Heavy Kristin Cavallari opened up about meeting Mark Estes.
A“Dancing with the Stars” alum recently hard-launched her new romance, and the reaction from fans has been rather intense. Now, Kristin Cavallari reveals how she first connected with her 24-year-old beau.
Cavallari revealed she’s quite smitten with her young suitor and won’t let any fan criticism dim that for her. “I’m all in with this guy,” she declared.
Here’s what you need to know:
Kristin Cavallari Initially Noticed Mark Estes on TikTok
On February 27, the season 13 “Dancing with the Stars” alum went Instagram-official with her new romance. Cavallari caught fans off-guard by revealing she was dating 24-year-old Mark Estes.
During the March 12 episode of her “Let’s Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari” podcast, she revealed how she first connected with Estes.
She noted she would not use his actual name, though. Instead, she referred to Estes as “Montana.”
As Us Weekly noted, Estes is a member of the TikTok group “Montana Boyz.” The group includes Estes’ pals Kade Cutter Wilcox and Kaleb Campbell Winterburn.
Estes played football in college at both Montana State University and Montana Tech. He now lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where Cavallari lives as well.
In her podcast, Cavallari explained, “Back in, like, September, I think it was, I’m scrolling TikTok and I stumble upon this ‘boy group’ I guess you could call them, the Montana Boyz.”
Cavallari continued, “So I go, ‘Holy sh*t, who are these guys because they’re so hot, but specifically this one, who I’m going to refer to as ‘Montana.'”
Her bestie, Justin Anderson, admitted on the podcast that he immediately felt that Estes was exactly Cavallari’s type.
Estes Asked Cavallari to Be His Valentine
About three weeks later, Cavallari got an Instagram direct message from the Montana Boyz account reading, “I love you.” She decided she wanted to have the guys on her podcast, and she soon learned the trio was about to move to Nashville.
Cavallari admitted that while she knew the guys were young, she didn’t know how young. She figured having them on the podcast would be “a fun flirt” and that would be it.
In December, while drinking with friends in New York, Cavallari sent a direct message to the Montana Boyz account. She mentioned she heard they were moving to Nashville as her opener. There was chatting back and forth, and when she learned it was Estes she was corresponding with, she said that was good because he was her favorite.
Light-hearted banter continued for a bit, and once the guys were in Nashville, Cavallari got a group together to go line dancing. “Then, he asked me to be his Valentine,” she revealed.
Estes and Cavallari had their first official date the day before Valentine’s Day. When he arrived at her house to pick her up, he met her three kids and her mom.
Cavallari Doesn’t Care About the Age Gap
Cavallari quipped that after dinner, she and Estes made out in the car in her driveway for a bit before she went into the house. She admitted she felt like she was in high school again, but her bestie Justin pointed out how happy she is with Estes.
Estes and Cavallari continued to hang out, and he won over her kids, too. When she recently needed to go to Mexico for a photo shoot for her Uncommon James line, Estes joined her.
The couple spent six days together in Mexico. While there, Cavallari learned that TMZ had received a photo of her with Estes at the airport.
The outlet planned to post it, and Cavallari decided to take control of the narrative. She talked about it with Estes and that was when the Instagram hard launch happened.
On her podcast, Cavallari admitted, “I would say it was a little early to hard launch someone, 100 percent. However…I feel very different with this man.”
She noted she never sought out a younger guy to date, especially one 13 years younger. “I understand what it looks like to the outside world. I really do. I get that. He is not a typical 24-year-old,” Cavallari added.
The former “Dancing with the Stars” contestant gushed over how sweet Estes is. She admitted, “The age thing was a hang-up” early on. However, “Now, I don’t give a f*ck and I’m all in with this guy and I don’t actually care what anybody thinks.”