Audrina Patridge believes that if social media was around during The Hills, it would have completely killed the show.
In an interview with Us Weekly to celebrate the MTV reality show's 10th anniversary, Patridge talks about how blurred the lines between reality and fiction were on the series. She said that the first time she met Heidi Montag at the pool was staged for the cameras, as was her brief relationship with Montag's future husband, Spencer Pratt.
"Oh god, no!" Patridge said when asked about dating Pratt. "I did not have history with him, and this was one of the things that really upset me and this was when I started distrusting the producers."
Patridge explained that her relationship with then on-again-off-again boyfriend Justin Bobby also suffered from the show's drama — specifically, when the producers brought Kristin Cavallari on to date Bobby for dramatic effect.
“You can’t have a real relationship on that show,” she told Us Weekly. “The Hills, any real relationship you’d bring on or try to have, it would get ruined."
Patridge said the show just wasn't "genuine," and that in the age of social media that would have been made clear very quickly.
"I think if social media was a thing, The Hills would never be what it was," she explained. "Even now going to dinner, [fans] sit there and take pictures and film, and, like, listen. The secrets! There would be no secrets at The Hills anymore if there was social media back then!”
While Patridge believes social media would have made it hard to film the show, she recently said in a Q&A on her website that the show wasn't all fake. That the relationship between the four original girls on the show — Patridge, Lauren Conrad, Whitney Port, Heidi Montag — was real in the first season.
But producers did like to bring the drama, often guiding the cast toward it. "It was all about confrontation and drama," Patridge said on her site. "And the producers would egg us on in a way."
Patridge admits now, at 30 years old, she does have one regret about doing the show. "That I didn’t get a therapist (haha!)," she wrote. "I could have used some good life-coaching."
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