UPDATE: This story was originally published on July 12, 2019.
On The Hills: New Beginnings, two of the returning stars from the original series are Stephanie Pratt and Justin Bobby Brescia. And while they were both on The Hills for years, they weren't the closest pair on the show. It's not that they had bad blood or anything, they just weren't particularly close. But now, New Beginnings is changing things. Like, really changing things.
On the second episode, Justin ran to Stephanie's side after she had a disagreement with her brother, Spencer, and sister-in-law, Heidi, at her welcome back to LA party. They also filmed a scene at Stephanie's house in which they bonded over their urge to run away to new places. (He moved to Nicaragua for a while between the two Hills series, and she lived in London.) During their conversation there seemed to be some romantic undertones (and one or two non-platonic overtones), and later, in the Vegas episode, Justin didn't deny accusations that he was sleeping with Stephanie, which very clearly opened up a previously unfathomable question: Are Stephanie and Justin Bobby dating?
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The answer is probably hell no, if you ask Pratt. She responded to the series' drama on Instagram, stating that she absolutely did nothing sexy with Justin Bobby. Her caption reads, in part:
"@justinbobbybrescia you were my rock the entire series- I love you & thank you. PS: spoiler alert... we NEVER hooked up. Audrina is crazy ?? like you dated this guy ten years ago... you married someone else & have a child with him! And-As if you liked Justin!! you were dating someone off camera!! ?(the guy u went on a blind date with the night after the festival)! No one plays a better victim than you ?? (OMG you actually should go into acting)!!! Ughhh and all the months you spent trying to get all of the girls against me... I mean thats Speidi’s job!!! Truth: I did not watch last nights episode Bc I didn’t want to re-live my “friend” attacking my character & making up lies about me when I have ALWAYS been a good friend to you. (You should watch the original Hills for a memory refresher) I am still utterly shocked & hurt you did this to me for camera time. I will always be honest, I’ve been on reality tv for 11 years straight... I can’t be anything except straight up REAL. I have no interest in being fake, pretending my life is perfect. That was my #PrattCast recap LOL. I love you all & need your support to get thru the struggles- thank you a million times over ?"
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But, if they do have some sort of fling at some point on The Hills, it'll either be short-lived or purely for the show. There is no evidence of Stephanie and Justin dating out there — no Instagram posts, no comments about a relationship in interviews. In one interview with OK! Magazine, Justin did talk about being friends with Stephanie. "I befriended Stephanie pretty heavily this season," he said, "and we’re still very cool."
Aside from this not sounding very romantic, it brings up another point: That Stephanie and Justin weren't really friends before filming the season. A deleted scene MTV shared online also shows this. When Stephanie arrives to her party, she greets Justin and co-star Frankie Delgado, and it's clear she didn't keep in regular touch with them. She shares a toast with Justin and he tells her that traveling has "lightened her up" and "she looks great." And while that could be a flirty thing to say, it doesn't really come off that way. Other than that, she just talks in her confessional about wanting to steal his leather jacket and being in awe of his fashion sense.
On top of them seeming more like friends than anything else, there's also the fact they both dated other people during the time The Hills: New Beginnings was filming. Stephanie recently confirmed to Us Weekly that she broke up with Bachelor in Paradise star Derek Peth after dating for a couple of months, and she told OK! at the end of June that she was single. Meanwhile, Cosmopolitan reported in February that Justin was dating a model named Lindsey Pelas and that the relationship was confirmed by his publicist. It's unclear if they're still together now; they kept (or are keeping) things very private.
As you can see, it doesn't seem like Stephanie and Justin Bobby had a relationship, but that they have become pretty good friends. Sure, the season could still show them flirting a little, but if there had been something more, it probably would have been teased in the massive amount of press the cast did ahead of the premiere. You know, like how they wouldn't stop teasing Justin and Audrina Patridge's will-they-or-won't-they relationship making a comeback. If Stephanie was truly in the dating Justin Bobby mix, we'd probably know by now.
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