Kristin Cavallari recently shared one of the most terrifying moments of her life-waking up to an intruder crawling on her bedroom floor while her young son slept beside her. Speaking candidly on her Let's Be Honest podcast on Tuesday, the 37-year-old reality TV star recounted the chilling experience that occurred in 2020 during a family trip to the Bahamas.
Cavallari, who shares three children-Camden, 12, Jaxon, 10, and Saylor, 9-with her ex-husband Jay Cutler, explained that the incident took place during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The family had been staying at what they believed to be a "safe gated resort" after restrictions left them stranded in the Bahamas for a month.
"That night I had Cam in the bed with me," Cavallari said, referring to her eldest son, Camden, who was around eight years old at the time. "Cam and I were sleeping, and I woke up to a man crawling on my bedroom floor."
The Laguna Beach alum described her initial reaction as one of stunned disbelief. "I was so out of it because obviously I had just woken up," she recalled. "And I go, 'What the f--- are you doing?'" The man, dressed entirely in black and wearing a ski mask, stood up, ran out the door, and disappeared into the night. "It was the full thing-black arms, black pants, the ski mask," Cavallari added. "And I just thought, 'Oh, f---.'"
Cavallari said her instincts kicked in to protect her son, who remained asleep. "Because Cam was in the bed with me, I didn't yell. I didn't scream. You think in those moments that that's what you'd do, but your instincts just kick in," she said. "I honestly felt like I was in Mission Impossible."
The reality of what had occurred hit Cavallari moments later when she rushed to find her then-husband, Jay Cutler, who was upstairs with their two other children. "Once I woke Jay up, then I got really nervous," she admitted. "Then I start [to get] like, really scared. I started shaking, and I was able to process then what just happened. But until that point, I was not scared. I was really calm. You just are running off of instinct."
The intruder managed to steal a backpack containing cash but left Cavallari's Uncommon James jewelry untouched. Investigators eventually identified the perpetrator as a worker who had been called in earlier to repair the home's HVAC system. "Long story short, he took all of the cash that we had in a backpack. We ended up getting it back. We found out who it was. It was the HVAC guy," she said.
Cavallari revealed that her children still do not know about the incident, as she fears it would deeply unsettle them. "My kids still don't know, and I will not tell them, probably, until they're adults," she said. "Because I just think some things kids do not need to know. And scary stuff like that, I will take that one."
She added, "That was one of the scariest things that I went through."
The incident occurred shortly before Cavallari and Cutler announced their separation in April 2020 after a decade together. At the time, Cavallari wrote on Instagram, "With great sadness, after 10 years together we have come to a loving conclusion to get a divorce. We have nothing but love and respect for one another and are deeply grateful for the years shared, memories made, and the children we are so proud of."
While the couple finalized their divorce in June 2022, Cavallari has remained open about the challenges of single motherhood and her efforts to shield her children from unsettling realities.
