Audrina Patridge is spilling like never before in her new book Choices: To the Hills and Back Again. The memoir, out now, gives the inside dirt on the reality star’s life, everything you didn’t see behind the scenes of her televised life.
She writes about her love life, her experiences with celeb culture back in the 2000s, some truly toxic personal situations… and of course, fans of rehashed The Hills drama can find plenty of that, too. The juiciest tidbit there? The real reasons the rift with Lauren Conrad never healed.
Related: Audrina Recalls When ‘Rude’ Justin Timberlake ‘Devastated’ The Hills Cast At VMAs
Remember, the two had friction back when they were living together, along with Lo Bosworth. What fan can forget?
But Audrina says there was more to the roomie dynamics than cameras captured. Like Lauren’s “controlling” behavior… Ooh… She broaches the awkward subject coolly:
“Unfortunately, one connection that didn’t last was my relationship with Lauren, who doesn’t really talk to anyone from the old cast.”
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What Wasn’t On TV
Diving right into there being more to the story than viewers know, she says:
“There are reasons that she and I aren’t friends anymore, and there was a lot of turmoil between us that we couldn’t talk about on-camera at the time. It’s what led to me moving out of the pool house out back when I lived with her and Lo.”
And no, it wasn’t all about her ex Justin Bobby Brescia either. Getting into the details they couldn’t discuss on MTV, she recalls:
“Lauren and I had the same agent and publicists, and it seemed to me that I was getting requests, opportunities and gigs that our mutual agent was giving to Lauren instead. Yes, I blamed my agents for this, but it still wasn’t great for my friendship with Lauren.”
So there was a rivalry going on there they never even mentioned! She also expresses:
“I also found her to be very controlling over her friends. If you’re in her circle, you have to do and say what Lauren does or says. Otherwise, you’re on the outs.”
Audrina says she felt obligated to follow the rules set out by MTV producers — but not the ones Lauren came up with! She notes Heidi Montag experienced “the same thing” — hence her relationship with Lauren souring.
Ooh, damn! We’re guessing the LC CEO wouldn’t be too happy to hear this description of her dynamic with friends!
The book does show some sympathy for her former friend. Audrina writes:
“To an extent, I understand wanting to have control, especially in the reality TV world Lauren grew up in, when so much is controlled and decided for you.”
The Justin Bobby Of It All
OK, we said it wasn’t all about Justin Bobby Brescia. But that was definitely the big event that ended the friendship for good. And yes, Audrina still insists she was right — that Lauren had hooked up with her ex behind her back. She writes in the book:
“When Justin and I were broken up, Lauren ran into him in Vegas and, according to a good friend of mine, ended up hooking up with him. When I heard this, I felt so betrayed.”
A good friend, eh? Hmm… Wonder who that could be… Someone Audrina trusts more than Lauren at any rate! Speaking of that “controlling” behavior, the now-37-year-old still remembers the calculated way her co-star played that situation. First she ghosted Audrina until the cameras were rolling, then she caught her off guard by completely gaslighting her!
“Apparently Lauren was saving her take for the cameras, and when we finally talked, she had it all twisted around to make me sound like I was delusional and out of my mind. Then she got mad at me. Lauren and I were never really friends again.”
Obviously she had to write about this. However, Audrina — now a mom to a 6-year-old — says she doesn’t actually think about that old bad blood much anymore:
“It would be silly to waste time on an old feud when we’re with our families and our priorities are clearly different now.”
An Ex To Pine For
Besides the LC drama, the relationship most people are keen to read about is the one with a little up-and-coming actor named Chris Pine.
The two met in 2009, just as he was really entering the stratosphere of movie stardom. They enjoyed a brief but highly publicized romance — and that second part was kind of the problem.
While the reality star was accustomed to having her personal life be turned into entertainment, Chris was apparently uncomfortable with that particular aspect of fame:
“He didn’t like going out and being followed by the paparazzi — he was an introvert, and very focused on his acting… I loved to go out, and of course I was usually filming The Hills, so our lifestyles were complete opposites in that sense.”
Sounds like it was just never going to work!
They would hang out in less paparazzi-dense areas like Silver Lake and Los Feliz, she writes, but even then they were pictured together. Once, she recalls, a fan took their photo — something she thought really bothered him.
And of course her own cameras were an issue as well! She continues:
“With my filming schedule, and the fact that there was no way Chris would want to be on [The Hills], I just knew that after a couple months that I couldn’t date him. My life was the TV show, and there weren’t enough hours in the day to do my job and find time to see him privately. He was a big up-and-coming actor with demands on his time, and it didn’t seem like our lives were lining up, even though we really liked each other.”
Awww! Star Trek-crossed lovers! She writes wistfully:
“We talked and stayed in touch a little after we stopped seeing each other. I have nothing but fond memories of Chris. He was truly one of the most normal people I’ve ever met in LA — and I mean that as the highest compliment.”
Ha! Being called “normal” definitely is a compliment in this town! LOLz!
But Chris wasn’t the only A-lister Audrina got friendly with…
The Leo Story
So what really happened between Audrina and Leonardo DiCaprio??
She tells the whole story in the book, and it starts with a prince… who isn’t Leo!
Audrina writes about being flown to Las Vegas during the height of her The Hills popularity for the birthday party of a prince — presumably not Harry, that’s a whole other Vegas story. She recalls:
“I was there with a few of my castmates from the film ‘Sorority Row,’ as well as Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green, and even Leonardo DiCaprio.”
Yep, when you’re famous sometimes international royalty just pays to have you at their parties! But it was what happened after that matters…
Audrina remembers the celebs going out clubbing after their obligations with His Highness — and that’s when Leo made his move!
“This bouncer kept coming over to me and saying that Leo would like to get me a drink at his table. I looked over at his table, and he was surrounded by supermodels. It was intimidating!”
She told the bouncer she would say hello, she writes, but she NEVER DID! Seriously?! With Leo?? Well, playing hard to get did the trick because eventually he came to her table.
“I told him I knew who he was, obviously, and we chatted for a while. He asked for my phone number, and we texted a little after the trip to Vegas, but we never actually hung out.”
How anticlimactic! Sadly it was her job that she believes came between her and yet another celeb suitor. Leo, like Chris, is really private in his personal life. It’s not like he was ever going to be on The Hills. We mean, he’s LEO!
Speaking of the reality show…
How Real Was The Hills, Really??
Yes, Audrina gives her own answer to the eternal question. Some cast members have said the show was semi-scripted, others have denied it. Where does Patridge land in her big tell-all?? She weighs in:
“The truth? It’s somewhere in between, a little bit of both.”
Unfortunately the answer is far too complicated. You’d have to read the whole book to get a clearer picture, as she spends quite a lot of time discussing — as with Lauren — how her relationships with people were different on and off-camera, the “blurred lines” between the show and life.
In fact, the friction between reality and “reality” was a big issue in her relationship with Justin Bobby, as she describes:
“We got caught up in the production of it all, like being artificially brought together to film certain scenes, prompted and prodded by production to share a romantic moment or argue about a specific problem.”
That actually sounds… exhausting! Even if it wasn’t “scripted” per se, they were still filming scenes that were someone else’s idea for a TV show — and not just living life. And in fact, that got in the way of her life back then a LOT.
For more you can check out Choices: To the Hills and Back Again available at all booksellers now!
[Image via Adriana M. Barraza/WENN/MTV/YouTube.]
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