Family, Fashion and Finding Her Way

After a tough few years, the beloved reality star opens up to Us about how she's taking care of herself and what the future holds

- STEPHANIE RADVAN

In reality TV, a genre of table-flipping and boyfriend-stealing, a voice of reason can be a welcome reprieve. Whitney Port would know. Upon making her 2006 debut on The Hills as a Teen Vogue intern, the L.A. native steered clear of major drama in favor of offering thoughtful advice to her friend in the fashion closet, Lauren Conrad. Even when Port stepped into the spotlight with her own spinoff, The City — which followed her to NYC, where she’d landed a glitzy new job and an on-camera boyfriend — she managed to avoid the common pitfalls of playing out your early 20s on TV. “I knew I wasn’t going to make a fool of myself because I just don’t do that,” Port, 38, says. “That’s not who I am. So I felt OK going into it knowing that I could be myself and that would shine through.”

It’s the reason she still has a massive following. Between her weekly podcast, With Whit, and her eponymous YouTube channel, hundreds of thousands of fans tune in to hear her musings on everything from fashion to pop culture and conversations with old costars and her husband, Tim Rosenman, with whom she shares 6-year-old son Sonny. The pair’s reaction videos to The Hills and The City, which featured them gasping, cringing and laughing on their couch while rewatching episodes, became ultimate comfort viewing during the pandemic.