'Laguna Beach' Producers Didn't Want Lauren Conrad 'to Have Anything' Outside Stephen Colletti Love Triangle

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty; Mindy Small/Getty; Gregg DeGuire/Getty

Lauren Conradis getting real about how she was portrayed onLaguna Beach.

As fans of the show know, back when Conrad was in high school withStephen CollettiandKristin Cavallari, the futureHillsstar — who was a longtime friend, and sometimes more, of Colletti — found herself entangled in the volatile on-and-off relationship between the futureVery CavallariandOne Tree Hillstars. Viewers were prompted throughout the show’s first season to pick sides in the supposed love triangle, and the on-air rivalry has followed them all around for years.

“I think they took a small piece of me and used it,” Conrad, 36, told Cavallari, 35.

“Like, I’m often kind of off in a corner just, like, creepily watching you guys,” she joked. “Which is kind of embarrassing.”

“And the thing that’s funny is,” she noted, “I had several boyfriends during this time. Which I’m like, ‘I feel so bad for them if they ever watch this [to see me] just, like, going after this guy.”

Cavallari agreed, “Yeah,they really hammered the love triangle home.”

“They didn’t want me to have anything else,” Conrad said.

Conrad and Cavallari both said they were tapped to narrate their respective seasons of the show without much opportunity to give input to producers. “Like, they write you a script,” Conrad said. “And you’re like ‘Okay, guess this is what I read.'”

When Cavallari asked if Conrad would “ever push back,” the Little Market founder admitted, “I don’t think I understood I was allowed to.”

She added, “I think there was probably a few things I would say, ‘I don’t think this is right,’ or, ‘I feel uncomfortable.’ But I think, because you’re so young, and you were like, ‘Well, this is what I signed up for. This is your job.'”

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As Conrad got older, she wised up to the process, telling Cavallari and Colletti, 36: “I mean, when I got intoThe HillsI pushed back all the time.”

Cavallari said it was a relief to hear Conrad’s perspective. “I felt like I was off on a little island and I was the only one who was manipulated and edited,” she said. “Talking to Stephen, and then now having everyone come on [the podcast], I’ve realized everyone was in the same boat.”

source: people.com