Audrina Patridge is refusing to be defined by her past.
While looking back on her life, The Hills alum shared that she wished that she hadn't succumbed to peer pressure as a young adult growing up amongst actors and models in Southern California, especially when it came to taking topless photos.
"I was kind of guided and peer pressured in certain situations that I wish I could say, ‘No.' And be strong with my ‘No,'" Audrina explained on the June 29 episode of The Viall Files. "And not fall into peer pressure with, y'know, topless photos."
The reality star appears to be referring to nude photos that first surfaced back in 2008. At the time, Audrina issued a statement to TMZ about the photoset.
"I took these photos years ago, when I was just out of high school and beginning to model," she said, per MTV News. "I was young and very trusting of others, and I didn't know to protect myself. It is a lesson learned, for myself, and hopefully for the young girls who look up to me."
While she did not name the photographer, Audrina now calls the release of the photos "devastating," adding, "People spin it into a judgmental, negative way and then it makes you feel shameful and bad about yourself."
However, Audrina told host Nick Viall that a little friendly advice from her co-star Justin Bobby helped shift her viewpoint.
"[He] was like, ‘Who cares? They're boobs. Everybody has boobs. Stop freaking out about it,'" Audrina said. "For me, I had to put things in perspective where it was like, ‘Alright, who cares?'"
These days, Audrina can look back at her past with a sense of understanding.
"Navigating your early 20s and teens is hard and those choices you do sometimes have to live with," she said. "You learn from them, but then you can teach other people from what you've been through."
Elsewhere on the podcast, Audrina told the Bachelor Nation star about her relationship with The Hills' executive producer Adam DiVello and explained that the cast had to get lawyers involved in response to certain plotlines—like when the group was filming in Miami for the Super Bowl.
As Audrina explained, Kristin Cavallari "didn't show up for a couple episodes" and, as a result, the producers attempted to "bribe" the cast into saying negative things about her with a luxury handbag.
"Lo [Bosworth] was like, ‘I'll do it!'" Audrina said. "So she went on camera and started talking about Kristin and putting things out there that weren't true—about her doing drugs and all that—and it was on the cover of Us Weekly. It was so bad."
In 2016, Kristin alleged to Us Weekly that a producer told Lo, Audrina and Stephanie Pratt that he would "buy them presents if they called me out on camera for doing drugs." She said Lo asked for a Birkin bag, but "never ended up getting the Birkin" for her comments.
She added, "It ended with all of the girls and I, our managers, agents, producers and lawyers in a room. I was told it wasn't going to be a story line, and sure enough, it was on the first episode [of season 6]."
E! News has reached out to Lo's rep and The Hills producers for comment, but hasn't heard back. Kristin's rep declined to comment when contacted by E! News.
The alleged handbag incident was an important turning point for the cast, according to Audrina. "That was a moment that we all were just, like, ‘OK, enough is enough,'" Audrina shared. "So we all got together with our lawyers and we just kinda had to put our foot down."
She added, "People believe everything on reality TV shows sometimes, even though some of it's manipulated and hyped up for the sake of ratings. It just gets to the point where you start getting pissed off at the producers."