Alex Hooser Says Kristin Cavallari Was ‘Ride or Die’ When Her Dad Went to Jail During Filming of “Laguna Beach” (Exclusive)
Alex Hooser Says Kristin Cavallari Was ‘Ride or Die’ When Her Dad Went to Jail During Filming of “Laguna Beach” (Exclusive)
Deirdre Durkan, Brianne TracyFri, April 10, 2026 at 7:12 PM UTC
0
Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty (2) -
Alex Hooser says Kristin Cavallari was “ride or die” as she navigated her father’s legal troubles during Laguna Beach
The reality star reveals her dad’s arrest and house arrest were never shown on the MTV series
Hooser says the experience was “pretty traumatic” even as she appeared carefree on screen
Alex Hooser is opening up about the reality behind the glossy world of Laguna Beach and the friend who stood by her during a difficult time.
While the hit MTV series portrayed a picture-perfect high school experience in Orange County, Hooser revealed that her off-camera life told a different story, including navigating her father going to jail amid what Hooser described as poor financial decisions while filming.
Looking back, she tells PEOPLE she’s grateful she had the opportunity to speak about it, especially with the support of close friend Kristin Cavallari.
“Honestly, I was really happy to have a platform to speak on it because it’s something that was never spoken about at that time,” Hooser, 39, says. “But Kristin, she’s ride or die. Still is today, no matter what. There was never any judgment or anything. She knew all the things going on, but she just stuck by.”
Alex Hooser seen on March 26, 2026Credit: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
“Even, again, 20 years later we still connect and have a friendship and forever grateful for that. So yeah, Kristin’s the real deal. She’s a good friend,” Hooser adds.
The series, which debuted in 2004, became a defining moment in reality television — in part because of the genuine relationships at its core, according to executive producer Liz Gateley.
“We did. We did. It was so obvious that they were all so ready to be stars, even though people forget, people forget that this was not a typical television show where you do a casting call and people show up,” Gateley says of discovering the cast. “We went into their high school and I think what’s so special is they really were all friends from like age 6.”
That authenticity, she says, is what made Laguna Beach stand out — and difficult to replicate.
“The casting tapes said it all. There was a real love triangle going on and they just spoke in sound bites,” Gateley continues, as Cavallari interjects, “For better or for worse.”
Kristin Cavallari pictured in March 26, 2026Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty
“They were all really interesting humans as well,” Gateley adds. “I think just knowing what was going on behind the scenes with people like Alex, they were real friends and I think that’s what we captured.”
From the start, Gateley says, she knew the show had something special.
“I’ll never forget the moment where I popped the test tape in,” she recalls. “We also tried to make it look like a scripted show... And I literally cried when I played the tape. It was beyond my dreams, what they brought to it. It was an instant yes.”
Advertisement
Part of that early magic came from the now-iconic love triangle between Cavallari, Lauren Conrad and Stephen Colletti, which, Gateley says, unfolded naturally.
The Laguna Beach cast pictured last monthCredit: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
“It wrote itself,” she says. “It was just there was the confident, outgoing Kristin and there was the girl next door, Lauren, and Stephen in the middle.”
Though there was some time between filming the test footage and the full series, the emotions remained real.
“There was a little bit of a break between the test tape and filming of the series, so we had to make up time for everything that went on,” she says. “But it was just real emotion. I think that’s what the audience responded to, is it was authentic.”
In a teaser for The Reunion: Laguna Beach, Hooser gets emotional as the host noted that her "dad got mixed up in some stuff" and that her "life off camera... took a turn that was never shown" to audiences.
"My whole family life was kind of just falling apart," she recalled.
Cast of Laguna Beach seen aboveCredit: Michael Muller/MTV
Hooser previously spoke about what was happening behind the scenes in a 2024 interview with Millennial TeaV. She revealed that her father had been arrested amid financial legal trouble and spent time in jail before later being placed on house arrest.
“My dad got into some legal trouble financially so he, initially, was arrested and had to spend some time in jail but then eventually he was able to be on house arrest and have, like, an ankle bracelet monitor,” she said. “So that was something that was never really shown on the show and it wasn’t anything I really highlighted to producers or anything either.”
At the time, Hooser, who has reverted to using her legal name, Lauren Olsen, said the situation was widely known among her peers, even as it remained off-camera.
“It was known with my friend group, it was public throughout the whole school because there was like a blurb put out in the local newspaper,” she said, adding, "Looking back it was pretty traumatic.”
Still, she largely kept that part of her life private while filming. “I held it close to my heart at that time and I didn’t think it was relevant to put it out there,” Hooser explained, noting that producers would have been aware of the situation when filming at her home. “My dad would be there and he would fully have his ankle bracelet on.”
The Reunion: Laguna Beach is streaming on The Roku Channel.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
