If you’re not one of her 1.5 million followers on Twitter, and don’t take much notice of the women’s mags, the name Audrina Patridge probably doesn’t ring a whole lot of bells. Patridge was propelled into fame by a reality show called The Hills – a show in which four 20-something women living in an apartment in Los Angeles partied, went shopping, had boyfriends – you know, all the stuff that young women do, only on a much glitzier scale than most of us.

In previous interviews, Audrina admitted the show was “manipulated”, including having to pretend she hadn’t broken up with her boyfriend for a scene. Now she has her own reality show, Audrina, in which she attempts to put the real back into reality. The show stars her family: outspoken mother Lyn, affable dad Mark, sisters Casey and Sammy, and party boy brother Marky.

How is Audrina structured? Do you have storylines you plan to follow?

We were trying to make it not about storylines. We were trying to make it more real and whatever is going on in my life at that moment, we would just film. Some of it had to be planned because, like, when I went to New York we had to get the whole crew and pay for them to go and plan time-wise. [We filmed] from January to the end of March. I was pretty much filming at least once or twice every day.

How did you cope with all that going on?

I honestly don’t know how I coped. I was just so busy workwise and travelling, and there was some family drama that I was trying to play mediator with. My boyfriend [Australian BMX rider Corey Bohan] and I were going through a rocky time, so there was so much going on at the beginning of the year.

Is there a line where your private life starts and public life ends?

There definitely were some things that we didn’t film that were a little too private with my family and stuff. We still filmed it, but just edited it down, so you get bits of it. It’s a reality show and I didn’t really say no to the cameras because if it’s a reality show, it has to be mostly reality!

What were you doing before The Hills?

I was already living in LA and was working a fulltime job for about a year at Quixote Studios. I was going on auditions and castings and doing music videos, little parts in TV shows. When I got discovered lying by the pool by [Hills producer] Adam Divello at first I was a little hesitant, but then I thought, why not I’m going to give it a shot. When I first started filming The Hills, the last thing I thought about was paparazzi. I only thought about the glamorous side; you get to dress up everyday, you get to act, you get to go to all these cool places, be surrounded by amazing talent. I didn’t think of the other side of it. When that started happening, I was really like whoa! With The Hills they never wanted to show the paparazzi or talk about what was going on outside our Hills life. So with Audrina, I wanted to bring the cameras outside of that and show them everything they didn’t get to see on The Hills.

Are you still friends with everyone from The Hills?

I haven’t really seen anyone, I talk to Kristin [Cavallari] and Stephanie [Pratt] every now and then. Heidi [Montag] and I will Twitter back and forth to each other. That’s about it. I haven’t really seen anyone.

Heidi had major plastic surgery – are you tempted to try it out yourself?

I really think to each his own. Heidi did that because she was impulsive and she wanted to do it. It was for her, not for anyone else. You really have to think about all the consequences if you’re going to do something. Think in 10 years what you’re going to look like if it’s worth it.

Will there be a second season of Audrina?

I don’t know yet, there’s been talk, but I don’t know. I kind of want to take a break from reality and focus more on scripted work, because I’ve done it for seven years now, so it’s time for a little break.

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