The One Thing Every ‘Hills’ Fan Needs To Know

I'll happily admit it: I'm a huge fan of The Hills. MTV brought us this reality gem in 2006, and I've been re-watching the series every summer since it officially ended four years later in 2010. (Yes, I totally love the Kristin Cavallari era as much as the Lauren Conrad one.) It's absolutely insane that it has been 10 years since the May 2006 premiere of The Hills, and though so much has changed (Audrina Patridge is having a baby! Lauren Conrad runs a lifestyle company! Heidi Pratt is... well, still being Heidi Pratt!) The Hills was a cultural phenomenon, and to celebrate its 10-year anniversary, Us Weekly has published an oral history of The Hills , which allows the cast members to spill their side of the story. One juicy tidbit that fans of the show will be freaking out over? The truth about Lauren's trip to Paris — or, rather, the trip to Paris that never happened.

Fans of The Hills already know about how Lauren solidified her status as the girl who didn't go to Paris, but just in case you need a refresher, here's what went down: at the end of the first season, Lauren's Teen Vogue editor, Lisa Love, offered the fashion intern the chance to work for the company in Paris for the summer, something that the aspiring fashion designer should have jumped at. Instead, Lauren thought the trip over, and decided, instead, to spend the summer in Los Angeles working on her relationship with not-so-stellar boyfriend Jason Wahler. Lauren picked the latter, and literally no one understood why. So now that years have passed, what's the truth behind the Paris decision? According to Lauren's interview with Us Weekly, both her life and The Hills could have gone so differently:

Even production didn’t want me to date [Jason]! They were like, “You’re in a new city. Go meet a new guy!” Then they were very upset with me for not going to Paris — they were ready to fly a whole crew. I would get daily phone calls from Adam saying, “You have to go!” Honestly, yes, [my decision] did have to do with the relationship, but I was also just at that point where I needed a break from filming.

But uh, Jason must have been pretty happy to have his girlfriend around for the summer, right? Err... not so much. Even Jason thought Lauren made a huge mistake:

She should have gone. We broke up, like, two weeks after that scene was shot.

I'll be honest: I always secretly assumed that production wanted Lauren to pick Jason over Paris for added drama. It never occurred to me that maybe the show would have been more interested in filming Lauren's European adventures when it had her and Jason's trainwreck of a relationship to focus on instead. It sounds like The Hills actually did want what was best for the former L.C. at the time — who knew? Of course, had Lauren done the right thing, we would have never seen this incredibly awkward conversation:

Oh, Lauren. At least everything worked out in the end.

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