The ‘Laguna Beach’ Cast is Setting the Record Straight on Everything, Once & For All

MTV aired the final episode of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County almost 20 years ago, yet the legendary cast from the second season of the series just proved the show’s legacy is anything but ancient history. 

During a raucous live installment of Kristin Cavallari’s Let’s Be Honest podcast in Chicago—now the focus of the E! docuseries Honestly Cavallari—every principal grabbed a mic, traded tequila shots, and dismantled the myths that have followed them since graduation, thus finally setting the record straight on longtime rumors.

‘Laguna Beach’ Season 2 was the main character

“Can we all just admit that Season Two was so much better? Way more personality.” Cavallari states, answering the question that’s seemingly on every stan’s lips. That swagger defined the 2005 class, and costar Talan Torriero doubled down by calling the seniors ahead and below them “pretty f**king lame,” before crowning ’05 “the, like, class.”

Friendship first, cameras second

Reality TV skeptics love insisting that cast members meet on the day production starts—and for many of today’s shows, that’s precisely the case. But that wasn’t true for Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, as Jessica Smith explains. “We were friends first, which was really special about the show,” she says. 

Producers may have grouped Stephen Colletti, Lo Bosworth, and company, but Smith reminds everyone that they still hang out “like a crew, like no time has passed.” Cavallari adds that their two-decade thread “says a lot” about authentic bonds forged long before MTV  appeared.

High school glory, uninterrupted

Ask these alumni if they’d relive junior year, and you’ll hear cheers. “Sometimes I wish we could go back to high school. I loved it so much,” Alex Murrel admits, as the whole stage agreed their Laguna Beach adolescence was “the best.” From epic pool party weekends to spontaneous trips up the coast, the cast insists their off-camera memories were wilder than anything edited for primetime.

Producer tricks that made frenemies out of friends

Smith’s pick for the most ridiculous direction? “Petting my cat while making a fake phone call to Jason,” she says. Murrel recalls being told to “look across the street and pretend, like, you hate someone,” even though “there was no one there.” 

The resulting montage turned genuine buddies into sudden rivals—an early crash-course in reality TV editing that still makes them laugh today.

Pride, cringe, and the joy of watching their teenage selves

When Cavallari asks if they’re proud of their televised youth, Smith speaks for nearly everyone: “I think nowadays, proud. But, like, ask me that ten, fifteen years ago, it was embarrassing.”

Rewatching became a springboard for self-reflection; Jason Wahler, now years sober, looks back and sees “somebody that was just lost.” He admits, “The only way I saw out of it was through the bottle.” That honesty turned a one-time “bad-boy” arc into a redemption story fans didn’t get in 2005.

No moment hit harder than Wahler’s reflection on addiction. He admits that the footage shows “how it can rob you of everything,” but today he calls his life “a very big growing experience.” Cavallari praises his “inspiring story” as the audience cheers the comeback king. 

Cancel culture would have eaten them alive

“We would all be canceled in two seconds” if Laguna Beach debuted today, Smith jokes, noting the “sh*t that came out of our mouths” during the MySpace era would have had them become the #TrendingTopic of the day. 

The line lands with nervous laughter—and relief that social media barely existed when their messy freshman mistakes went worldwide.

Hook-ups and hierarchies

Season 2 popularized Southern California slang, but Smith confesses, “We threw the word ‘hookup’ around like it was nothing.” She clarifies that back then, it could mean “anything from making out to having sexual intercourse.” 

Cavallari’s Chicago confession

After wrapping the tour date, Cavallari spilled that the night nearly derailed. She felt “emotional and tired and drained,” worried the episode “wasn’t gonna be good,” yet on playback she “absolutely loved it” because “this Laguna crew, [we] have such a special bond.” Even the queen bee isn’t immune to live-show chaos—especially when old flames and rowdy co-stars hijack the run-of-show.

Why the Class of ’05 still runs the beach

Two decades, multiple marriages, and at least one stint on The Hills later, the Season 2 cast agrees their success rate defies every cautionary tale about reality alums. Wahler “is crushing it,” Cavallari turned a lifestyle brand into a retail empire, and everyone else “built awesome families.” That longevity, Torriero quips between shots, is what separates Laguna Beach from the copycats.