Kristin Cavallari‘s public reunion with her junior high school boyfriend, Johnny, didn’t go exactly as planned.
During the Wednesday, June 11, episode of Honestly Cavallari: The Headline Tour, Cavallari documented the second half of the Chicago stop on her “Let’s Be Honest” live podcast tour. Cavallari’s guests included Internet personality and her (kind of) former fling Harry Jowsey and Johnny.
“The whole theme of the second show is people who have been on my podcast before. But now I’m going to be pulling up Johnny — my very first boyfriend from Chicago. I’ve talked about him a couple times on the podcast,” she explained in a confessional. “We were as in love as you can be at the tender age of 13 and 14.”
The reunion didn’t go as planned, however, when Johnny took a page out of Laguna Beach alum Talan Torriero‘s book by publicly picking on Cavallari, 38, by discussing their sex life and accusing her of sleeping with his best friend.
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“I thought it was going to go very differently than it did,” Cavallari exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month. “That was really difficult for me. The tour ended up being way more personal than I had anticipated. Way more from my past came up and it was a great opportunity for me to realize how far I’ve come so I’m thankful for it.”
Cavallari admitted that she wasn’t thrilled with how Johnny — or Torriero — behaved.
“I talked to [Talan] after. But I think when someone tries to apologize and has a million excuses about why they have s***** behavior, I’m just not in a place in my life where I need to be gaslit,” she noted. “I just don’t care anymore. I’m good. I don’t need people in my life who can’t take any accountability.”
The reality TV star walked away from the experience knowing she had to be “careful” with her “trust,” adding, “I don’t think trust is given. I’ve always been like that. Being on TV obviously enhances that. I think the hard part for me was I had held Johnny in this high regard for so many years. To have Talon and Johnny back-to-back diminish what we had and almost make it just purely about sex was really difficult for me.”
Cavallari continued: “Particularly because Johnny was my first love. We actually — for being 14, — had a really amazing relationship. I literally used to wake up and I had poems on my window and it was so incredibly sweet. I was trying to give him that opportunity and he just kept tearing it down and that I was just like, ‘What is going on?’ I didn’t understand that.”
Keep scrolling for a breakdown of their awkward on screen interactions — and an update on where they stand now:
Before the Live Show
In the hours leading up to them crossing paths again on stage, Cavallari discussed how she prepared Johnny, telling her friends, “I think he’s nervous because he’s been wanting every little detail, Which I totally understand for people who don’t do this. This is nerve wracking for me and I do this s***.”
Cavallari was grateful Johnny agreed to join her. “It’s been 15 years since I’ve seen him. He is in the middle of a divorce,” she added. “When I told my mom that she was like, ‘I know how these things go.’ I was like, “No. I’m not gonna end up with Johnny.’ I lost my virginity to him. It’s so crazy.”
Cavallari noted she was curious to hear Johnny’s perspective on their relationship, saying, “It’s very difficult and I do wonder if I’ve changed the narrative in my own mind all these years.”
Their Backstory
“With Johnny being my first love, I really put him on a pedestal all these years. My parents got a divorce, my dad moved to Laguna Beach and my mom was in a new marriage. At the time, I didn’t feel like I was a priority,” Cavallari recalled. “And Johnny was my stability. Johnny was where I found connection.”
Starting Off Strong
When Johnny initially sat down with Jowsey and Cavallari, the trio had playful banter. Cavallari joked that Johnny looked “the exact same” as when they were in eighth grade. She then brought up the “heartbreak” she dealt with after their split.
“That’s part of why I was the heartbreaker. I was known as being the heartbreaker because I never wanted to feel that ever again,” she explained. “Johnny was impactful for me.”
Taking a Turn
The conversation started to get worse when Cavallari asked whether Johnny thought they “were in love.”
“For as love as you can be in eighth grade, I would say yes,” she shared about how Johnny would “sneak into” her room at night. “I would wake up in the morning and I would have poems on my window.”
Johnny cut Cavallari off to say she would “wake up next to me.” He cut her off again to call the sweet stories about their relationship “the podcast version” and their reality was allegedly more X-rated.
“To be clear, you would actually greet me in outfits just like this one,” he said. “I saw you come out in this and it’s hard. It’s really hard.”
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Their Split
Cavallari changed the subject by bringing up how Johnny allegedly “hooked up” with her best friend as soon as they broke up and she moved to Laguna Beach. Johnny had a different version of events which included him accusing Cavallari of “sampling Barrington” — including his best friend Tommy.
“Wow, this did not go how I planned. I’m sorry that I broke your heart,” Cavallari fired back. “I’m trying to take accountability for everything.”
Johnny kept throwing digs Cavallari’s way, saying she was “always a heartbreaker” and it didn’t start with him. In a confessional, Cavallari admitted she was disappointed by Johnny’s behavior.
“Johnny is a massive letdown. It honestly breaks my heart because for all of these years, I have held my relationship with Johnny in this high regard,” she noted. “Then he got up on stage and he was a completely different person.”
She continued: “He was the only person that I gave the questions to beforehand because obviously he doesn’t do this stuff. He knew exactly what I was going to say. So to me, it just feels premeditated. Like he wanted to come out there and tear me down. These memories that I’ve had of Johnny — all of these years now — he just completely ruined.”
Calling Him Out
The next morning, Cavallari was still upset by Johnny’s behavior.
“What happens is these guys get nervous and their go-to is to put me down and come for me. Guys love to just put me down in front of everybody,” she said while getting emotional. “He told me I ran through everyone at Barrington. I’m like, ‘I didn’t hook up with one person at Barrington. Not one.’ I don’t even know who the Tommy is. The only thing I can think about is later when I came back to visit a Tommy but I did not hook up with anybody in Barrington.”
She continued: “But also I have nothing to hide. Do you want to trash me just in front of my audience? It’s really f***ed. It just gets to a point where I’m so sick of men trying to just beat me down.”
Where They Stand Now
“This morning [he sent me a text],” Cavallari revealed before reading the message, “‘You were amazing last night. Thanks for such a fun escape from reality. Definitely needed that. You’re gonna absolutely crush the rest of the tour. No doubt about it.”
Cavallari chose not to respond to him.
“This is a much bigger thing for me,” she admitted. “It’s the theme of my whole life. No guy has ever taken accountability in my life.”
