The Hills alum Audrina Patridge is opening up about her complicated and allegedly abusive relationship with ex-husband Corey Bohan.
Appearing on a candid new episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast on Tuesday, the reality star poured her heart out — accusing the BMX dirt bike racer of constantly degrading her, calling her a “piece of s**t,” getting drunk while at home with their baby girl, being controlling, cheating on her, and so much more!
As Perezcious readers might recall, the couple first started dating in 2008. They welcomed their now 6-year-old daughter, Kirra, in June 2016 before getting married four months later. By September 2017, they were already broken up. But apparently the irreconcilable differences weren’t new — things were problematic for most of the relationship!
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While chatting about her upcoming book, Choices: To the Hills and Back Again, set to be released next Tuesday, Audrina explained she was first drawn to Corey because he had a “different vibe” than other El Lay guys, saying:
“I just felt like, I needed a guy that was respected in his own industry and had his own thing going on.”
She continued:
“We had chemistry and I liked that he was respected and all about his career, he just had a whole different vibe about him than these LA guys.”
Even early into their relationship, however, she was already picking up on numerous “red flags” — warnings she ultimately decided to ignore. The most concerning was the fact that a fan once reached out to her on Twitter to tell her that while her boyfriend was away on tour for work, he was spotted kissing another woman in a bar. She brought the allegation to her boo, but he talked her out of any suspicions:
“When I would confront him, he would say, ‘They’re lying to you because they don’t want you to be happy. They’re just fans. Don’t believe other people.’”
Trusting Corey and wanting to stay in a “happy” relationship, she let the rumors slide:
“So I started thinking, ‘OK, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.’ I tried to block it out and believe him because I didn’t want to believe it but I kept getting these messages. I always disregarded everything because I wanted to be in love. I loved him and I wanted it to work so bad that I was willing to change myself and do whatever to make him happy.”
She would quickly realize that was near impossible!
Eventually, Corey started to get super paranoid that she was cheating on him! When his insecurities would take over, he’d force her to delete social media and would read through her private messages — all while he was knowingly cheating on her?! The audacity of this guy!
Sadly, Audrina started to isolate herself from others to avoid fights, she noted:
“I couldn’t even have a girls dinner without being blown up the entire time because I was being accused of going out to cheat. It got to the point where, I’d rather not go out because I didn’t want to deal with the fight or accusations.”
Oof. That can be such a common occurrence in abusive relationships…
During the conversation, the MTV personality recalled one time when the 40-year-old was convinced she was hooking up with a producer from The Hills. She was on a press tour for the show at the time and was forced to call every night at a specific time to prove that she was in bed alone or else “hell would break loose.” Yikes.
As you can imagine, it became a “toxic struggle” of ups and downs that would be “amazing” — right up until something set the athlete off. Audrina recalled begging her former beau to “get out of her house” when they would argue, but he refused to leave. After all this back and forth about her romantic relations, she eventually found irrefutable proof he was the cheater — naked photos and sexual text messages from another woman on his phone! She says the discovery “ripped her heart out.”
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At the time, she felt she needed to keep her issues to herself since she was starring in the popular reality series — where everyone could see her break:
“I had to keep it together. I had to get up the next day and go film and pretend like everything’s fine.”
She added:
“I kind of started to learn how to block it out and show up with a smile, do what I needed to do and cry after. You turn it on when you need to for cameras.”
Meanwhile, the 37-year-old was keeping all the pain bottled inside:
“I tried to hide it from a lot of people because it’s embarrassing, it’s humiliating.”
When she finally got pregnant with their daughter, she thought that would be a positive turning point in their relationship… But things only got “worse,” as she alleged:
“Once Kirra was born it was the happiest I had ever seen him. He was so excited to be a dad and for this new chapter in our lives. But things gradually got worse. It just got worse and worse.”
Marriage was the next step, she continued:
“I thought if we got married, if we had this beautiful child together, he could now know that I’m his, I’m not going to cheat on him, stop worrying about that. This is my life now.”
But even as they contemplated taking the next step, his actions became allegedly more verbally aggressive. She claimed she’d sometimes wake up with him standing over her in bed saying:
“You’re pathetic. You’re a failure. You’re a fake c**t.”
Like a classic abuser, he’d blame everything on her, she recounted:
“Then he’d say it was my fault because I didn’t give him enough or attention. Like, ‘What?’”
At this point, she knew he was cheating on her, but she “didn’t care” anymore. She noted:
“I was so numb, I just didn’t care. I got to the point where, I was almost like, I’m glad you’re cheating.”
The model remembered thinking:
“Go be with whoever you want, I don’t want to be around you. Your energy, everything, it just made me want to run.”
So awful.
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Despite all of this, she was “so determined” to make things work because her “main priority was [her] baby.” She even agreed to marry Corey, she now says, out of fear of disappointing others. Reflecting on their wedding day, she recalled wanting to back out of the ceremony but didn’t because her family had flown to Hawaii for the big day.
“I was such a people pleaser. I was in robot mode. I jumped back into this mode I used to get in on The Hills, like OK, get your hair and makeup done, walk down the aisle, just get through it, everything’s going to be fine.”
Her hope for the future began to diminish when, months later, she came home to find Corey drinking with his friends while Kirra was upstairs asleep.
“They were drinking and running around naked in the living room, the music was loud.”
This was when she finally realized someone who was unhealthy for her was also unhealthy for their baby.
“I knew then that his priorities were not right. This isn’t happening again. She was only four or five months [old]. You can’t drink or have too much fun, you have to be there mentally in case something happens, in case she wakes up and cries. You can’t go drinking with your friends and pass out with a baby upstairs.”
Still, she didn’t call things off until an incident of domestic violence — when Corey allegedly shoved her while she was holding their then-baby, an action that prompted her to call the police and finally seek help out of the toxic relationship. She said:
“It was like that flight or fright mode. I kind of froze, I didn’t know what to do.”
She recalled:
“Things kept escalating. When I was pushed back, Kirra started screaming and crying and I started screaming and crying and he realized what happened. He started crying, everything just spiraled and it got worse. That’s when my family got involved and the police got involved. I knew at that moment, that’s the end of it. I knew after what happened, he wasn’t gonna change.”
Reflecting on that night, she continued:
“I gave him so many chances. That’s when I knew, this is it. I was so depleted, energetically, emotionally, physically, spiritually. I lost so much weight, I was isolated. I wasn’t myself. I was trying to get back out there and smile but it wasn’t there. I knew it was time.”
Thankfully, she is now in a “good place” and she and her daughter are both “happy.” Such good news!!! She’s now hoping her story will help others get through similar situations. She said:
“Sometimes what I was going through was so humiliating and I’d get down on myself, but reading [fan DMs] would lift me back up and remind me that I’m not alone.”
She reflected:
“It takes a long time to recover from that and to feel like you’re you again and that you’re lovable. But someone will love you again, don’t believe that you’re never good enough to be loved because you are.”
Last October, the co-parents finalized a custody agreement with a judge ruling they will share joint legal custody while Audrina will get the bulk of physical custody. Now, the TV personality is “open to dating” again, but only if the person will do right by her daughter:
“I’m not dating for me, it’s for my daughter too. Whoever I date next, it has to be the real deal.”
She sounds like a fierce momma bear! Love that. Her bravery to share her story will no doubt inspire Kirra one day. What a complicated situation. We’re so glad she found her way out of it before things got even more problematic. Thoughts?
[Image via Nicky Nelson/WENN/Adriana M. Barraza/FayesVision & Audrina Patridge/Instagram]