The Tragedy Of Kristin Cavallari Gets Sadder And Sadder

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Kristin Cavallari has built a successful career for herself. But the life of the "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County" and "The Hills" alum has been far from perfect. She started learning about life's difficulties as a teenager when she and her brother were separated following their parents' divorce. Cavallari stayed with her mother while he went to live with their father. They were reunited, still as teenagers, when Cavallari moved in with her dad, but then she was separated from her mother.

The biggest tragedy hit the family a decade later, though. In 2015, Cavallari's brother went missing for days, only to be found dead in the elements under unusual circumstances. Processing his death has been a lifelong ordeal for Cavallari, who shared a close bond with her only sibling. As an adult, Cavallari experienced another family loss when she became estranged from her father. After trying to work on their relationship for years, she realized she was dealing with a narcissist. When she noticed her father's behavior was affecting her children, she chose to go no-contact.

Cavallari has also faced tragedies beyond her family. In 2020, she came face-to-face with a home intruder in the middle of the night, forcing her to confront the man to protect her son. That was a challenging year for Cavallari, who divorced Jay Cutler after a decade-long marriage to get away from what she described as a toxic situation. She has found happiness, but her journey hasn't been easy. 

Kristin Cavallari tragically lost her brother in November 2015. Her experience was even more heartbreaking as Michael Cavallari's death was initially shrouded in mystery. Kristin's brother was reported missing after his car was found abandoned in Utah. His family hadn't heard from him since after Thanksgiving, but they were optimistic he would turn up safe. "We remain hopeful and I will share any news that we receive," Kristin shared on Instagram. 

A few days later, Michael's body was found 3 miles from his 2014 Honda Civic. Kristin had given birth to her third kid the day Michael's disappearance was reported. "It's been stressful. Especially for Kristin, who is caring for two young kids and a newborn," a source told E! News. While it was initially suspected that Michael's cause of death was suicide, an autopsy report found he died from hypothermia. No drugs or alcohol were detected in his system.

"My heart is in a million pieces. Mikey, I could always count on you to make me laugh. You had such a good heart and will be forever missed," she penned in an Instagram post after he was found. Michael's loss continued to take its toll years later, as Kristin had a special dynamic with her late brother. However, Kristin believes Michael still watches over her and her family. "I've had some incredible signs from him though — which give me a lot of peace — including one today," she shared on Instagram ahead of his second death anniversary. 

Kristin Cavallari and her brother were always close. Their bond made it that much more difficult when they were split up following their parents' divorce when Kristin was 8 and Michael was 10. The children initially stayed with their mother in Colorado, but Michael later moved to California with their father. Despite their physical separation, "[Kristin] was always very protective of him," a source told People in 2015.

Making matters worse, Kristin relocated to Illinois when her mother remarried. Losing the presence of her brother and adjusting to the move were hard on her. "Now that he and Mike were living in Laguna Beach and Kristin had been forced to move to Chicago with her mom and her mom's new husband, things were going from bad to worse," Kathy Passero and Beth Efran recalled in their book, "Laguna Beach: Life Inside the Bubble." Her biggest problem was dealing with her two step-siblings. 

To lash out, she began to misbehave. When she was caught sneaking out of the house yet again not long before she started ninth grade, her mother sent Kristin to live with her father and brother in Laguna Beach. Kristin couldn't have been happier to have Michael with her again instead of her stepbrother and stepsister. "Mike and I were always really close growing up. I have great memories of us as kids," she said on "Very Cavallari" in 2020 (via People). "He had a very, very sweet soul. He was really goofy and funny."

Kristin Cavallari never had the best relationship with her father, Dennis Cavallari. She could never pinpoint what the issue was until much later, when she realized he was a "narcissist." "All I knew growing up was that I didn't want to be around him," she said on her podcast, "Let's Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari," in 2023. "He always made me feel like I wasn't good enough." She wanted to make it work, though. But it was hard, especially because Michael Cavallari didn't share her struggles.

The contrast between the two relationships made Kristin feel like she was the problem. "My dad and my brother were close, and, because of that, I think our relationship is very surface," she said on "Very Cavallari" in 2020 (via E! News). "It puts a little bit of a void between us." She continued to put in the effort well into adulthood — and years after Michael's death. "I'm lucky to have you. Thanks for teaching me that I can do whatever I want in this life," she penned in a 2020 Father's Day tribute on Instagram (seen above).

That changed just months later. Kristin cut ties with Dennis in 2021, after an undisclosed incident involving him and her children. "I was always like, 'I can take it. I can take the abuse.' I have my whole life," she said in the 2023 podcast episode. "But it's like when you start now messing with my kids, I'm not doing it." 

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Kristin Cavallari, her now ex-husband Jay Cutler, and their three kids spent a month isolating in the Bahamas, as seen above. While that sounds like the most idyllic way to quarantine, Cavallari went through a terrifying experience there. For the first three weeks, the family stayed in a resort but switched to a house the final week. That's where trouble struck.

One night, after they had called in workers to repair the home's HVAC unit, Cavallari woke up to find an intruder next to her bed. "That night I had [my son] Camden in the bed with me. Camden and I were sleeping," she said on "Let's Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari" in December 2024. Kristin stirred when the door opened, letting in light from the kitchen. "And I woke up to a man crawling on my bedroom floor," she said. Her mama bear instincts kicked in.

Instead of screaming, Kristin sat up and kept her voice down. "I go, 'What the f*** are you doing?!'" she recalled. The intruder, who was wearing a ski mask, black pants, and a long-sleeved black shirt, took off running. "Because Camden was in bed with me, I didn't yell, I didn't scream," she said, explaining that's probably what she would have done had Camden not been in the room. Her kids never learned they were ever in close proximity to an intruder. 

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Kristin Cavallari filed for divorce from Jay Cutler in April 2020 and never looked back. It wasn't an easy decision, but it was the right one. Their relationship issues had reached unhealthy levels, which meant she had to get out to preserve herself, even though she still had feelings for him. "I just decided I didn't want to be in a toxic relationship anymore and I had to break it off," she said on the "Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe" podcast in 2021.

In another 2021 interview, Cavallari stood by her description of her marriage but refrained from going into details. "It was toxic. I think, period, end of story. That's all I kind of need to say," she said on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast. She doesn't want to delve into the whys for their children's sake. "If you and I didn't have microphones in front of us, I'd f***ing tell you, but, you know, that's their dad, and my oldest googles us now, and I just want to be very careful," she explained.

Her mother never badmouthed her father, and that's the mother she wanted to be. However, Cutler thought that Cavallari was doing what she said she wanted to avoid. "If she wants to say stuff, she can say stuff. I'm not going to go down that road about her. I mean, she's still the mother of my kids," he said on the "Sofia with an F" podcast.