Kristin Cavallari: MTV Producers "Forced Me to Be a Bitch"

USMagazine, Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 2:15pm (PST)

Kristin Cavallari insists she was never the bitchy, man-eating teenager MTV made her out to be. In an interview with The Chicago Sun-Times' Splash magazine, the 25-year-old opens up about what really went on behind the scenes of the network's megapopular reality shows Laguna Beach and The Hills.

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"The producers were really crappy to me," Cavallari says of her two-season stint on Laguna Beach, in which she and high school nemesis Lauren Conrad famously vied for classmate Stephen Colletti's affection from 2004 to 2006. "I felt like everybody was against me and manipulating me, and that forced me to be a bitch."

Upon graduation, Cavallari relocated to L.A. so "people could forget about Kristin from Laguna Beach," she explained. Despite her best efforts, "I was known as the bad girl. And once you have that image, it's so hard to change it."

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While Laguna Beach oftentimes featured storylines set up by producers, Cavallari says The Hills was almost entirely fake. "They did everything short of handing us a script," Cavallari claims. "I had two lives: my Hills life and my real life."

"l decided to have fun with it this time," she added of The Hills, which she joined midway through season 5 in 2005, following the departure of protagonist Conrad. "I embraced it, and played a caricature of myself."

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Though she frequently feuded on-air with her Hills costars Audrina Patridge and Stephanie Pratt, Cavallari has since mended fences. "People are always surprised by how nice I am in real life," the 5-foot-6 blonde said.

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These days, Cavallari's life is notably less dramatic. She lives in Winnetka, Illinois, with her fiance, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, and their 6-month-old baby boy. "Our world revolves around Camden," she said of her son. "I'm a suburbanite now!"

"I've always wanted to be a mom," Cavallari added. "I've learned that it means I have to be totally selfless. But it's the most rewarding thing in the world."

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Kristin Cavallari: MTV Producers "Forced Me to Be a Bitch"