(Photo Credit: Regan Cameron/Marie Claire)

It has been a few years since Lauren Conrad stepped away from reality TV and the L.A. club scene and, in a new interview, she reveals one big reason why.

"I destroyed my voice when I moved to L.A.," she tells Marie Claire in its July issue. "There are polyps all over my vocal chords because I was in a lot of loud places. If you listen to the first episode of [reality show] 'Laguna [Beach],' my voice is completely different."

Now, Conrad, 27, who rose to fame as the star of the MTV reality series "Laguna Beach" and then "The Hills," is enjoying a more low-key life as a writer and fashion designer with her boyfriend, law student and former professional musician William Tell.

"He is very good for me because we have a lot in common as far as where we grew up [in Orange County, Calif.]," she tells the magazine, which is on stands June 18. "It's the first time I'm with someone and I'm not explaining things."

And because he used to play in the band Something Corporate and has experience in the entertainment industry, she says, "he understands a lot of things that people don't always get."

(Photo Credit: Regan Cameron/Marie Claire)