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Heidi Montag: ‘The Hills’ Wasn’t a Hit Until Spencer Pratt ‘Started Scripting Everything’

Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt
Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt attend Brody Jenner and Kaitylnn Carter's engagement dinner on May 20.Vivien Killilea/Getty Images

Guys, you’re welcome. In honor of the 10th anniversary of The Hills’ MTV debut on May 31, 2006, Heidi Montag (and her now-husband Spencer Pratt!) open up exclusively in the new issue of Us Weekly and reveal exactly how involved they were with crafting the onscreen drama.

Montag, now 29, and Pratt, now 32, were known collectively as Speidi on the hit reality series, and didn’t exactly have the best reputation with the other cast members.

Related: PHOTOS: The Hills Stars: Then and Now

But, Montag tells Us, if it weren’t for her and Pratt (the pair dated off and on during the series and tied the knot in real life in 2009), the show would have been a flop.

“Early on the producers wanted real reactions within scripted moments, but as time went on, we were in on the storylines,” Montag tells Us. “They needed our input in order for it to become a hit show. It didn’t become a hit show until season 2, when Spencer came on and started scripting everything.”

The pair revealed to Us that Pratt’s integration into the show was no accident, either. According to Pratt, he and Brody Jenner found out that they were filming at Los Angeles hotspot Area and decided to crash — with a little help from Audrina Partridge.

Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt
Heidi Montag and actor Spencer Pratt arrive at Us Weekly’s Hot Hollywood 2007 party. Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

“We rolled up and got the table next to [Lauren Conrad and Heidi] … We had bottles of Dom,” he said. “The thing with Audrina was a complete fabrication. I didn’t know Audrina and she didn’t know me. They just had us walk in together, and Heidi got all worked up and boom … we were in the story.”

Related: PHOTOS: Failed Reality TV Romances

Still, the couple — who joined Jenner and his fiancée, Kaitlynn Carter, at their engagement party in L.A. on Friday, May 20 — tell Us that fans of the show still treat the storylines as real life.

“It’s so hard, because you have people in the world who think it was real and treat you like everything on there was real,” Pratt said. “It’s like if you were asking Harrison Ford about what it was like to make Star Wars, but you made him answer all of the questions as Han Solo! It’s important for anyone who cares at all to understand … You were watching fiction. We tried to be entertaining, but it wasn’t close to ‘real.’”

Related: PHOTOS: TV Shows Gone Too Soon!

For more behind-the-scenes Hills secrets — including sit-downs with LC, Kristin Cavallari and all your other faves — pick up the new issue of Us Weekly, on stands now!

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