The now doctor of public health was featured as one of Lauren Conrad's close friends on the MTV reality show
Credit: Jen Bunney/Instagram; Lauren Conrad/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- Jen Bunney says she was not asked to participate in the Laguna Beach reunion special that aired on The Roku Channel
- She has shifted away from entertainment and now works as a senior healthcare executive and public health doctor
- Jen tells PEOPLE she has never watched all of Laguna Beach but has no “negative feelings” about the show
On the first season of Laguna Beach, Jen Bunney (now Jen Dunphy) appeared in the background on the hit MTV reality series as part of Lauren Conrad, Stephen Colletti and Lo Bosworth's tight-knit group of friends.
Jen and Conrad's friendship continued on The Hills, which documented an on- and off-screen fallout involving Brody Jenner, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt.
While Jen briefly appears in one of the throwback Laguna clips that aired during The Reunion: Laguna Beach special that dropped on April 10, she was not part of the group present when the cameras were rolling.
Other stars, including Conrad, Kristin Cavallari, Colletti, Bosworth, Trey Phillips, Dieter Schmitz, Christina Sinclair, Morgan Smith, Jessica Evans and Alex Hooser reunited for the special.
Jen tells PEOPLE exclusively that she was not asked to be a part of the special. As for why, she says, “I don't know. I can't answer that question. I wasn't in the room.” (The Roku Channel did not immediately respond to PEOPLE for comment.)
Credit: Michael Bezjian/WireImage
The mother of two said she wouldn't have ruled out appearing in the special, but noted, “It depends, how I was approached would probably dictate whether or not I decided to do it and what type of involvement they wanted me for. I wouldn't be against it. I would just want more information.”
Jen and her husband, Taylor Dunphy, an orthopedic surgeon, moved their two sons — Shep and Holden — back to Laguna Beach, Calif., to be near her family. She is now a doctor of public health and a senior executive in healthcare.
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“I've gone in a little bit of a different direction. I'm not in entertainment. I've never been in entertainment. I've always been in medicine and healthcare, so this was really an interesting experience for me to have,” she says of her high school years on Laguna.
“But I was always going to go down my true path. You're not going to find me with a fashion line.” (Conrad, Smith and Cavallari have all launched successful fashion and beauty lines over the years.)
While she lives in close proximity to several of her former peers and costars, Jen says she no longer stays in touch with anyone from the show.
Credit: Mark Sullivan/WireImage
“I do bump into Stephen [Colletti] all the time just because we both live in the same area,” she says. “I've bumped into Lauren [Conrad] a few times, just at the high school reunion and a few other times around town, but, you know, people have moved on with their lives.”
While she says she had no “negative feelings” about her time on Laguna Beach, Jen isn't sure when she might tune in to the special.
“I've just been super busy. It's not like, ‘Oh, I don't want to watch it or I'm avoiding watching it,' “ she explains. “I just haven't had the time. It's not the first thing on my list, let's put it that way. I have a lot of shows I want to catch up on.”
Credit: Roku Channel
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In fact, Jen has never seen her seasons of the show in their entirety.
“I actually never watched all of Laguna Beach,” she admits. “I was in college when it aired and we didn't have cable, like, in a dorm room. So I never actually watched all of the episodes. And then when it finished, it took a while — think about what year it was. It's not like people were streaming TV that's recorded. So I just never went back and watched it all.”
Similarly, she doesn't intend to let her kids watch her high school years play out on reality television. “I think they could probably find something a little more interesting,” she quips.
The Reunion: Laguna Beach is now streaming on The Roku Channel.
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