Are you ready to return to 2004? Well go find your Juicy Couture tracksuit and YSL Tributes because Laguna Beach is back in the headlines, thanks to Lauren Conrad‘s shock appearance on Kristin Cavallari and Stephen Colletti’s retrospective podcast, Back To The Beach.

Conrad has famously avoided all talk about her two major 2000s reality tv shows (her spin-off series The Hills was rebooted without the lead star), living a fairly private life with husband William Tell and her two children. However, a bout of COVID-19 saw her re-watching the teen series out of curiosity, and now she’s ready to talk.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Lauren Conrad’s Back To The Beach appearance.

Talan Was The Actual Player

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Talan was secretly hooking up with “everyone”, according to Conrad and Cavallari. Image: Getty

Talan was really a side character when it came to Laguna Beach drama, but both Cavallari and Conrad revealed they were hooking up with him across the years. “The producers didn’t even care,” Conrad added. “They would fabricate a story with Stephen but you’d would be like, ‘Everyone’s actually hooking up with Talan!'”

Talan has since responded with a TikTok video set to Taylor Swift’s ‘Anti-Hero’. As you do.

Kristin Cavallari & Lauren Conrad Had Already Settled Their Drama Before The Series

When you think Laguna Beach, you think Cavallari and Conrad constantly side-eyeing each other and bitching in private. But actually, that drama was fuelled by producers – both stars say their problems were sorted before the show even began.

Conrad admitted that she and Colletti did have a romance, but she didn’t realise at the time that he and Cavallari were so serious. That all happened off-air, before the series was even a concept.

“We got into it and then made up,” Conrad said of their issues. “I mean, I don’t think we were best friends. But we were like, ‘It’s fine.'”

She then adds that producers clearly saw an opportunity and “ran with it”. “It made for an interesting show,” she acknowledged.

Everyone’s Sorry About That ‘Sl*t’ Moment In Cabo

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Hands up if you owned both these outfits. Image: Getty

One of the most infamous scenes from Laguna Beach happens in the Cabo episode, when the gang head to a club for the night. Cavallari is dancing on a bar when Colletti and Conrad call her a ‘slut’.

At the time, it felt like we didn’t think much of it. Now, it’s definitely dated – and both Conrad and Cavallari feel that too.

“I’m so sorry, I couldn’t believe I did that,” Conrad said. “Where I’m at now, I would never call another woman that. And it was the most embarrassing moment. I was like, ‘Oh, gross.'”

Cavallari also apologised for calling Conrad a ‘slut’ at another point in the series. “When I watch it now, I wasn’t confident at all. I was actually so insecure. I took it out on you in a lot of ways,” she said.

It’s great to see these reality stars on good terms, and finally burying the hatchet (whether a hatchet ever existed is a whole other thing). You can hear the whole chat here.