The reinvention of Kristin Cavallari: how she went from reality Bad Girl to Boss Mogul

Nowadays, the teenage reality TV star turned actress turned shoe designer, cookbook writer, store owner and fashion mogul presents herself before the fearless 22-year-old who's been enthusiastically engaged to fill the role of naughty girl in the series often watches for alcohol Fun stories fueled by the young staff members that make up her flourishing brand Uncommon James and cast her cast E! series Very Cavallari. (Well, this and the moment she took too much on tequila injections during a business trip to Florida.)

Noting the disagreement between two employees on March 17 of her show, in which she plays the role of star and executive producer, she observed the stylist BFF Kelly Henderson"That's what I did when I was 22. You have to grow the f-k."

It's something that the 32-year-old has definitely done in the nine years since she left a MTV soundstage (the final scene itself is a brazen nod to discussions frantic or fake that always revolve around The hills). It's not just because she has almost six years of marriage with the former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler or the mother to their three children, son Camden, 6 and Jaxon, 4 years old and her daughter Saylor3. It is that she can literally not imagine reliving a single of her young indiscretions.

"I'm too old for that, I do not want to have those catty girl fights, it's just that my life is no longer," she says. Paper magazine last August, rejecting the idea that one day she would direct the casting, for example, The real housewives of Nashville. "I had to go back and watch clips of Laguna beach and The hills and it made me cringe because, my God! Fight for the craziest shit on the planet. Whether amplified or not, I always did it and I do not want to be part of it anymore. "

In other words, Toto, it's so plus 2004. Cavallari, born in Denver and raised in Chicago, was only 17 years old when MTV executives went to her high school in Laguna Beach, California, in search of a group of Charismatic teenagers able to take control of themselves: an actual version of the docu-soap version of Fox's drama on the run L & # 39; O.C. When they found the blond junior to outspoken franc, her dreamy senior boyfriend Stephen Colletti and his best friend Lauren Conrad, the girl next to perpetual who was harboring a secret crush, a development officer sent a message to the network: they had it.

With Conrad as narrator, Cavallari was presented to the audience on television – while she was floating in a pool raft – from her point of view. "That? It would be Kristin," cut off the schoolboy's future stylist in a bikini. "Wherever Kristin goes, the tragedy followed."

"She does not support me." Here's the reason: Stephen, I guess he's a little bit his boyfriend, but Stephen and I are really close forever … Kristin is not the right one girl for him. "

And with that, the photogenic teenager was inserted into the required role of naughty, a label that stuck her when she went head-to-head with her clbadmates and that she was struggled to make her teenage romance work.

For producers, she was the gold of reality TV, the character who loved to hate, and who listened to more than three million viewers every week. "What I liked was that Kristin seemed confident, fearless and really indifferent to the politics of school and everything that was going on around her," executive producer Tony DiSanto told The Washington Post last year. "She was preparing her own way."

Despite all his audacity, Cavallari does not really want to play the villain. She was connecting to chat rooms and seeing people reject her, and in a country before social media, her only real recourse was to take it. "I did not look at myself like a star, I watched it instead:" Everyone hates me, "she told the newspaper. "It was really hard for me, being so young."

In one of the most infamous scenes of the series, Cavallari, a new single, dances at the top of a bar in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, while her ex-Colletti denigers her of her. on the other side of the room shouting "Slut!"

And one way or another, it's Cavallari who came out, looking bad …

In hindsight, she is able to repel the incident. "I did not even do anything!" she said Cosmopolitan. "I've had so many reasons for that – I mean, they gave the impression that I was the only person at the bar to dance, that's what everyone else does. In Cabo I always go to Cabo People still dance in bars And I was not with Stephen But no, I was the bad guy I'm just living my life, man.

But the experience was undoubtedly difficult. "It definitely affected me," she admitted. Paper"But because of that, at such a young age, I had to learn not to talk about it and think," It's only a show, these people do not really know me. " . "

So when the producers of MTV again called in 2009, after trying to let Cavallari play with only a handful of credits on Veronica Mars, CSI: NY and Van Wilder: first yearShe understood that it was a proposal not to be refused.

The former enemy Conrad had just announced his intention to leave The hills, maneuvering her black convertible BMW into a bright future as a fashion designer and dean lifestyle. And Cavallari was lucky enough to write the rest of his story. The exhibition (nearly 5 million people listened to attend a great evening with friends in Les Deux and fight for men who were probably not worth their time) could set up the next phase of his career and the salary certainly did not hurt them.

"That's the reason I did it," she said. We weekly in 2016. "The producers have made an offer I could not refuse, I am happy to be back to [reality TV] because this time, I envisioned it as a job and I knew the character they wanted me to play. So, if the network was going to deceive its first with the slogan "The b-ch is back," she was happy to go along.

"At the end of the day, if a b – ch means I'm going after what I want, I say my mind, and I will not let people walk on me, so call me a b – ch Super. will take this, "she explained to The Washington Post. "Because these are all things that I am."

This time, she had no trouble getting to a party and chatting with friends. Audrina Patridgepseudo friend of non-engagement Justin "Bobby" Brescia, for example, or retaliate when Stéphanie Pratt accused him of playing dirty trying to move.

"It's what happens after a bottle of tequila," she remarked, laughing. Cosmopolitan from the scene that saw her take on Pratt. "Is it going to be like that? Because if it's going to be like that, it's f-king on b-ch. C is on!" She screamed. "You're crazy about the bad girl."

This girl was happy to indulge in some cat fights or flirt with her old boyfriend Brody Jennerif that is what was asked. contrary to Laguna beachwho made intrigue of her real life romance in high school, "With The hillsthese people were not really in my life until I joined the series. I knew a lot, but they were not part of my circle of friends. It was very separate, which made it easier, "she said. Paper. "When I did The hillsI knew that I had to separate things because it is very easy to scramble the lines and I did not like that feeling. "

Approaching it as a role-playing exercise made his return from a season and a half very enjoyable. "We knew exactly what scenes we were going to shoot and what was going to happen," she told the magazine. "I had fake fights and false relationships, I played the bad guy and basically acted … I had a very good experience."

However, at the end of the filming in 2010, all of Cavallari's brand was wrapped up in her villainous villain character, so she swung hard. His turn on MTV drew the attention of the veteran quarterback of the NFL Cutler: "My publicist called me when I was filming The hills and said that Jay wanted me to fly to Chicago to make an appointment, "she will later share with PeopleBut she had returned the request flat. "I did not want a boyfriend, especially a Chicago resident."

But a year later, with her days on reality TV at the back, she went to a Bears game with her family and in order to impress her relatives based in Illinois she got pbades to meet the athlete after. "He came in and he was so handsome and so nice," she recalls. "We stayed a few nights later and then things changed quite quickly."

After two weeks, the 35-year-old Vanderbilt star professed her love. Not quite two months after that, he admitted that he wanted to marry her. "We got engaged after eight months!" Cavallari noted from his 2011 proposal.

Moving at the speed of the chain caused growth pains, the pair having briefly canceled the commitment. "I needed Jay to know that I was serious about certain things and that I had to take extreme measures," she said. People. "Deep inside me, I knew in my heart that things would improve if I broke up with him."

What they did thanks to a commitment to couple therapy. "We have come to a place to have more empathy and more compbadion for each other," she said at an appearance on SiriuxXM Wake up with Taylor. "Because you learn why, you know that everyone comes with a certain amount of luggage, we all react differently depending on the situation."

When Cavallari took a walk through the Dance with the stars In the ballroom at the end of 2011, Cutler was in the audience, the duo confirming that their engagement was back after a few fanfare.

"It was so stupid, I was at the airport, leaving Chicago," she told E! New. "We had just spent so many days together and we were texting in. Somewhere we said," Oh, are we getting married? "We're like:" Yeah, okay. "And then he sent my ring in the mail, so my ring stayed home a few weeks before putting it on."

In August 2012, the couple, now based in the Midwest, welcomed their first son, Camden. Ten months later, their vows in Nashville, followed by 120 people, were followed up ("No way to look ridiculous, but the whole day was perfect," she said. CVLUX) and his son Jaxon 11 months later. The last piece of their family, the girl Saylor, was to arrive in November 2015.

"When I became a mother, I really felt that I was doing the right thing for the first time in my life," she acknowledges. Paper. "I had Camden at the age of 25, so I was very young, but I had already done a lot of things and everything I could have from my system. was really the next natural step for me.I would have never thought in a million years, I would be the first to have babies and get married, but that 's the best thing that would have arrived, really. "

Leading a family of five required a radical change in priorities or, as Cavallari said modeliste in 2016, "When you finally have children, you realize how selfish you are." As Cutler traveled about six months a year, Cavallari had to embark on a career that was flexible enough to make the education of his children a priority.

"I have a line of shoes and a line of jewelry, and I can work on them from anywhere," she said. BELLA New York mag of her collaboration with Chinese Laundry and Emerald Duv, a jewelry brand she launched with her friend Chelsea Bulte. Even with the lifestyle tome, Balancing in heelsshe came out in 2016. "You know, I could write it in my free time, when the kids were sleeping or my husband could watch them and let me write for a while, so I'm very lucky to have everything. "

In 2017, all expanded to include Uncommon James, Cavallari seeking the autonomy inherent in creating his own business. What began as a desire to create delicate and sophisticated jewelry at an affordable price, then was extended to the home (a benefit for a woman who has True roots, her New York Times bestseller cookbook based on his own healthy recipes) and, more recently, Little James, for which his children serve as both inspiration and good model.

After 12 seasons of abandoning Cutler after 12 career seasons, Cavallari has regained a leading role. But this time she was determined to put herself forward and the only label she would adopt was that of HBIC as a woman managing a lifestyle brand of over 70 employees, accompanied by a lighter from Nashville. -mortar store, a robust online presence and a reality show.

"I have been on his schedule for seven years, and with our children we always want to make sure that one of us is there, and with him, it frees us up a bit more. of my time, "she said The daily beast, explaining why she felt it was a good time to launch Very Cavallari.

"And then, we were in Nashville and at one place, I was really excited to not only plant my personal roots, but also to open my flagship store, my Uncommon James headquarters, and with the staff that I have and the In opening this store, I had the impression that it was a very good opportunity to get back to reality TV – but that it's not just a matter of family, but that's something more, and rely on the staff for the screenplay, rather than my own personal drama. "

While his employees bring the antics and that Cutler brings comic relief ("People think he's the star of the escape, that's fine, I let him do it," she says of his wife stealing projectors ), Cavallari is content to direct clear tears, intervening only to remind staff that she is there to run a company, not arbitrate their personal dramas.

"I think it's different for me because of a few things," she said. Paper. "I'm no longer in the middle of the female drama, it's no longer my life and it's great."

Her world balances her work as CEO and lifestyle guru with her marriage ("We've completely changed the roles," she told E! News about her relationship with Cutler, so we're just navigating in this new normality ") and his children an existence as normal as possible on their 10-acre Tennessee farm.

If she wants to revisit her youth, she is there for viewing. She knows that one day, her children will have wind of her adolescence – "I will have to have a real conversation with them about the experience and everything that happened there, and I am cool with that, "she said We weekly. "I like to have a very open and honest relationship with my kids", but until then, she's content to limit nostalgia to particular moments, such as when Cosmopolitan asked him to comment on some of his biggest hits.

Her general point of view: "I'm so happy that it's not my life anymore," she admitted. "Watching these clips, it's like," Oh, I'm so happy not to be twenty and, like, that's my world. "Like, that was my world. I am so happy that it is in my past. "