Jen Bunney was a guest on the April 12 and 19 episodes of the Was It Real? The Hills Rewatch Podcast, hosted by Brody Jenner, Heidi Montag, Frankie Delgado and Audrina Patridge. The group discussed an episode from the show’s 2nd season that focused on the demise of Jen and Lauren Conrad’s friendship. During the episode, the group celebrated Jen’s 21st birthday, and the storyline was that Jen was making a play for Lauren’s love interest, Brody. Heidi and now-husband, Spencer Pratt, wanted to make the Jen and Brody hookup happen, and the foursome left the club together at the end of the birthday party. By the end of the episode, Lauren wasn’t even talking to Jen, and she was livid with Heidi for allowing Spencer to instigate the hookup.
Sixteen years later, though, Jen and Brody have cleared up that they absolutely did NOT hook up…ever. Although Brody was convinced that there was a quick kiss between them in a car one time, Jen insisted that she never once got physical with Brody, and he acquiesced. Jen questioned why Brody never cleared up the fact that they never hooked up in the past, and he explained that he never felt like he had the opportunity to. He also admitted to playing up storylines for the show with Spencer, and told Jen that he didn’t realize how hard fans of the show were coming for her after the episode aired.
Jen reminded Brody of an interview where he was asked about the situation and responded, “I don’t kiss and tell,” and he couldn’t even remember why he didn’t jump to her defense at the time. “My apologies,” he told Jen. “I think I was just trying to keep the cliffhanger going. I didn’t know [what people were saying to you].” Brody noted, as well, that he and Lauren were never an official item and were just having fun being flirty on-camera because of their good “chemistry.”
Heidi and Jen also clarified how close they were during the time they were filming these early seasons of the show. Jen explained that she was like Lauren and Heidi’s “third roommate,” and was hanging out with their crew all the time. Heidi also claimed that, off-camera, Lauren said she “didn’t care” if something ended up happening between Brody and Jen. Looking back, Jen said she thinks that Lauren was actually upset because she had started getting close to Heidi and Spencer, while Lauren was starting to distance herself from them. Heidi also pointed out that Spencer was starting to make a name for himself on The Hills by making up storylines, which Heidi was agreeing to. She said Lauren didn’t like that the show was starting to go in a different direction than she originally intended.
In the present day, Jen and Lauren are no longer friends, but Jen said they are cordial whenever they run into each other. “In my heart, we are good,” Jen concluded. “I feel like there’s no animosity, there’s no tension. I’m very comfortable going back and discussing what happened because I really have no regrets. I feel like everything played out the way it did for a reason. I sure as heck learned a lot about myself. If she came to me one day and said, ‘Hey, you wanna go grab a cup of coffee?’ Great! Let’s do it. But there’s absolutely no desire on my part. I have a very full life. So the door is open, but there’s no desperation there, so to speak.”