Stephen Colletti urges he doesn't hate 'Laguna Beach' after choosing 'One Tree Hill'

Stephen Colletti has cleared the air about speculations that he hates his Laguna Beach roots after choosing One Tree Hill.

Peacock’s reality competition show’s audience thought the 40-year-old American actor and TV personality is not proud of his Laguna Beach past, as he used One Tree Hill under his name in video confessionals.

However, in a talk with Entertainment Weekly, Colletti said, “That is not the case at all.”

The Mask Maker star quipped, “I had written down One Tree Beach, but they didn’t go for it. I thought that that would’ve really stirred the pot for everyone if they saw that. I wish that it just said ‘actor,’ but they never gave me that opportunity.”

“I had written down, Everyone Is Doing Great, the show I’ve been working on of late, and they’re like, ‘That’s maybe not necessarily as recognizable as some of your earlier shows’” he shared.

“They’re like, ‘Pick between One Tree Hill and Laguna Beach.’ I worked on One Tree Hill for a longer time, more episodes, and it was more recent. Figured it cast a wider net, so I went with that one. Did not expect to get the blowback. I mean, people were accusing me of hating Laguna because I didn’t choose that one. That’s not the case at all,” the Kill Katie Malone actor recollected.

Colletti earned fame after he appeared on MTV’s 2004-2006 teen reality show Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. He then portrayed celibate teen Chase Adams on The CW’s One Tree Hill from 2007 to 2012.