A fake divorce and a second baby on the way: Inside Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag's marriage.

When we watched Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt (fake) elope to Mexico in The Hills season four, precisely no one believed it would last.

It was the first of a few manufactured engagements and weddings for the pair.

But then came the big church wedding in season five and well… nearly 14 years later, Speidi are still going strong.

Spencer and Heidi appear in The Hills: New Beginnings. Post continues after audio.

However, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing.

When the couple first got together in 2007, it came at a huge cost to Heidi. She lost her best friend Lauren Conrad, who disapproved of their relationship (even before Spencer created a fake rumour about an LC sex tape) and her choices put a strain on her family relationships too.

After leaving The Hills, Spencer, now 38, and Heidi, 35, worked Kris Jenner-hard to remain in the public eye.

Heidi released an album and three EPs (remember her single 'Body Language'? We're... sorry).

They also appeared on a number of other reality TV shows between 2009 and 2017, including:

• I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
• Famous Food
• Celebrity Big Brother (UK)
• Celebrity Wife Swap
• Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars 2
• The Mother/Daughter Experiment: Celebrity Edition
• Celebrity Big Brother (UK) (again)

In June 2010, Heidi filed for legal separation from her husband, citing irreconcilable differences and a month later filed for divorce.

They reconciled – officially – the following year, but as they would confirm in a 2011 interview with The Daily Beast, their entire break-up was fabricated.

"Did you ever break up?" they were asked.

"No," they both replied.

"Not for one minute," Spencer said.

"We’ve never even been apart," Heidi confirmed.

They said they faked their divorce in order to make some money – but it didn't exactly work.

"At that point, we were pulling our last cards,” Spencer told The Daily Beast. “We felt the hot-air balloon losing its gas. And at that stage, our income would be selling the photo that would go along with the divorce.”

At the time of the interview, they were broke and living rent-free with Spencer's parents.

After a couple of years laying low, Spencer and Heidi returned to screens on a series of reality TV shows and in 2017 announced they were expecting their first child.

This was around the same time Spencer decided to do something bold: take on Goop herself, Gwyneth Paltrow.

He began selling crystals, which eventually led to the creation of his crystal business Pratt Daddy. It didn't come out of nowhere though – Pratt was not shy about his decade-long love of crystals, which began during The Hills.

"My wife Heidi had some surgeries – nobody knows about them, they were a secret," he joked to Dazed Digital, when explaining how he got into crystals (Heidi famously had 10 plastic surgeries in one day).

"But the painkillers were not working. She was miserable, so I googled alternative healing methods and started reading about crystals. I went and bought [one that] would help the pain: Sugilite. I brought it home – I swear I bought the most expensive chunk of it, like $15,000, because my logic was that I needed the most powerful one. Heidi held it that night and slept for the first time in over a week with no pain. That morning, I went back to the crystal store. I was completely addicted."

 

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A post shared by SPENCER PRATT (@spencerpratt) on Apr 14, 2018 at 12:02pm PDT

One look at the couple's social media accounts shows their spirituality.

Spencer regularly spruiks his crystals on his Instagram (he loves to take close up videos of the necklaces, usually with a Taylor Swift song in the background).

Heidi uses her main Instagram account to post your usual #sponcon, plus supportive posts for Spencer's business and sweet family shots. She also runs a second account where she posts bible verses and images of her praying.

 

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A post shared by Heidi Pratt (@prattprayers) on Nov 20, 2018 at 6:11pm PST

Heidi and Spencer welcomed their son Gunner on October 1, 2017, and in an interview with US Weekly following the birth, they explained how their spirituality made its way into the delivery room.

While Heidi breathed through contractions, Spencer hurried about with $27,000 worth of crystals.

"He’s running in [the delivery room], putting these huge crystals all over,” Heidi recalled. “It was mayhem!”

Heidi told US Weekly that she and Spencer felt "blessed" to have such a "beautiful healthy baby boy".

"It was the hardest and most rewarding experience," she said.

Spencer described the day as "officially the most lit" of his life, because of course he did.

In 2019, the couple came full circle thanks to The Hills: New Beginnings.

After more than 10 years of marriage, they told People their relationship was stronger than ever and they were excited to appear on the reboot of the show that originally brought them together.

"We have a much deeper understanding and love for each other now," Heidi said. "We've been through so much."

"We are pretty raw and open [on the show]. There are ups and downs. People will be able to relate, because when you become new parents and then you have jobs and friends and all these things, it does add new pressures."

Spencer acknowledged that for so long, nobody believed in their relationship except them.

"When we started, it felt like everyone was trying to break us up, or they thought we were together to be famous. But here we are, 10 years later. The [best] thing we ever did is be together."

While the show brought the couple back onto our screens, The Hills: New Beginnings was cancelled after two seasons.

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A post shared by Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt)

These days, Spencer reminisces about their time on the original reality TV show, watching old episodes while talking about them on TikTok.

And just this week, Heidi announced the couple are expecting their second child after almost two years trying to conceive. 

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A post shared by Pratt Daddy Crystals (@prattdaddy)

"I couldn't be more excited. I don't know who I'm the most excited for – myself or Gunner or Spencer," Heidi told Us Weekly. 

"I just felt like something was missing. I felt like a person was missing in our family that I had this intense love for. And I kept praying about it. I'm like, if I’m not meant to have another kid – because I had accepted that at this point – I just wanted to not have that desire so strongly and I just wasn’t sure if it was going to happen or not. I just get so emotional about it."

Spencer said it's been a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

"Heidi has been crying a lot. It's like every month, 'Here we go.' I was like, 'If it happens, it happens.' But Heidi didn’t want to do it that way," he told the publication. 

"It was so long at this point I don’t know if I have any emotion left because it was very challenging."

Heidi, who was previously photographed eating raw bison heart to aid fertility, has been trying for a baby for 18 months. 

She said her friend and former co-star, Brody Jenner, even offered to pay for IVF treatments.

"I think a lot of women struggle with this and it’s just not something a lot of people talk about because it's so hard and it's so personal. And I felt really blessed having Gunner and having such a beautiful healthy son, so I was trying not to be ungrateful for my life and for what I do have," the reality star said.

"And at the same time, it was such a deep longing in my heart that I had – wanting a sibling for Gunner and wanting to expand our family."

Heidi is due to give birth in December.

Feature image: Getty/Mamamia.

This post was originally published on July 3, 2019, and was updated on June 2, 2022.