'The Hills' star Audrina Patridge says she was 'peer pressured' into doing topless photos early in her modeling career
The Hills star Audrina Patridge has learned from her past.
In a recent interview with former Bachelor Nick Viall on his podcast The Viall Files, Patridge revealed that early in her modeling career she felt “peer pressured” into posing for some risqué photos — and how now, years later, she’s learned from the experience.
"When I was 16, 17 … I was kind of guided and peer pressured in certain situations that I wish I could say no, and be strong with my no," she told Viall, referencing a series of topless photos that were released publicly in 2008, soon after achieving Hills fame.
According to MTV News at the time, the photos featured a teenage Partridge completely topless and sporting a pink plaid schoolgirl skirt, while others depicted her nude in a bathtub.
"I took these photos years ago, when I was just out of high school and beginning to model," she said in a statement to TMZ in 2008, per MTV News. "I was young and very trusting of others, and I didn't know to protect myself. It is a lesson learned, for myself, and hopefully for the young girls who look up to me."
Patridge told Viall that when the photos were first released, it was “devastating” both professionally and personally, explaining that "people spin it into a judgmental, negative way and then it makes you feel shameful and bad about yourself."
Still, the model said a little advice from her Hills costar and on-again off-again boyfriend, Justin Bobby, gave her much-needed perspective.
“‘Who cares? They’re boobs,'" she remembered him telling her. "'Everybody has boobs. Stop freaking out about them.’” That’s when she was allowed to tell herself: “Alright, who cares?”
"Navigating your early 20s and teens is hard and those choices you do sometimes have to live with," she reflects now. "You learn from them, but then you can teach other people from what you've been through."
The single mom, who shares daughter Kirra, 6, with ex Corey Bohan, has literally been an open book about her past, writing about the lessons she's gathered in her recent memoir, Choices, which came out last month.
"Writing this book, for me, was very liberating and therapeutic. It was very emotional," she told E! News, adding that the process "felt like therapy sessions."
"There's nothing really negative or bad or sour towards anyone. We were all in this together in this crazy journey," she added of her Hills family, whom she writes about extensively in the book. "It's this family that we've stuck it out with. We've been through the ups and downs that nobody really will ever understand, but we all do, so there's nothing really for anyone to be too nervous about. It's just being honest and it's my perspective."
Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Life’s newsletter.