The Decade-Lengthy Ballad of Justin Bobby and Audrina Patridge: Actual Deal or The Hills Showmance?
“Fact and time tells all.”
Over 10 years later, we’re nonetheless attempting to determine what reality and time try to inform us in relation to Justin Bobby Brescia and Audrina Patridge as their rocky romance is as soon as once more taking part in out on MTV.
After viewers watched Audrina’s on-and-off romance with the dangerous boy with two first names play out on The Hills over the course of its six-season run, they tuned into The Hills: New Beginnings, the sequence’ revival, to search out the not-really-a-couple nonetheless doing the identical previous tune and dance.
The issue? Within the years since The Hills’ authentic run got here to an finish in 2010, most of its stars, together with Audrina and JB (Cool if we name you that?), have given (many) interviews about how manufactured a number of the drama and relationships had been on the present. Sure, together with Audrina and Justin’s, so it begs the query: Can we spend money on a potential reconciliation after they’ve spent a lot time dismantling the connection?
Let’s consider whether or not or not Audrina and Justin’s will-they-or-won’t-they dynamic is the true deal or a showmance cooked up for the aim of actuality TV drama, hoping to prey on individuals’s nostalgia for the times of combating behind dumpsters at Les Deux…
Whereas New Beginnings’ is documenting Justin Bobby’s profession as a musician, his starting on The Hills again in season three was as a celeb hairdresser.
“Once I met Audrina, I used to be engaged on a Madonna music video with a workforce of hairdressers, and it occurred to be at Quixote Studios the place she was a receptionist,” he instructed InStyle for his or her oral historical past on the present.
Audrina continued, “He saved strolling in entrance of my desk and asking if I might get him issues…magazines, waters. We had simply began filming the present, so I requested if he needed to chop my hair on digital camera.”
He agreed (and in addition charged her for the lower). A minimum of within the present’s model of how issues went down, as Audrina revealed it wasn’t truly thh first time they’d filmed a scene with Justin reducing her hair.
“I knew Justin earlier than I began the present. The producers requested if I might movie with the man I used to be courting, and I requested him, ‘Why do not we simply do a scene at my condo the place you are doing my hair or one thing?'” she revealed to Us Weekly. “That was within the very starting, but it surely by no means made it to air.”
Justin recalled, “I went and did my first lower and so they filmed it, but it surely did not go within the story line. It was like, ‘Why is that this dude simply exhibiting up and reducing hair?’ However we had fun.”
Producers instantly discovered the dangerous boy intriguing and needed him to movie once more. By no means tremendous comfy on-camera, he was hesitant.
“On the time I used to be a hairdresser for Maroon 5. It got here right down to them going, ‘No matter you make, we’ll triple it,'” he instructed Us Weekly.
Audrina would later admit to Rolling Stone that she began courting Justin, who would infamously change into Justin Bobby due to his awkward first assembly with Lauren Conrad and Lo Bosworth, sooner than regular due to the present, explaining, “As a result of it is for TV, you push your self to do issues that you simply usually would not…like me and [Justin Bobby] being girlfriend and boyfriend straight away. I might have waited.”
Even Justin Bobby downplayed their relationship standing, telling Us Weekly, “Audrina and I had been buddies. [The relationship] was extra for the present. The individuals they had been making her go on dates with weren’t actually as much as her pace, and he or she hadn’t been feeling it.”
Ah, the start of each nice love story.
In response to the present’s producers, filming with Justin Bobby was as unpredictable because the climate, his temper seemingly altering as quickly because the cameras started rolling.
“He was so tough to wrangle, and he had form of like a superpower of not caring what individuals would assume if he was being a dick,” producer Josh Harnden instructed MTV Information.
“He was so unwilling to shoot. It was very arduous. He would give us so little of his time, and I believe that there are not any shoots we did with Justin Bobby that did not make it to air,” govt producer Sean Travis added in a Refinery29 interview. “I believe each single scene we shot with him is on tv.”
It simply so occurred that each single scene they shot with him proved to be actuality TV gold, due to his eccentric habits and philosophical (for MTV anyway) musings.
His most memorable musing was dropping the now-infamous phrase “reality and time tells all” on Audrina in a season three episode.
That line was about us being collectively. Justin was very philosophical,” Audrina defined. “He’d by no means actually give straight solutions, however he’d have these good one-liners, the place you would be like, ‘That sounds actually nice.’ However afterwards you’d give it some thought, and you are like, ‘What the heck does that imply?'”
A few of that habits, in fact, included being a s–tty boyfriend to Audrina. You already know, leaving her at events with out a trip, making out with one other woman at a membership in entrance of Audrina, sporting fight boots to the seaside, and many others.
For Justin, he admitted the forged’s degree of fame began factoring into his habits and emotions in the direction of Audrina, explaining to InStyle, “You spend a lot time with one another within the highlight and it may virtually play a trick on you. You virtually imagine what’s on the market within the air slightly than your ideas and beliefs, and I believe that is the place lots of people get tripped up. I attempted to remain true to what was in my coronary heart. Individuals can imagine something they need now, however time and reality actually does inform. It was a blessing to have the ability to communicate freely like that and provides one thing inspirational to individuals who do not assume that approach.”
Of the couple’s extra dramatic moments on the present, JB stated, “We might do these scenes and a few of them can be intense and considerably passionate. After which we would cease filming and return to our personal lives.”
Because the seasons continued, the storylines grew to become extra deliberate out, based on the celebs, particularly when Kristin Cavallari joined the present in season 5, changing Lauren.
“Producers had a bunch of various story strains for her. She was presupposed to be the loopy, wild drama-starter,” Audrina stated of the Laguna Seaside alum coming in. “When she and Justin began fake-dating, the producers saved wanting me to struggle together with her over him, and I used to be like, ‘I am not even with him!'”
And she or he wasn’t, as Audrina was within the midst of her relationship with ex-husband Corey Bohan, who she additionally started courting in 2008. The Australian BMX rider appeared in three episodes, with Audrina occurring up to now him on-and-off till the present’s finish and on her shortlived VH1 actuality present, Audrina.
If Justin Bobby’s scenes with Audrina had been over-dramatized, his moments with Kristin had been utterly scripted, with the Very Cavallari star admitting, “I by no means noticed Justin once we weren’t filming. He is a very nice man, however he is not essentially my sort.”
By sequence’ finish, Justin Bobby was utterly over The Hills, at the least that is what he instructed Us Weekly in 2015.
“It wasn’t for me,” he stated. “It was arduous to get me to shoot after some time as a result of it was repetition and there wasn’t something artistically taking place and I wasn’t rising. So I stated, ‘In the event you guys get some actual writers in on this, I might be all about it and we might construct characters,’ but it surely by no means went to that.”
Three years later although, Justin Bobby had a change of coronary heart, as he was on-hand for the reunion announcement, together with Audrina, Whitney Port, Spencer and Heidi Pratt and different forged members, on the crimson carpet on the 2018 MTV VMAs.
Whereas Lauren and Kristin opted to sit down out of the revival, Stephanie Pratt was additionally introduced as a forged member. However what no fan of The Hills was seemingly anticipating after they tuned into New Beginnings was a love triangle between Audrina, Justin Bobby and Stephanie, as JB and Spencer’s sister barely interacted in the course of the present’s authentic run.
The forged members’ continued willingness to pop holes within the fourth wall for viewers, regardless of their producer’s seemingly protests, has already come into play, with Stephanie taking to Instagram on July 23 to 1. announce she wasn’t returning for season two. 2. name out lots of her forged members for appearing pretend on the truth sequence, particularly Audrina when it got here to Justin Bobby.
After denying that she had each attached with JB (calling him her “rock” all through the primary season of filming), Stephanie stated Audrina was “loopy” and referred to as her out for not having actual emotions for her ex.
“such as you dated this man ten years in the past… you married another person & have a baby with him! And-As in the event you favored Justin!!” she wrote. “you had been courting somebody off digital camera!! (the man u went on a blind date with the night time after the competition)! Nobody performs a greater sufferer than you (OMG you truly ought to go into appearing)!!”
No matter whether or not or not their rekindled romance is all for present (and E! Information reported Audrina was courting Matt Chase in February), it is clear Audrina and Justin Bobby share a deep bond, due to their expertise on one among actuality TV’s most iconic and generation-defining exhibits.
“Justin and I had an understanding with one another earlier than the present,” Audrina stated of the pair when he joined The Hills in 2008. “He understood what I used to be going via, and we grew to become actually shut. Then one factor result in one other. Before everything, we had been buddies who actually cared for one another.”
Justin felt the identical approach, saying he all the time felt Audrina was sincere with him and appeared out for him whereas filming.
“Doing what we do, you actually need to peel again the layers and see into any individual’s coronary heart and what their intentions are, and hers had been tremendous pure from day one,” he instructed InStyle. “I believe that is why it [the relationship] did what it did. You get so far the place your castmates change into like household. Then you definately get into conditions the place you’ve gotten romantic dinners. Being in your early 20s, that stuff’s going to return to fruition. You are not going to be against sure issues that come your approach.”
Whereas they misplaced contact for years previous to New Beginnings, Justin all the time spoke fondly of his time with Audrina in interviews, even whereas taking part in down their romantic previous.
Michael Loccisano/Getty Photos
“I used to be all the time a good friend to her from the get-go and there for her as a good friend. We went via the issues collectively,” he stated. “I felt like a stronger companion on the facet who was like a teammate, who was like ‘Hey you bought this! You are able to do this. That is good.’ That was actual, that was superior.”
And within the premiere of New Beginnings, Audrina, now a single mom to daughter Kirra after her messy divorce from Corey Bohan, and Justin Bobby reconnected, talking for the primary time in years throughout a dinner date, which ended on a hopeful observe for the previous couple.
Alas, that hope was shortlived, as Justin Bobby quickly returned to his previous methods. (Take observe, Bachelor in Paradise boys, as JB was the OG actuality TV “f–kboy”!)
“Whether or not we have attached or dated previously or not, how he is chatting with me and treating me regardless of all the pieces, that is the place he is actually, like, hurting me,” an emotional Audrina stated in a current episode.
Actual or not, the drama will proceed to play out as MTV renewed The Hills: New Beginnings for a second season, at the least based on their co-star Spencer Pratt, who predicted to E! Information that Audrina will hook up with Brody Jenner, recent off of his break up from spouse/co-star Kaitlynn Carter, subsequent season.
From his lips to MTV’s ears…
The Hills: New Beginnings airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on MTV.
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