Burying the hatchet. Laguna Beach: The Real O.C. alums Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari had one of the famous feuds of the early 2000s — however it could have all been made for TV.
“We had a difficulty with one another, however it had been squashed [by the time filming started],” the Little Market founder said while speaking with Cavallari and her cohost and former Laguna Beach costar, Stephen Colletti on Dear Media’s “Back to the Beach” podcast in November 2022. “I believe what happened is [producers] sort of saw this as, like, a start line. After which they ran with it.”
Conrad continued: “I mean, I don’t think we were, like, best friends. But we were like, ‘It’s wonderful.’”
The Very Cavallari alum agreed, adding that the Laguna Beach producers decided to play up the stress between her and Conrad. “My tackle it’s, you and I never really had any beef,” she explained. “Really. I mean, obviously there was, like, a little bit truth to what happened with the three of us. But I felt like MTV coming kept it alive and made it way worse than it ever would have been.”
In the course of the first season of the MTV reality show, Cavallari and the L.A. Candy writer continuously butted heads over their love triangle with Colletti. “I believe considered one of my takeaways from looking back [at the show] is I’m like, ‘[Kristin and Stephen are] really sweet [together].’ You guys were in love and also you had a relationship,” Conrad said on “Back to the Beach,” adding, “Who wasn’t cheering for that [relationship]?”
Colletti, for his part, said he thought the show’s editing viewers’ perspective of the situation. “It’s completely tilted, since you’re the narrator,” he told Conrad. “And we’re wild and it’s this hurricane. And, sweet Lauren, you guys have to root for her.”
The One Tree Hill alum has previously opened up about how rewatching Laguna Beach made him upset at the best way his relationship with the Unusual James founder was portrayed onscreen. “I had an enormous problem with this because look, obviously they created this show around this love triangle and there’s moments where you and I were broken up and so they had learned about Lauren and I hooking up and being superb friends,” Colletti said during an August 2022 episode of “Back to the Beach.”
He continued: “And, you realize, obviously, stuff happened at certain times. but at no point ever at any time when we were together, you realize, would I step out on you in that way. And so they really paint [it like] that’s what I’m doing throughout the show — which I actually have an enormous problem with.”
On the time, though, the previous MTV VJ did admit that the show’s editors were “genius” for the best way they crafted the drama between him, Conrad and Cavallari. “You’ve handy it to them, they really crafted this storyline in a way that I believe that’s what made audiences really engaged,” he said.”
Keep scrolling to relive all of Conrad and Cavallari’s ups and downs through the years: