One of the most memorable aspects of The Hills was the relationship between Audrina Patridge and Justin Bobby Brescia. Their motorcycle rides down Los Angeles streets took us to commercial breaks. Their on-again, off-again nature provided us with drama. And their blank stares across restaurant tables left us wondering what the heck was up with the editors working on this show.
Still, while a lot of storylines on The Hills were fabricated, Justin Bobby and Audrina did seem to at least have some semblance of a real connection. So, heading into The Hills revival, The Hills: New Beginnings — for which Justin and a very single Audrina are returning — here’s a look at their history.
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Justin & Audrina Meet
Justin and Audrina met at Quixote Studios, where she worked as a receptionist and he worked through his job as a hairstylist, according to an interview he did with Broadly. He ended up cutting Audrina’s hair, which is how MTV found out about him and decided they wanted him on the show, too. He first appeared at the beginning of season 3 in an episode called “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and was introduced as someone from Audrina’s past. In this episode, Lauren Conrad and Lo Bosworth tried to figure out what they should call “Justin Bobby” and he got an attitude with them as a result. Little did we know.
Justin & Audrina Date
They didn’t even have a solid “on” period before it seemed like every other episode was about them breaking up or getting back together. Throughout this time, we witnessed a number of memorable moments, including Justin saying, “Truth and time tells all” (imagine being that bold on your second TV appearance), and Lauren telling Audrina, “Homeboy wore combat boots to the beach. I know you don’t want to call that your boyfriend.” Classic.
Justin and Audrina both stayed on the show until it ended, and they basically had some sort of teased on-and-off thing the entire time even though she was shown dating other people.
Justin & Audrina Ended Their Relationship
The series ended with Audrina moving into a new house on her own and actually, truly, really not dating Justin Bobby. But did she?
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What Really Happened Between Justin & Audrina
Now, everything above is what happened on the show, but The Hills is known for exaggerating and making up a lot of storylines — not all of them, but a lot of them. And in the time since the show ended, Justin and Audrina have both spoken about their actual relationship.
In an interview with Complex in 2015, Justin said, “Were we like boyfriend girlfriend? No, we weren’t. We worked a lot, we had some moments, we spent a lot of time together … It never evolved into anything too heavy, but we definitely went through an experience of doing TV and filming and travelling and having laughs and she’s still a dear friend to this day.”
Interestingly, during Season 5 of the show, Audrina said to Justin, “You go around telling people that we were never together.” He responded, “We weren’t, Audrina.”
As for Audrina, she addressed the relationship in a Q&A on her website in 2016 and answered a fan question that questioned Justin's lack of consistency when talking about their relationship. Were they or weren't the? Audrina responded in part:
“We started hanging out and got to that weird ‘what are we’ point. He filmed bits for the 1st season doing my hair, but they never made it to air because he wasn’t really into it. We kept in touch and were ‘together but not together,’ if that makes sense. It was a confusingly interesting time to say the least! We had a real connection and love for each other, but we were both also VERY young.”
Nowadays, the former sort-of-couple is still on good terms. In fact, Audrina told Us Weekly some flirting between herself and Justin helped her through her divorce. “You know, Justin and I, you never know what you’re going to get with us,” she added. “I don’t even think we know what we’re getting with each other. There’s always going to be something with us, and on the show, you guys will be on the ride with us, I’ll say that.”
And — sing it with me now — “the rest is still unwritten.”
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