Coming clean. Laguna Beach star Lauren Olsen (née Hooser) used to go by “Alex H.” on the hit MTV series — but she no longer goes by the moniker.
The California native, who was born Lauren Hooser, shared that when she first moved to Laguna Beach as a 9-year-old, she chose to go by her middle name, Alexandria, with her parents’ approval.
“So when I registered for school, I went by Alexandria, and that was when I was about, like, 10 years old,” she exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, November 1. “And then from there on out, I went by Alex.”
The change in the TV personality’s name had nothing to do with the amount of Laurens on the reality show. Laguna Beach also featured Lauren Conrad and Lo Bosworth — whose name is also Lauren.
“MTV didn’t make me go by Alex [because] there [were] too many Laurens,” she clarified. “It just happened by chance, and I know it can be so confusing. I have, like, three different names, but my name commonly through birth has been Lauren.”
When Laguna Beach premiered in 2004, the show focused on the personal lives of then-high schoolers Stephen Colletti, Conrad, Kristin Cavallari, Bosworth and more. The original premise was to be a high school drama, but the show was not allowed to film inside the high school, so the focus shifted to the cast’s home lives.
Starting on November 11, the first two seasons of the show will be available to watch on Netflix with its spinoff The Hills arriving to the streaming service’s catalog a month later.
Olsen joined the cast of the MTV show because of her close friendship with Cavallari, who she still keeps up with to this day. She was recently a guest on The Hills alum’s podcast with Colletti, “Back to the Beach.” The pair rewatch old episodes of the show and reflect on what happened.
She also remains close to her castmate Alex Murrel and was even a bridesmaid in her wedding. For her part, Olsen is also married and relocated up north to Santa Cruz, California. She has two children and her family just adopted a dog.
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Since her departure from reality TV, Olsen has gone back to using her original moniker with her loved ones.
“After the fact, my family still called me Lauren, so I just gravitated back to that,” she shared with Us. “Also it was kind of a nice little shell to be like, no, I’m Lauren now. Like Alex H. is done … but maybe coming back.”
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