Tec PetajaKristin Cavallari is ready to tell all about her life, including her time on Laguna Beach, her relationships and even her "damaging" eating habits.
The former reality TV star has penned a new book, Balancing in Heels, and inside she really gets candid about the ups and downs of her personal life and how it has affected the way she raises her children. Now married to Jay Cutler, Cavallari didn't always have the easiest of relationships with men—and Laguna Beach tried to exploit that. That's just one of eight things we've learned about her from this book.
1. Laguna Beach "manipulated" scenes for dramatic effect.
Because Cavallari was just a teenager, she didn't really understand how life in the spotlight would affect her. As a result, she didn't really think about the "consequences" of what life on TV could and would bring, especially when it wasn't airing the whole truth.
"There was certainly a good deal to the show that wasn't 'real,' but as kids we got caught up in it anyway," she writes. "It was easy to go along with made-up situations...to keep things interesting, words were dubbed, scenes filmed months apart were shown in the same episode as though they were concurrent, and phone calls were faked (I would literally be on the phone with no one or sometimes with a producer).
2. While Laguna Beach might not have been 100 percent real, her relationship with Stephen Colletti was.
"He was my entire world, and we loved hard and fought hard," she writes, but notes that the MTV show got in the way of their relationship.
"Surprisingly, the producers had a bigger effect, as they controlled and mapped our lives more than we were aware. One of the most hurtful things they did was pressure Stephen to spend time with another girl from our show, Lauren, while he and I were dating."
Even though it provided some grade-A entertainment for TV, it greatly hurt Cavallari. "I felt threatened," she admits.
Between the show controlling her life to a point and her parents' split, Cavallari developed trust issues.
3. Laguna Beach producers intentionally put Cavallari in scenes they knew would cause her to react.
Knowing that she "didn't know how to deal with" or "handle my emotions," the MTV show producers would involve her in upsetting situations so that they would get a genuine, negative reaction from her for the cameras.
"I was only 17! I had some anger stored up from my parents' divorce and my new stepfamilies, which the producers saw," she explains. "They put me in situations where they knew I would react. I was a fighter back then: When I felt threatened, I acted. So when I felt the producers were trying to break up my relationship, I ended up becoming exactly what they wanted from the get-go...When I acted out, they won."
4. The Hills led her to meet her husband.
In hindsight, Cavallari realizes the truth about her time spent on-camera, but back then that didn't stop her from transitioning into another show, The Hills. Joining that spin-off, Cavallari was put in a position to meet her now-hubby and NFL star, Cutler.
"When I was in the middle of filming The Hills, I got a phone call from my publicist saying that Jay cutler wanted to fly me to Chicago and take me on a date," she recalls, noting that it didn't sit well with her because she had a bad experience with another Chicago athlete who asked her out the same way, but after some time she would learn that it wasn't him. It was a teammate helping Jay out.
"A year later, a year in which I grew up a lot and felt serious about meeting a good man...I called up my publicist and got us family passes to meet Jay after the game."
How the stars aligned! The relationship kicked into full gear almost immediately—Cavallari describes it as a "swift and intense romance." They got engaged eight months later but would call off the wedding three months after that.
5. She called off her wedding because things needed to change.
Although she found herself in a near-perfect relationship, something was off and she found herself skeptical to dive into a marriage if it wasn't 100 percent right for her.
"I always go after what I want in life, with men or otherwise, and I never settle. If something doesn't feel right, I act on it. It's just who I've always been," she writes, adding, "And at that moment, something wasn't right. A few things needed to change, and I knew the only way Jay would see how serious I was, was if I ended the relationship."
She reveals that she was "dying inside" throughout their entire break, even though she was putting up a tough exterior. While spending time apart (they kept in touch the entire time), Cavallari learned she needed to be working.
"If I stayed at home, I wouldn't be happy and would probably end up resenting Jay for it," she confesses.
6. They started seeing a therapist.
"I credit [the therapist] for saving our relationship," she confesses. "She opened up our eyes to the other person's perspective and gave us great tools for communication...we still periodically see her to this day."
7. Her dog bit her the morning of her wedding.
This might top the list of worst things to happen on a bride's wedding day. Cavallari was hanging out at home with her family. While playing on the floor with the kids and dogs, she shot up in pain and realized her eye was swollen and bleeding.
"Brando [the dog] bit me right on the eye," she recalls. Fortunately, her makeup artist was able to glue her cuts closed. Ouch!
8. She had a terrible relationship with food.
Like many impressionable teens, Cavallari found herself getting sucked into the marketing of 100-calorie packs, fat-free foods and everything else that screamed "diet." Ultimately her obsession with these labels would make her relationship with food deteriorate.
"Beyond the food itself, my eating habits were equally damaging. I would be super-strict for 5 days, then binge eat for 2," she admits. "During the week, I tried to stay around 1,800 calories a day and would be hungry and unsatisfied most of the time. Then the weekend came, and it was a free-for-all."
It took her getting pregnant with her first son, Camden, to change her ways. Now she avoids cow's milk, GMOs, artificial sweeteners, MSG, synthetic dyes, added colors and more. On her good list, however, is spelt, brown rice, oat flower, fruit, almond milk, almond butter, peanut butter, chia seeds and more healthy goodness.
Balancing in Heels is available March 15.