Heidi Montag and Spencer Prattstarted last week withtheir house burning down.
They ended it with Montags 2010 albumSuperficialhitting number one on iTunes.
If anyones prepared for the extreme highs and lows of life, though, its Heidi and Spencer.
When Montag called me on Friday,Superficialhadnt reached this peak yet.
I was honestly surprised she called me at all.
Its a lot to unpack.
The couple is dealing with the aftermath of the fires like many families.
Theyve temporarily relocated, and Montags enrolled her children in new schools.
I cant even imagine what youre going through, I say.
In life, you just gotta get back up and take it day by day, Montag says.
We have the kids, and were blessed to have food and watereven if we dont have clothes.
Pratts TikToks in particular have been essential viewing.
(If youre familiar with his belovedhummingbird-Toks, you already knew this.)
You think these will work again?
he wrote on a post showing the remains ofthe familys washer and dryer.
Cant believe I didnt think of that sooner.
But over the weekend, something else happened.
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Superficialreceived a very different responseupon its initial release in 2010.
At the time Montag and Pratt were two of the most reviled celebrities in Hollywood.
It represents a time when supermarket magazines and sleazy blogs determined who and what mattered.
But Heidi and Spencer were unapologetic about their love and desire for fame.
At its height in 2008, 3.9 million people were watchingThe Hillslive.
(For comparison:2.3 million people watched theSuccessionpremiere in 2023.)
In 2010, comedian Chelsea Handler grossly dubbed them Herpes 1 and Herpes 2 on her nightly talk show.
Speidi quickly became synonymous with everything seemingly wrong in Hollywood: greed, vanity, excess.
But Montag saw things differently.
Ive always just been really grateful.
Im a fame-grateful [person], she says.
Its such a blessing that anyone would pay to take our photos.
I didnt grow up rich….
I was this small-town Colorado girl who had really hard-working parents.
So I really appreciated it.
And it was just enjoyable.
Theres nothing wrong with having fun in life, and sometimes thats taken the wrong way.
Funultimately was the motivation behind Montags most notorious late-aughts moment: getting 10 plastic surgery procedures in one day.
No, she says.
Im like, Amazing, okay, because I cant afford it, and thats huge.
I definitely wanted to be a pop star as a kid, she says.
I thought Id go the Madonna route.
That was definitely my goal.
She was so confident in her product, she boldly declaredSuperficialwas better than Michael JacksonsThriller.
And to her credit, the recordslaps.
Its 12 tracks, no skips.
But the public decided Montags fun was over.
She was ridiculed for her plastic surgery and lost lucrative business deals because of it.
(We cant work with you, youre now Surgery Girl, sherecalls one brand saying to her.)
Meanwhile,Superficialwaslambasted by criticsand sold only 1,000 copies its first week.
Surgery recovery was brutal, as wellMontag tells me she almost died from complications.
It just was a really challenging time, she says.
So the couple moved to Costa Rica briefly.
In the decade that followed, she and Pratt found equilibrium.
Fans felt endeared to him.
And to Montag, as well.
Thats just part of who Ive always been and part of who Ive always wanted to be.
Speidis honesty may be what fans are noticingand appreciating about them all these years later.
Everyone else does it constantly.
Frankly, we just didnt know how to have fun.
For it to finally come out and be Prattsaid on TikTok, bursting into genuine sobs.
It feels so good.
Montag feels good too.
Not everyone gets that.
Its really nice to have had that all unfold within time.
People always say, Time tells all, and it does.
Does it feel good to have the last laugh?
I ask Montag, referring specifically to her chart success.
It really does, she says.
I never thought it would; I never thought it was important.
And getting it, it does feel good and its empowering.
