Paris Hilton has been one of the most written about and photographed celebrities of the past two decades, and yet no one really knew her story.
that’s at the heart of it paris memoirs, out now. While the world followed the pink-obsessed, puppy-toting party girl’s exploits on gossip blogs — which portrayed her as spoiled and nerdy, a persona she embraced — she masked the man who was a victim of childhood trauma. Was taking pain of Partying all night, being surrounded by tons of people and loud music, all that fun kept the hotel heiress from having quiet moments in which she was forced to confront her past.
“I’d Already Been To Hell And Back” Even Before I Was Famous paris in love The star told Yahoo Entertainment in an interview via Zoom.
Theme stories made headlines ahead of its March 14 release: Paris, who grew up in luxury in Bel Air and NYC, was groomed by an eighth grade teacher. She was drugged and raped at the age of 15. He was sent to a residential treatment program between the ages of 16 and 18, where he was sexually abused. Her ex sold a tape of them having sex without her consent. She had an abortion, which hit the headlines when her private medical records sold, She believed she was asexual for years because, for the above reasons, any sexual relationship terrified her, while simultaneously being labeled a “slut” in the media.
Each of those alone would be life-changing — and she revisits a lot in the book. She digs deep into the particularly bad years at abusive residential schools, which she first revealed in her 2020 documentary, This is Paris and guided him Advocacy work in the troubled-teen industry,
It all started for her one night, at age 16, when Paris was pulled from her bed in her parents’ Waldorf Astoria skyscraper by two men while she was asleep in her Hello Kitty nightgown. She believed she was being abducted – and feared she would be murdered or raped – but was taken to the now-shuttered CEDU program with the blessing of her parents, which helped her drop out of school. and were overwhelmed by being treated poorly. (He has since been diagnosed with ADHD.)
In the program, she claimed that she was physically and emotionally abused, drugged, stripped, restrained and kept in solitary confinement and regularly taken to a nursery in the middle of the night. Where she was sexually abused in her guise. Gynecological examination (while other staff watched). The calls were monitored at her home, so she couldn’t tell her parents (and they were told by the school to expect her to lie). So he tried to escape – and did several times in stories that read like scenes from an action movie – but was always found and given further punishment. When she finally “graduated” from the program, without an actual high school diploma because she spent two years digging holes and hauling logs, she followed her socialite mom Kathy Hilton’s cover story that she was attending a London boarding school. never told anyone, including her parents, what she endured because she was 18 and free, and didn’t want to look back.
It’s the blonde-to-heavy reading that makes us go “That’s hot!” went to fetch, showing no life skills but lots of humor Simple Life with Nicole Richie, broke the internet partying with Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, courting a pre-fame Kim Kardashian, spending time in an orange jumpsuit and weathering more than one Controversy, Yet the “OG influencer” and style icon has embarked on a party girl career, monetizing red carpet appearances, charging big bucks for DJ sets, selling perfume and making music. Today, she runs a billion-dollar brand including her 11:11 Media Entertainment company, and has been married to husband Carter Remm since 2021; Together, they welcomed their first child, Phoenix, in January.
“I’ve learned a lot about myself over the years since my documentary,” Paris told Yahoo Entertainment. “It’s been a journey of self-discovery and finding out who I am. Writing the book in particular… I [gone] Through it all and survived it. I’m so proud of the woman I am today… It’s made me so resilient and strong.”
She says this is a story whose makers are interested in making choices. “We’re already getting a lot of calls… everyone is fighting for the rights to this book to turn it into a movie or a TV series.” She says she doesn’t know yet which actress she’d like to potentially play her — they’re big, bright, expensive shoes to fill — but she says people are comparing her story to the 2002 Leonardo DiCaprio film are doing, catch Me If You Can, About a teenager who escapes from behavior school because of his stories about Houdini. (In the book, she details climbing out of windows, walking miles in the dark night, and finding a temporary safe haven in a kind stranger’s mobile home. Another escape, at an airport, she entered a bathroom stall with both feet.) seen kicking down the door, carrying the woman carrying him out, and fleeing via taxi to a local Hilton hotel.)
Paris wrote in her book that she never discussed her time in the residential program with anyone, including her own parents, real housewives of beverly hills Cathy and businessman Rick Hilton. (She remembers looking at them from their bedroom door, “faces streaked with tears,” as they were dragged from their Park Avenue apartment the night they were taken.) She wrote that she immediately told Cathy never expected to read his book – or, perhaps, always – because difficult subjects were not discussed within his family. However, Paris updates Yahoo that her mother has indeed read it.
“My mom was actually at my house this week and we were talking about it,” she says. “She was extremely emotional and was crying because she had no idea about so many things that happened to me… because I never told anyone.”
She says her mom was “really sad because she wished I could always come to her for anything. But what I went through is too painful to talk about. I don’t even want to think about it.” Wanted. That’s why I didn’t do it. I couldn’t tell anyone, even the people who were closest to me.” She says she decided to tell the story for “other girls” who have been in similar situations and “felt alone.” do and feel ashamed. It shouldn’t be on them. It should be on the people who hurt them.”
Paris says she and her mother are “closer than ever” after their difficult conversation. She also learns that there will be more difficult conversations down the line — when Phoenix and the daughter he dreams of being (and london is already named) — one day learn its history.
“Writing about it was extremely difficult, so I can’t imagine a day when I’m going to talk about it with my kids,” she says. “It’s something I need to prepare for. But I think doing all these interviews will help me because it’s the first time I’ve said a lot of these things out loud. So many painful experiences that I can’t forget.” wanted to. But I think it’s important.”
The “Stars Are Blind” singer says her early hardships made her “stronger and braver” — and, she thinks, better able to navigate stardom when she burst onto the scene as an “It” girl.
“I think everything I experienced as a teenager, especially going through so much abuse during my time in the troubled-teen industry, really prepared me for Hollywood in some ways,” she says. “I went through so much pain that after coming to Hollywood, I’ve already been to hell and back. So I don’t think it affected me as much as it would affect someone who hadn’t experienced that trauma before.”
And there was no shortage of drama after she became famous – like when, on the eve of Simple Life Debuting in 2003, her ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon, whom she dated during the most self-destructive period of her life when she was 20 to 33, sold a tape of them having sex that he recorded in felt pushed. (It still “makes her nauseous” that people thought she was on release, she wrote.) While she feared her career would be over before it even began, the show took off and was a hit. , ran for five seasons. But the tape made him a public punching bag, being ridiculed South Park and in Pink’s “Stupid Girls”. Her own misadventures, like a 23-day jail sentence, have also fueled jokes and nasty comments.
Paris says that during the low period, she’s always looking for a “silver lining” and a guiding light was “focusing on the business I wanted to build.” However, she admits, “It’s been really hard to trust people. I’ve been hurt so many times in my life… It’s been really hard to let people in. It wasn’t until recently,” that back That’s when the documentary revealed, “that I really started to open up and be able to trust people.”
She looks up to other “It” girls of that era, including Pal Spears, as she navigates life following her stereotypes (“Such an angel,” she says of the “Toxic” singer.) I love her very much”). , and Lohan, with whom he is not close, although he cheers her on from a distance amid her career comeback and marriage last year. (He publicly congratulated Lohan on her pregnancy this week.)
When we ask if she’s ever compared notes with Pamela Anderson, pointing out the similarities in their stories (not to mention Salomon as a mutual ex). baywatch The star has her own memoir and Netflix doc coming out, she says she has.
“I actually just finished reading her book and I was just blown away by her story and related to it in so many ways,” she says. “I felt like I was reading my diary at so many points … Then I bumped into her the other night at the Versace show,” on March 9 in West Hollywood, “and we were talking about it. I Told him how wonderful his book and documentary are.”
She continues, “I’m so proud of her — and myself and so many other women — who are finally taking back their narrative and their power and their story. Because for so long, and we can both relate to , just being underestimated and misunderstood and judged for things that have nothing to do with us.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, help is available. RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24/7 with free, anonymous support for survivors. 800.656.HOPE (4673) and online.rainn.org,