!” Cavallari added.
As fans know, along with Laguna Beach, Conrad went on to star in the spinoff series, The Hills, which Cavallari eventually joined as well. And while the tension between the two women continued to be teased throughout both series, this marked the first time that a notoriously tight-lipped Conrad had sat down to discuss all the dirty details.
So what was real? According to the podcast episode, Cavallari and Colletti had a real-life relationship. And even though Conrad was pitted against the potential couple as a foil after a short-lived hookup with Colletti before cameras started rolling, in her real world, she was dating several people at the time and wasn’t actually all too concerned with the status of Cavallari and Colletti’s relationship.
“I don’t think we were, like, best friends, but we were like, ‘It’s fine,’” Conrad said. “We had an issue with each other but it had been squashed… I think what happened is they kind of saw this as a starting point, and then they ran with it.”
The group added that producers had a heavy hand in the series and would often stoke storylines and potential tensions. While this is a common practice in reality television now, the group said that the producers were “persuasive,” which sometimes prevented them from pushing back against certain lines.
“I don’t think I ever felt, like, taken advantage of, but I was definitely surrounded by a bunch of producers, a bunch of adults, kind of saying like, ‘Well, this is how it went. This is how viewers feel.’ They did a good job,” Conrad said. “They were writing a show. And I think we did need that push in order to make it more interesting.”
According to Conrad, she had never watched the show the entire way through before the podcast and was shocked to see how she was portrayed — even going so far to apologize to Cavallari for the comments she made on that tense Cabo episode. (You know, the one where Colletti called Cavallari a slut for dancing on a bar and then seemingly leaving with Conrad out of pure jealousy and revenge).
“My biggest regret, watching it, I called you a slut. I’m so sorry,” Conrad said of her own choice words for Cavallari that night. “I couldn’t believe I did that, because I think where I’m at now, like, I would never call another woman that. It was, for me, the most embarrassing moment.”
Cavallari shot the apology right back, noting at least one other episode where she returned the sentiment and also called Conrad a slut.
“I said some really dumb stuff,” she said. “I wasn’t confident at all, I was actually so insecure and I took it out on you in a lot of ways, so I am sorry for that because I said some horrible things.”
The conversation and insight into the iconic series comes just in time for another rewatch. Streaming service Netflix will be adding the first two seasons of Laguna Beach on Friday, November 11.
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