Kristin Cavallari’s Laguna Beach days have been “dunzo” for years, but she still feels strongly about the way MTV allegedly treated its teenage cast.
In a new interview with Bustle, the 37-year-old–- who appeared on the MTV series from 2004 to 2006 and later returned for the spinoff The Hills in 2009–- reflected on her first reality TV run and how she feels that she and her castmates were “manipulated” by the network.
“I think I walked away from ‘Laguna Beach’ thinking that I was the only one MTV messed with and I got the sh**ty end of the deal, and I took everything so personally,” she told the outlet.
Kristin went on the admit that when looking back on the whole experience, she realized, “they f**ked with everybody the same way they f**ked with me.”
“ … We were very young to have our lives manipulated like that,” she added, noting that she and her ‘Laguna Beach’ co-stars were only 17 and 18 years-old at the time.
Kristin made similar claims back in 2022 while promoting the ‘Laguna Beach’ rewatch podcast, Back to the Beach with Kristin and Stephen, which she briefly co-hosted with her former ‘Laguna Beach’ co-star Stephen Colletti.
“I don’t think anyone should be on reality TV until you’re 18, and even then it’s questionable,” she said at the time.
Despite her feelings about how she and her friends were treated during their time on the series, Kristin said she remains thankful for the ‘Laguna Beach’ experience.
“I’m not complaining about it,” she said. “I’m so thankful for the show. I think it can be both things– I can feel like we were taken advantage of and I can also be thankful for it.
“ … At that age, 17, 18, no one really knows who they are, but it definitely made me be like, ‘I am not that girl on TV, but if there’s even a slight part of me that is, I know that I don’t want to be that,’” she continued. “So maybe it actually was a blessing in disguise and made me be a nicer person in general.”
She also believes that everything ultimately “worked out the way it’s supposed to.”
“ … it’s gotten me where I am today,” she added. “So no, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
In the years since Kristin left the MTV reality TV world, she founded the company Uncommon James, married– and later divorced– NFL quarterback Jay Cutler, welcomed three children and starred in the E! reality series Very Cavallari from 2018 until 2020.
Last year she launched her own podcast, Let’s Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari, and in February, began dating 24-year-old TikTok content creator Mark Estes.
Though Kristin remains a public figure today, she claims her “celebrity could go away tomorrow” and she’d “be really happy.”
“ … I want to work two or three more years and literally be done and then open up a coffee shop in a little beach town just for fun,” she revealed, claiming that once her three kids have graduated from high school, she plans to live a more leisure life.
“I’m not going to be in Hollywood,” she said. “I’ll be done. I have a set amount of money in my mind and then I’m done working. I just want to live a chill life.
“I’ve been grinding since I was 17, and I’m tired,” she added.
(Photos: MTV; Instagram)
7 Responses
It’s amazing some parents thought this was a good idea
Ok but where were their parents?
Blame your parents!
What’s the point of claiming they manipulated you but not even give one example of how? Such a waste of time.
@hf ~ agreed. why no examples, KC? 🤔 people want the tea! ☕
loved her ‘teenage dirtbag’ montage, tho! 🍻🥂🎉🤣
No one under the age of 21 should be on a “reality TV” show