'Laguna Beach' reunion sees Lauren and Kristin finally clear the air after Stephen love triangle drama
Two decades after beachside drama first made waves on reality TV, the cast of ‘Laguna Beach’ is back together. The new special, ‘The Reunion: Laguna Beach’, premiered on April 10 as a two-hour event, streaming for free on The Roku Channel. The reunion brought together several original cast members, including Lauren Conrad, Kristin Cavallari, and Stephen Colletti. They were joined by familiar faces like Lo Bosworth, Alex Hooser, Trey Phillips, Dieter Schmitz, Christina Schuller, Jessica Smith, and Talan Torriero. Instead of a typical sit-down chat, the special leaned into the same filming style that once made the show stand out. It included several emotional moments, laughs, secrets being spilled, and much more.
Back in the early 2000s, ‘Laguna Beach’ followed a group of high school students in California as they dealt with romance, rivalry, and everything in between. At the center of it all was a complicated love triangle involving Conrad, Cavallari, and Colletti. At the time, it played out like a tug-of-war, with viewers picking sides and speculating about what was real and what might have been nudged along by producers. Now, years later, the tone is very different. The reunion gave the cast a chance to revisit those moments with a clearer perspective.
One of the most talked-about scenes took place on the beach, as Conrad and Cavallari sat together by a bonfire. For the first time, the women openly discussed what really went wrong between them during those years. “It felt competitive,” Conrad admitted. “Looking back, it's so funny that we looked at it that way because now my perspective is it's a compliment to be looked at by the same guy as you. Because you're such a beautiful woman, and you're so charismatic, and you're so confident. I don't know why that becomes a threatening thing with women.”
Instead of brushing things off, Cavallari responded with her own admission. She revealed that she had been “so wildly jealous of” and “intimidated by” Conrad. “How?” Conrad questioned, before adding, “That doesn't make any sense to me.” Cavallari agreed with her. Conrad then noted, "You have to remember you guys had a relationship where you would go up and down, and he was my friend." Cavallari then stated that she did not remember "hating Lauren" before Colletti came into the picture. "It wasn't like Lauren, and I despised each other. [Stephen] was obviously the reason, and then we found other reasons to not like each other," she said." During the original run of the show, their interactions often came across as tense, sometimes even icy. However, the duo seems to have put their rivalry behind them, as their recent exchange suggested a more reflective understanding between them.
