Lifetime
Heidi Montag can pinpoint the moment from "The Hills" where her relationship with her mother, Darlene Egelhoff, totally fell apart.
Back in 2010, the blonde beauty went through a plastic surgery overhaul, with the aftermath of those procedures filmed for the MTV reality show. Montag hid out at her mom's place as she recovered -- and her mother's brutal honesty about her appearance caused a major rift between them.
"For me, the cutoff moment was when I went to Colorado and I just had all my procedures done. I said to my mom, 'Please don't film [scenes for 'The Hills'], I really don't want to do it. I contractually have to, but I would appreciate if you didn't,'" Montag explains in an interview with toofab's Brian Particelli.
"She was like, 'It'll be fine and great,' [but] I got there and felt like she really threw me under the bus and had a different reaction," Heidi continues.
For those who aren't as well-versed on the series as we are, this was her mom's reaction:
"It takes a little getting used to. It's very weird and very awkward. I'm sorry. I thought you were younger, I thought you were fresher-looking, I thought you were healthier [before]. What's done is done, so that's a terrible thing for me to say but, yes, that's how I feel. I felt that you were much more beautiful before and I hope that some of this will fade away."
"I completely understand how shocking it could have been and what a hard thing it was to go through as a mom, to see happen to your daughter," Spencer Pratt's wife says now. "I just wanted love at that point. I was just so desperate for some support and love. I needed my mom at that moment and I just felt so betrayed."
The two didn't speak for almost two years after the incident -- with Darlene now saying appearing on the series was the "biggest mistake" she's made with her daughter. Now, Heidi's just starting to grasp why she did it in the first place.
"I think that my mom was so desperate to reach out to me and I'm not sure how I would have reacted as a mom," she explains. "I was able to see why she did what she did and have an understanding."
Even though it was an especially traumatic moment for the two, Heidi can see the silver lining now.
"If we didn't have such a severe break, we wouldn't have such a great mending," she adds. "I think we have a way better relationship in the long run."
"What we learned through this show, our problems really started at childhood," she continues. "I think I felt emotionally responsible for my mom throughout my life and my family. At a certain point, I needed to break ties with my mom, with or without TV, fame, everything that was piled on top of that because I needed to become my own person and support myself and survive at that time."
Check out the video above to see why she says they decided to get therapy on a reality series instead of in private and get an update on the current state of their relationship!
"The Mother/Daughter Experiment: Celebrity Edition" premieres Tuesday night on Lifetime.
See a sneak peek at the drama below:
