Lauren Conrad Says She Agreed To 'The Hills' Because She Was 'Broke'

Whitney Port and Lauren Conrad recently reunited for a virtual “Hills” reunion, catching up about getting their start on reality TV and how it contributed to their problems with trust.

Port, who cleared up friendship issues with Conrad right off the bat, asked her former Teen Vogue intern friend why she agreed to film “The Hills” right after “Laguna Beach” ended. 

Conrad’s answer was right on the money. 

“Honestly, I was in college and I was kind of trying to figure it out,” the Little Market co-founder said during the second part of her appearance on Port’s Dear Media podcast, “With Whit.”  

“If we’re being blunt, I was broke. And I was like, ’Yeah, that was the easiest money I ever made,” Conrad said, adding that even if the show hadn’t lasted, she’d “get paid for a pilot.” 

“So [that] had a lot to do with it and like, you know, I had fun,” she added. 

Conrad reportedly made $125,000 per episode (or $2.5 million a year) and starred on “The Hills” for five seasons, from 2006 to 2010. Port, her co-star and onscreen friend, got her own spinoff — appropriately called “The City” — in 2008, when she moved to New York City to continue her career in fashion.