Carson Daly says he supports Tara

Back in the day, when Carson Daly hosted MTV's Total Request Live, he was for a time engaged to Tara – and he gave her a pat on Carson Dalythe back by saying he's proud of his ex for speaking out about her plastic surgery.

"I saw her on the Today show recently talking about the whole thing, and I know how nervous she gets for stuff like that – it's funny when you know somebody so well – but I thought that she handled herself great, and I really commend her for her honesty and stepping up to the plate," Daly, 33, told People.

Carson and Tara dated for 17 months before splitting in 2001. Tara recently went public about her struggle with botched breast-implant and liposuction surgeries.

Carson says they don't keep in touch regularly these days. "We don't run in the same circles," he stated. "But when we do run into each other it's always great to see her, and always very pleasant."

Lately, he's been living in Los Angeles, hosting an online program called "It's Your Show" in addition to his late-night show on NBC – and staying out of the tabloids.

"I'm trying to re-enter the human race," he says. "All of my rock 'n' roll living at MTV and my fast-paced public relationships – a lot of the press that people associated me with was tied in with all of that. And as I got a little bit older and moved on to NBC I thought, 'I've gotta grow up here.' "

Speaking of relationships – is he dating anyone? "There's just a lot of work going on," he says. "That's my focus right now. Fans shouldn't worry about my social life. I'm very happy. When I'm not, I'm sure they'll read about it."