Nostalgia for the 2000s is stronger than ever (Bennifer, we're looking at you), and so it's only fitting that one of the decade's most talked-about feuds would recently rejoin the cultural conversation.
Interest in the MTV sensation The Hills, which signed off in July 2010 after six seasons, has never really gone away. After all, The Hills: New Beginnings continues to captivate viewers, having recently aired its tense season two finale.
But the original series came roaring back into the zeitgeist with renewed fervor this week following Heidi Montag's bombshell interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast. During the explosive sit-down, the 34-year-old reality TV star reopened old wounds by sharing critical words about the way she feels former roommate and co-star Lauren Conrad treated her, in addition to disparaging LC's post-Hills path.
Heidi said that Kristin Cavallari is more successful than Lauren, who "didn't make it like she should have." Heidi also shared about the 35-year-old Little Market co-founder, "When that whole Spencer thing happened, she's like, 'If you date Spencer, you're off the show.' How dare you, and I'm not your dog."
It should come as no surprise to The Hills fans that the memories from the highly dramatic show still elicit such emotion. After all, the seminal unscripted series—which led to continued fame for fellow stars Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port, Spencer Pratt, Brody Jenner and several others—was chock-full of tense story lines and exchanges that still live on in pop culture lore to this day.
In honor of Heidi's recent interview, we're revisiting some of the most unforgettable moments, including the Paris trip that never was, that single mascara-streaking tear and those five infamous words: You. Know. What. You. Did.
All these juicy details are so close you can almost taste it, so keep scrolling.
Who will ever forget when, in the season one finale, Lauren turned down the opportunity to spend the summer interning for Teen Vogue in Paris to stick around L.A. with newly-rekindled flame Jason, letting Whitney take her place? Not us, and probably not Lauren, if we're being honest.
What was worse: When Audrina caught Justin Bobby, the homeboy who wore combat boots to the beach, macking on another woman, or when she still allowed herself to be convinced to return home with him that night anyway?
Oh, Jen Bunney. You did your one-time BFF so dirty. In season two, Lauren's oldest friend popped up to rub elbows with her new crew in L.A. and, on the night of her 21st birthday—after LC gave her a diamond bracelet for the occasion, no less—she successfully made a move on Brody, to the delight of Heidi and Spencer, who'd encouraged it. And that meant, that in one fell swoop, Lauren was betrayed by her oldest friend, her new BFF, and the guy she was seeing. Ouch.
When season three kicked off, Lauren and Heidi's friendship—which has been on life support up to that point—was officially declared dead at Frankie's birthday party when LC let her old pal have it over the sex tape rumor that Spencer had helped spread. (A rumor that Lauren vociferously denied.) And while it was sad, it gave us this iconic moment. Say it with us now: "You know what you did!"
The Hills was full of toxic relationships, but none more depressing than the one between siblings Spencer and Stephanie. When his sister arrived on the scene in season four and befriended his foe Lauren, Spencer never missed an opportunity to rip poor Stephanie to shreds. From telling her he doesn't want to be friends with her to calling her a "crazy bitch" as she cries at a party, it was never not uncomfortable when the two happened to be in the same space.
There was nothing more brutal than this moment between Lauren and Heidi, their first interaction after the "You know what you did" in the season three premiere, when the former made it clear that she truly wanted nothing to do with the latter any longer. "I want to forgive you and I want to forget you," Lauren told her old pal. Ouch.
When Audrina and Laguna Beach alum Lo Bosworth both moved in with Lauren, it became a tug-of-war for who would get more attention from the star. As Audrina learned the hard way, it can be tough to come between history and she and Lauren grew further and further apart. And their season four convo about their falling out yielded one of The Hills' most iconic moments: the slo-mo single tear. (TBH, it probably didn't help matters when she accused LC of hooking up with Justin Bobby as her friend stared at her, repulsed by the thought.)
When the drama on The Hills went from friendship squabbles and romance woes to family friction, things always got uncomfortable. (See the Pratt Family Unpleasantness above.) So when Heidi unveiled the results of her plastic surgery to her family in the season six premiere, and her mom wasn't especially thrilled with the massive changes her daughter made to her face, it was truly heartbreaking.
From her first moment on the scene, showing up at Heidi and Spencer's wedding in season five in a shade of blue nearly identical to Lauren's, to her first official episode, the arrival of Kristin—there to replace an outgoing LC—was truly wild. In her first episode, she made a beeline for Justin Bobby, starting a war with Audrina and Stephanie and leaving her shouting, "It's gonna be like this? Is it gonna be like this? 'Cause if it's gonna be like this, it's f--king on, bitch!" Alrighty, then!
Spencer truly seemed to go off the deep end a bit towards the end there, and that was no more evident than in his intense obsession with crystals. Dramatic? Maybe not. Hilarious and unforgettable? You betcha.