Kaitlynn Carter is taking back control of her own image. As Entertainment Tonight reports, during an Instagram Live on Thursday, Carter told her The Hills: New Beginnings co-star Whitney Port how she had no idea that the media would construct their own narrative for her after she and Cyrus ended their relationship.
"What happened to me, basically just after Miley and I went our separate ways, I thought, OK, my life's just kinda going back to the way it normally was for me when I'm on my own," Carter shared. "I had no expectations that anyone would give a sh*t about me by myself. I had no plan in place. I didn't think about anything. For example, I was dealing with a lot emotionally at that time, obviously, and I really wasn't going out anywhere. I was just staying home".
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Carter said she "didn't anticipate" continued paparazzi interest
Carter was shocked when she did finally go out with a friend to another friend's bar, and saw that paparazzi were there taking photos and video of her. "I just didn't anticipate anything like this happening," she admitted. "I'm used to it when I'm, like, with Brody or when I was with her, but never when I'm on my own. My mind is just swirling".
She then explained that she soon discovered that the media had constructed a persona for her that wasn't accurate, thanks to gossip headlines the following day that claimed she was "out on the town, partying with a mystery man just two weeks after her breakup".
This incident made Carter realize that she needed to take back control of her own narrative from the tabloids. "I was just so mortified…The narrative was so not what the actual situation was and that was such a wake up call for me," she shared.
Carter admits she's "always taken a back seat" in relationships
Carter revealed that before the misleading tabloid headlines painted her in an incorrect light, she hadn't ever really given thought to having a narrative of her own. "I had always gone with the flow or whatever people say they say, I don't care," she said. Carter admitted that her passive approach to life extended to her approach to relationships as well.
"In relationships especially, I have always taken a back seat a little bit and sort of trusted the person I'm with to run the show, especially publicly because it's never really been something that I wanted," she explained. "I never really wanted to put myself out there that way".
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Carter says she's more at ease in her own social media bubble
Carter then talked about how she feels more comfortable on social media, because of how "it feels familiar" to her. "Social media is so different because this is a community, on my Instagram, this is the community that I have been communicating with and sharing things with for years now," she shared. "And I built this community over a long time."
And according to Carter, that's what makes social media different to dealing with paparazzi and tabloids. "It feels like a safe place," she continued. "But the bigger picture, the rest of the world, where you don't know everyone, that's like a whole other level and that was not really something that I ever [was prepared to deal with]".
Watch Kaitlynn Carter talk about life after her relationship with Miley Cyrus ended on Whitney Port's Instagram Live video!