Lauren Conrad Says She Had to ‘Emotionally Recover’ After ‘The Hills’

The rest is still unwritten! Lauren Conrad opened up about life after The Hills and why she needed to recharge her batteries following two reality shows in Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek of her appearance on Dear Media’s “With Whit” podcast.

“I stopped filming and then I just kind of needed a clean break for a minute to kind of emotionally recover,” Conrad, 34, told former Hills costar Whitney Port on the Tuesday, September 22, episode of Dear Media’s “With Whit” podcast. “I took some time off and then obviously moved out of L.A.”

Port, 35, and Conrad met while interning at Teen Vogue 15 years ago, all of which was captured on the MTV series that aired from 2006 to 2010.

Once the Little Market cofounder stepped back from the show, she said it was a “such an odd time for me.”

The former Laguna Beach star revealed that she “did it as long as I could,” but once she was out of the reality show game she never really looked back.

“It was one of those things where I was like, ‘OK, well, this isn’t like a healthy space for me anymore,’” the LC Lauren Conrad designer explained. “I need to kind of, like, live my own life and do this. I kind of, like, removed myself from that whole scene. Really.”

The former castmates haven’t seen each other since they both became mothers — Conrad shares two sons, Liam, 3, and Charlie, 11 months, with husband William Tell and Port shares son 3-year-old Sonny with husband Tim Rosenman.

After apologizing for distancing herself and therefore making the City alum feel like she was no longer part of Conrad’s world, the L.A. Candy author said “it had nothing to do with you personally” but the time had come to get away from the cameras.

“It’s just really being like, ‘OK, like I need to live my life.’ I lived a certain way for so long and, like, as much as I am appreciative and I love you and I love so many people we’ve worked with, like, you know, there is certain, like, toxic elements there and it’s really hard,” the Sweet Little Lies author said.

She added: “And I was like, ‘OK, I got to just like step away from this world’ and, like, kind of heal in a way and, like, figure out who I want to be. Because again, like, we started so young and I was, like, it’s such a time where you’re figuring out who you are. And I did it in such a weird way. Like, I need to do this on my own now with no other voices or just, like, literally living my life for me.”

Conrad walked away from reality TV in 2009, but she revealed she still cherishes the people who she shared the experience with, including Port.

“I have so much love in my heart for you,” the Lauren Conrad Beauty founder said. “And, like, we shared this really, weird, unique thing. And I think it is — it’s like old college friends, you know, I’ll always remember you like that, and I’ll never have that with anybody else.”

The blogger agreed with Conrad, adding, “Like, totally. Like, nobody really knows the stuff that we know. It’s just these roots that are always very strong. And even when I’m talking to you now, I’m like, ‘Oh, it feels totally normal.’ Like, I’m just sitting with you in that closet again. So that feels really nice.”

The new episode of Dear Media’s “With Whit” podcast will be available on Tuesday, September 22, and will be followed up by part two on Tuesday, September 29.