The Biggest Bombshells From Audrina Patridge's Memoir Choices

The Hills star Audrina Patridge described writing her new memoir, Choices, as a "very liberating and therapeutic" experience. Here are the secrets she set free.

By Natalie Finn, Beth Sobol Jul 26, 2022 5:00 PMTags

When Audrina Patridge headed for The Hills in 2006, she didn't know what to expect.

And when she descended from the hit MTV reality show—also starring Lauren Conrad, Heidi Montag and, later, Kristin Cavallari—after six dramatic seasons, she didn't know what to do.

Feeling "lost," the 37-year-old recalled July 22 on E! News' Daily Pop, "I didn't really know what I wanted or who I was, so I moved to the beach. I just had to get out of L.A. and reconnect with myself and figure out, what do I want? Who am I? What's next?"

Off-screen reality awaited, along with acting, modeling and hosting, marriage and divorce and, most importantly, becoming a mom to her now 8-year-old daughter, Kirra. All of which was dutifully chronicled by keen observers—but Patridge assures that you weren't getting the whole story, until now.

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The Hills' Most Dramatic Moments

"I went there," she said of what she's dishing in her new memoir, Choices: To The Hills and Back Again, out now. "All the way there."

Patridge called writing the book "very liberating and therapeutic," as well as a "very emotional" experience."

"I wanted to name it Choices," she explained to E! in November, "because I just feel like your life literally comes down to the choices you make. I wanted it to be inspiring and helpful to people to learn from and also giving juicy inside scoop on The Hills and the Hollywood scene in the 2000s and my different relationships...Things that I've never exposed or shared with anyone."

So while her next chapter may still be unwritten, her history is here for you in black and white. Here are the bombshells to be mined from Patridge's Choices:

1. Was The Hills real or fake? A little of both, Audrina Patridge wrote. The show was not scripted (though the voiceovers were written for them), but interactions were set up—such as, if she and Heidi were having issues, they were sent on what producers hoped would be a tense—or, better yet, emotional—coffee date. All of it left Audrina feeling under pressure to perform. (And she, Brody Jenner and Frankie Delgado will be expanding on this very topic in their new podcast, Was It Real? The Hills Rewatch.)

2. While Audrina remained good friends with Kristin, her friendship with Lauren wasn't built for the long haul. L.C. was "controlling," Audrina wrote, it was always her way or the highway—and Audrina didn't want to "obey" her pal. Moreover, she didn't like how Lauren pretended not to like Audrina's boyfriend "Justin Bobby" Brescia, when, in reality, she was fine with him off-camera—and then there was that whole hookup-in-Vegas rumor (which Lauren flatly denied back in 2008). They also shared an agent who, Audrina charged, would offer the opportunities that came in for her to Lauren. 

But, Audrina continued, she and Lauren actually ran into each other not too long ago at Disneyland with their kids. They chatted for a few minutes and everything was fine, the water remaining under the bridge.

Reps for Lauren have not yet returned E!'s request for comment.

3. Audrina and her co-stars were indeed mortified at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards when Justin Timberlake—right after accepting his award for Male Artist of the Year from Audrina, Lauren and Whitney Port—encouraged MTV to "play more damn videos, we don't want to see the Simpsons on reality television."

4. Audrina was a regular at Hyde, the Hollywood hot spot of the '00s. Entourage star Kevin Connolly chatted her up a few times but she was never interested—though his buddy Leonardo DiCaprio had slightly better luck. One night in Las Vegas, the future Oscar winner approached Audrina's table and got her number. They chatted for awhile, she recalled, but actually going out proved logistically unfeasible—he was super-private (those yacht photos are usually taken from really far away) and her constant paparazzi escort at the time didn't fit.

5. She had a similar lifestyle clash with Chris Pine, who she also met in Vegas while shooting 2009's Sorority Row and tried to date for awhile—he was an introvert and she had all those cameras following her around. But, she recalled of the Star Trek star, they "really liked each other," they "talked and stayed in touch a little" after it ended and she has fond memories of their time together.

6. Audrina wrote that it was the producers' idea for her to take her top off one night when she and Justin Bobby went for a swim—and she agreed, provided they didn't show too much. Ultimately, she recalled, it was a much longer scene than the finished product, edited to make it look like she removed her top and Justin just ditched her. 

7. The show kept Audrina and Justin in each other's orbit even as they were growing apart, she noted, and eventually his noncommittal ways had her gravitating toward BMX racer Corey Bohan. Justin was upset and stopped showing up to film—but instead of leaving altogether, he worked with the producers to conceive a relationship with Kristin. Which Audrina was instructed to confront Kristin about, even though she didn't actually care. The ladies shared a laugh about it off-camera.

And yet, after everything, Audrina wouldn't definitively say in Choices that it was over between her and Justin. As he would say, she wrote, "Truth and time tell all."

8. Audrina turned down the cover of Playboy—which her whole team thought would be a great career move—and she has no regrets. It simply wasn't the direction she wanted to go in.

9. Telling Corey that her heart still belonged to Justin was the result of producers urging her to make up her mind. Audrina's relationship with Justin soon fizzled, after which she dated Ryan Cabrera. He was a wonderful guy, she recalled, but she just wasn't feeling it long-term, and they amicably parted ways—before she broke up with him on-camera at Wango Tango for The Hills.

10. In hindsight, Audrina should've seen Corey being annoyed by her busy work schedule as a red flag, as his overall resentment of her career ended up "costing" her in the long run, she wrote. He also had a jealous streak, accusing her of having an affair with her married Dancing With the Stars partner Tony Dovolani in 2010—which, needless to say (but Audrina made sure to say anyway) was not true. At the same time, though she enjoyed being on DWTS, she wasn't happy about being made to dance to "Unwritten" and she was surprised when they were voted off in week six, a seventh-place finish.

11. The short-lived 2011 VH1 show Audrina, featuring the titular Hills alum and her mom, sister, etc. seemed like a good idea, she recalled, but it "ripped my family apart." Not to mention, she found out Corey was cheating on her during filming—another woman had texted him nude photos—and, despite him calling and texting her constantly to try to win her back, when the Audrina cameras stopped rolling, so did their relationship.

12. Corey reached out to her a few years later, after his grandfather died. For a few months it was great, Audrina wrote, but then people started reaching out on Twitter to tell her he was cheating again—and she ended it, again.

13. While she and Corey were on the outs, she started hosting the NBC travel show show 1st Look in 2014, which she said really revived her confidence—so much so that when she ran into Justin during that timeframe, he told her she seemed like a different person.

14. Also in 2014, Audrina reconnected with Chace Crawford, whom she had met years beforehand through his manager. "I genuinely liked him after these incredible few days together," she wrote of their encounter at a friend's house in Malibu, "and I had the feeling it was mutual."

And she admittedly wondered what might have been. "A big part of me wishes I'd told Corey to kick rocks and just gone out with Chace," she wrote. "He's such a gentleman and so normal and kind. It would have been fun, if only I hadn't let Corey back in and screwed up our chance."

15. In 2015, Audrina recalled being in a really bad place after the death of her aunt, and she let Corey back into her life. When she found out she was pregnant (after sneaking into and out of a store to buy a test without being spotted), Corey was thrilled and her feelings were mixed, she wrote, considering how unstable their relationship had always been. Soon, however, she was happily preparing for motherhood, while also steeling herself for the possibility that she'd be a single mom. Kirra was born in June 2016, Audrina scheduling the C-section she needed so it wouldn't coincide with one of Corey's BMX tournaments.

16. Corey initially refused to sign a prenuptial agreement, telling Audrina she could go ahead and cancel the wedding if she insisted. But, she wrote, he did ultimately sign and they tied the knot in November 2016. Her sister told her the night before that she didn't have to go through with it, and even when she was walking down the aisle on her father's arm, Audrina wrote, she wondered at the time if she shouldn't just cut and run. She soon regretted going through with it.

17. Audrina's marital problems spilled into the public realm when she obtained a temporary domestic violence restraining order against Corey in September 2017, when she also filed for divorce. Her TRO petition alleged, among other things, that he threatened her and pushed her while she was holding Kirra, after which she called the police. In Choices, she recalled feeling embarrassed when he showed up backstage at an event in Newport Beach and screamed at her, demanding to see their daughter—but it prompted her to take legal action. Ultimately, she wrote, Corey left her a letter blaming her for everything that happened, but at least she was finally at peace. She sold what she thought would be her family home and prepared to start over.

(In 2017, Corey denied Audrina's allegations and the Orange County District Attorney's office declined to prosecute, citing a lack of evidence to prove any crime beyond a reasonable doubt. The following year he filed for a court order to prevent Kirra from appearing on The Hills: New Beginnings with her mom. The child ultimately was not on the show. Audrina was granted another temporary restraining order against Corey in July 2019, resulting in his visitation rights being suspended; the TRO was modified the following month to allow monitored visitation. In October 2021, per court documents obtained by E! News, the exes were granted joint legal custody and Audrina was given sole physical custody, with supervised visits and video calls for Corey.)

18. Her first reaction when she was approached about The Hills: New Beginnings was no. But then she realized she had been through a lot and had new things to share with an audience—plus, she and Heidi and Whitney had a whole new bonding experience over being moms. Filming with Justin was like old times, she wrote, it was fun to flirt but there was no there there. Then Ryan got in touch, and their rekindling was just what Audrina needed at the time—but they agreed it would be a no-expectations sort of romance. When Audrina found out in the middle of Heidi and Spencer Pratt's televised vow renewal that her divorce from Corey had been finalized, she realized she was not ready to commit. She remains unsure whether she'll ever want to get married again.

19. Meanwhile, Audrina was surprised to have renewed tension with Heidi while making the reboot, but once Kristin showed up to film, she encouraged the pair to confront their lingering issues. They started on-camera, Audrina recalled, and their talks continued off-camera, allowing her and Heidi to move forward.

20. Just like old times, The Hills: New Beginnings producers suggested she and Brody kiss—just as they did once, a long time ago. Audrina thinks Brody is great 'n' cute 'n' everything, but he's solidly in her friend zone. "We've known each other for so long and we both have so much love for each other," she said on E!'s Daily Pop of her new podcast co-host. "But you get to the point where you don't want to cross that line because you don't want to ruin the friendship."

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Choices: To the Hills and Back Again by Audrina Patridge

Find out more about Audrina's time on The Hills and more, check out her memoir