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Jason Wahler said his “life changed” instantly after the first Laguna Beach commercial aired
In a new podcast interview, the former reality star recalled going to a gas station afterward and feeling like “Justin Bieber got out of the car” because of the sudden attention
Wahler said the fame became a “false sense of reality” that distracted him from mental health and addiction struggles
Jason Wahler is recalling the exact moment fame hit him — and according to the former Laguna Beach star, it happened before the show’s first episode even aired.
During a recent appearance on the More Life with Carl Radkepodcast, Wahler, 39, opened up about how quickly his life changed after MTV released the first commercial promoting Laguna Beach in 2004.
At the time, Wahler said he was already privately struggling with mental health issues, legal trouble and an identity crisis as a teenager.
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Jason Wahler
Credit: Amy Tierney/WireImage
“Imagine everything that I was explaining at 17, 18 — identity crisis, going to treatment, dealing with the law, mental health issues,” Wahler said. “So pause there.”
Then came the commercial that launched him into overnight fame.
“The moment that the commercial airs for Laguna Beach, I go down to the gas station in Laguna,” he recalled. “Literally, a commercial aired. And my life changed.”
He continued: “I mean, it was like, I went down there, and it was like Justin Bieber got out of the car. So it was just crazy, the notoriety that happened from it.”
The reality star explained that the sudden attention became a distraction from the deeper personal struggles he had been avoiding.
“All that stuff that I wasn’t dealing with was completely pushed to the side,” Wahler admitted. “And I was like, I can focus on this, which is like a false sense of reality, a great deflection from everything that I’m going through and I’m gonna lean into this.”
Looking back now, Wahler said the overnight shift still feels surreal because of how abruptly everything changed.
“I’ll never forget what that [felt like], because it was just like this very normal life and it was literally like the next morning,” he said. “It changed.”
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As the show exploded into one of MTV’s defining reality shows of the 2000s, Wahler said he quickly found himself living a lifestyle most teenagers could barely imagine.
Wahler also acknowledged that reality TV fame came with pressure to maintain the persona viewers expected to see onscreen.
“Play that persona and that character,” Wahler said when discussing how audiences often expected him to behave exactly like the version of himself they saw on TV.
He continued: “At 18 years old, we were living like the dream. I mean, at least what we thought was the dream … I mean, we’re literally being paid to party and like travel the world.”
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