Heidi Montag's mother Darlene Egelhoff is speaking out to INSIDE EDITION about her troubled relationship with her daughter and how she's making ends meet after her restaurant closed.
Darlene Egelhoff, mother of TV personality Heidi Montag, is paying her bills by cleaning other people's houses, even though her daughter has made millions appearing on reality shows.
So how did Heidi's mother end up as a house cleaner? She says like millions of other Americans, she's fallen on hard times.
The restaurant Egelhoff and her husband owned for 21 years abruptly closed and the only job available in Crested Butte, Colorado is cleaning houses.
People who hire her are shocked when she arrives and they recognize her.
"That's been very humbling for me and I very much appreciate that experience because I don't want to ever get full of myself and think I'm too good to do anything," she told INSIDE EDITION's Jim Moret.
"Do you think Heidi knows what you're going through right now?" Moret asked her.
"No I don't," Egelhoff said.
That's because Egelhoff and Montag haven't spoken in nearly nine months, ever since they shot an episode of The Hills during which Egelhoff expressed disappointment in her daughter's decision to undergo ten plastic surgery procedures in one day.
"Are you telling me you don't think I look good?" Montag asked her mother.
"Maybe you should rephrase the question," Egelhoff said tactfully.
"No, do I look good?" repeated Montag.
Egelhoff shook her head "no."
Egelhoff told Jim Moret that Montag cut off all ties to her after the episode.
Now all she has are her scrapbooks full of photos of Montag as a cute kid. She got emotional when INSIDE EDITION showed her the dramatic change in Montag's appearance.
"Who do you see when I show you this?" asked Moret, holding up a current photo of Montag.
"Jessica Rabbit," responded Egelhoff.
"When you look at this picture what do you see?" Moret asked, holding up an older photo of the TV personality.
"I see the spark in her eyes...it's happy," said Egelhoff tearfully.
Egelhoff has started a blog called Metamorphosis of a Mother. She hopes it will help other broken families, but most of all she hopes Montag will read it and be open to a mother-daughter reunion.
"I know she loves me, but she's very hurt by me and she's confused," said Egelhoff.
She also blames Montag's husband, Spencer Pratt, for turning her daughter against her.
