paris hilton education

Paris Hilton

Who Is Paris Hilton?

Paris Hilton caught the media's attention after the release of a sex tape in 2003. After starring in The Simple Life , Paris earned a Teen Choice Award for her portrayal in the film House of Wax, and her first book, Confessions of An Heiress, landed on the New York Times best-seller list. She has since made her way in and out of the headlines through her romances, music ventures and television shows like The World According to Paris and Hollywood Love Story .

Early Life and Modeling

Paris Whitney Hilton was born in New York City on February 17, 1981, the eldest child of real-estate developer Richard Hilton and socialite Kathy Richards Hilton. Along with sister Nicky and brothers Barron and Conrad, Hilton is one of multiple heirs to the Hilton hotel fortune.

Hilton spent her childhood moving from one luxury home to another. While living in the family's Beverly Hills mansion, she attended her freshman year of high school at the Marywood-Palm Valley School in California. When the Hilton family relocated to New York City in 1996, she continued her studies at the Dwight School. At this time, the family took up residence in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan and frequently vacationed at a multimillion-dollar home in the Hamptons.

As East Coast transplants, Hilton and her sister regularly attended society functions, charitable events, fashion shows and A-list parties. The two soon became regulars on the red carpet, and a titillating 2000 Vanity Fair spread shot by famed photographer David LaChapelle cemented their burgeoning fame.

Around this time, Hilton signed with Donald Trump 's modeling agency, T Management. She was soon seen in a flurry of campaigns for leading clothing designers such as Christian Dior and Tommy Hilfiger , as well as national publications. Hilton went on to work with other top agencies, including Ford Models Management and London's Model 1 Agency.

New York's 'It Girl' and Early Films

Hilton, who courted regular media attention for her outrageous lifestyle, was christened "New York's leading IT girl" in 2001. Short-lived romances with actor Leonardo DiCaprio and boxer Oscar de la Hoya — as well as callous comments directed at her peers — earned Hilton bad press, and further fortified her reputation for careless jet setting and hard-partying.

Hilton soon tried her hand at acting, making a cameo in Zoolander (2001), Ben Stiller 's feature-length spoof of the modeling world. Over the next few years, she continued split her time between runways and movie sets, appearing in the 2002 horror flick Nine Lives . The following year, she acted in the feature films Wonderland and Cat in the Hat , and began work on her own small-screen reality series.

Sex Tape and 'The Simple Life'

In November 2003, an unauthorized four-minute video of Hilton began to circulate on the Internet; dubbed "One Night in Paris," it featured Hilton engaging in intimate acts with then-boyfriend Rick Salomon. Salomon marketed the video, earning millions in sales, and Hilton filed suit. Although the case was settled out of court, reports stated that Hilton received $400,000 from the video. Additionally, she publicly stated that she had never intended the video to be a commercial venture.

Three weeks after the release of the video, Hilton debuted her first reality television venture on FOX. She partnered with long-time friend Nicole Richie to create The Simple Life , a show that featured the two socialites attempting blue-collar jobs and performing menial tasks. It was feared that Hilton's scandal would ruin ratings and alienate potential audiences, but the show became an enormous success.

Shortly after, Hilton was approached by Guess to appear in three worldwide campaigns. The following month, Hilton made a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live . Her double-entendre-laden interview with Jimmy Fallon poked good-natured fun at the Salomon tape debacle.

Book: 'Confessions of an Heiress'

The following year, Hilton appeared in the big-screen features The Hillz and Raising Helen and began to branch out into other business interests. After founding Heiress Records (a sub-label of Warner Bros.), she released her first book, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Cheek Peek behind the Pose . Written in conjunction with author Merle Ginsberg, the book, despite being widely panned by critics, quickly made its way onto the New York Times best-seller list.

That year, Hilton also busied herself with a perfume line, a nightclub franchise, and the second season of The Simple Life . Although the show secured strong ratings, by 2005, Richie and Hilton had clearly grown apart, and the cause of their split became a matter of public speculation.

While still maintaining her role on the show, Hilton accepted other acting opportunities, including a small but significant role in the horror film House of Wax . Her portrayal earned her the Teen Choice Award for Best Scream, as well as nominations for Choice Breakout and Best Frightened Performance at the MTV Movie Awards.

First Engagement and Album

Focusing on her romantic life, Hilton announced her engagement to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis in May 2005. The couple called off the nuptials five months later, and Hilton soon began dating Stavros Niarchos III, an heir to a different Greek shipping dynasty. Toward the end of the year, she dabbled in fashion, released her own jewelry line, and published her sophomore writing effort—another collaboration with Ginsberg entitled Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All To Me.

In 2006, Hilton branched into music, releasing her self-titled album on her Heiress label. The record, which peaked at No. 6, featured a range of genres as well as the work of producers including Greg Wells, Kara DioGuardi and Scott Storch. At the same time, Hilton maintained her acting pursuits, and as The Simple Life continued into its fourth season, Richie and Hilton publicly reconciled.

Arrest and Jailtime

While her business endeavors were taking off, Hilton's hard-partying private lifestyle would catch up with her in September 2006, when she was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. Hilton was arrested and placed on probation. The heiress was back in court only a few months later after the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office claimed that she had violated the terms of her probation by driving on a suspended license.

In May 2007, Hilton was sentenced to 45 days in jail—a sentence that was later reduced to 23 days. Hilton reported to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California, on the night of June 3, directly after she made an appearance at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. After serving only three full days in prison, Hilton was released early in the morning on June 7 for unspecified health reasons. The court ordered her to complete her sentence by spending 40 days in home confinement.

Responding to the perception that Hilton was receiving preferential treatment as a result of her celebrity status, a judge ordered Hilton to return to jail. Upon hearing the sentence, Hilton shouted, "It's not right!" and asked for her mother. She was subsequently moved to the medical wing of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, and transferred back to the Century Regional Detention Facility on June 13.

Hilton was released from jail on June 26, 2007, serving a total of 22 days in detention. As networks vied for her first post-incarceration interview, the Hilton family drew negative press for attempting to extract a million-dollar fee from Barbara Walters and ABC. A furious Walters refused, and network interest dissipated. Eventually, a reformed Hilton appeared for free on Larry King Live , maintaining that the jail's minister had inspired her to make a "new beginning."

'My New BFF,' 'The World According to Paris'

After five seasons, The Simple Life drew to a close in 2007. Hilton continued to act in big-screen releases — Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) and The Hottie & the Nottie (2008) — and launched the MTV reality series entitled Paris Hilton's My New BFF .

Hilton seemed to draw the most on-screen attention, however, for her political views. On August 5, presidential hopeful John McCain negatively compared Hilton's celebrity status to that of rival candidate Barack Obama . Hilton retorted with a video on Will Ferrell 's humor-themed funnyordie.com. The media responded positively to her smart, comedic turn.

On the romantic front, Hilton announced her engagement to Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden in May 2008. After a nine-month relationship, the two split in November of that same year.

She began dating nightclub owner Cy Waits in 2010. The two had a very public relationship, which was shown in her 2011 Oxygen series, The World According to Paris . Their relationship was filled with drama, with the couple getting arrested for possession of cocaine in Las Vegas (her second drug charge of the year, after being caught with marijuana in Corsica) and Waits having pinned a down an intruder in Paris' house at gunpoint. After nearly a year, their relationship ended in June 2011, one month before the end of The World According to Paris .

DJ and More Music

After the release of several fragrances and stores worldwide, Hilton decided to take her empire in a different direction by steering her career back into music. In early 2012, Hilton announced that she wanted to be a DJ. She made her DJ debut at the Pop Music Festical in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2012. Her premiere performance wasn't well received. She then appeared in a Korean pop video by artist Kim Jang Hoon in October 2012.

The following year, to the surprise of many, Hilton prepared for the release of her sophomore album under the Cash Money Records—home of popular hip-hop artists Drake , Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj . Although a completed album never saw the light of day, Hilton released multiple singles over the next few years that enjoyed some success on the dance charts. She also continued to surface on the small screen, appearing on programs like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills .

'Hollywood Love Story'

After romances with younger boy toys like Spanish model River Viiperi, Hilton settled into a relationship with actor Chris Zylka. The two announced they were engaged during a ski trip to Aspen, Colorado, in early 2018, before calling off their engagement late that year.

In spring 2018, Viceland announced that Hilton would star in a new reality series, Hollywood Love Story , about a group of fame seekers in Tinseltown. In June, she revealed she was teaming with the Boohoo fashion line for a new 70-piece collection, to debut later in the month.

Hilton then got 2020 off to a mouth-watering start with the debut of her YouTube show Cooking with Paris .

In February 2021, Hilton announced her engagement to boyfriend Carter Reum. They were

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Paris Hilton
• Birth Year: 1981
• Birth date: February 17, 1981
• Birth State: New York
• Birth City: New York
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Female
• Best Known For: Hotel heiress and socialite Paris Hilton rose to fame via the reality TV series 'The Simple Life,' and continues to court media attention through her books, businesses, music and screen appearances.
• Astrological Sign: Aquarius
• Dwight School
• Marywood-Palm Valley School in California

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Paris Hilton Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/celebrities/paris-hilton
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: November 30, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• Having a nightclub in your house really helps for having a party, because then you don't need to go out.

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About Paris

• 11:11 Media

One of today’s most recognizable entrepreneurs and international influencers, Paris Hilton is a pioneer in television, podcasting and NFTs and an innovator in building businesses, social media and celebrity branding.

Since starring in “The Simple Life,” Hilton has built a global empire as a businesswoman, influencer, activist, DJ, designer, investor, recording artist, philanthropist, host, actress, chef, model and author. In 2006, she created Paris Hilton Entertainment (now known as 11:11 Media), a multi-billion-dollar company that started with 45 branded stores and 19 product lines surpassing over $4 billion in revenue. Today, 11:11 Media is a full-stop, integrated media and product company with verticals covering TV (Slivington Manor Entertainment), podcasts (London Audio), digital (11:11 Digital), licensing, NFTs, music, impact and more. Always attuned to emerging trends and opportunities, Hilton continues to expand 11:11 Media and use her platform to inspire, empower and create lasting positive impact.

Through Hilton’s production company (Slivington Manor Entertainment) and a multi-year partnership with Warner Bros., Hilton released “Cooking with Paris” (a new twist on a cooking show; released on Netflix in August 2021), is currently filming “Paris in Love” (a docu-series covering Hilton’s life leading up to and including her wedding; coming to Peacock in December 2021) and is in development on various other TV projects.

Through Hilton’s podcasting and audio company (London Audio), which is underpinned by a multi-year partnership with iHeartMedia, Hilton hosts her own podcast (“This is Paris” with 2.6M downloads as of August 2021), launched a “This is Paris” spinoff series (“Dominated”) focused on women who rule in worlds usually dominated by men, and is currently developing additional original podcast series among various topics including her social advocacy work.

As an investor, Hilton is committed to supporting and investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs. She has positively impacted the world at companies such as Daily Harvest, R3SET, Yat, Genies Good Catch, Zen Water, Podz, and many more.

Hilton has also solidified herself as an NFT leader as was recently seen by her being named #7 on Forbes’ NFT 50 most influential people in NFTs and through being awarded “Winner of Best Charity NFT” at the 2020 NFT Awards. In staying true to her goal of fostering empowerment and in collaboration with Sevens Foundation, Paris curated and launched “Empowered By Paris: Empowered Women Empower Women Exhibition”, which is an NFT exhibit dedicated to showcasing and equipping female artists with a platform to succeed.

Through her powerful activism work, Hilton has spearheaded impactful policy changes across the United States. In the critically acclaimed “This is Paris” YouTube Originals documentary (which has garnered over 23 million views to date), Hilton revealed the abuses she suffered as a teenager within the Troubled Teen Industry and has since utilized her personal experiences to help pass seven U.S. state laws as well as a law in Northern Ireland all aimed at protecting youth and reforming facilities. In partnership with Breaking Code Silence, a nonprofit whose goal is to eradicate the abuse of children in systemically abusive institutions, Hilton has helped develop federal legislation that will positively impact 120,000 youth annually. Hilton was accepted to RISE Justice Labs, the world’s first civil rights accelerator, to continue her advocacy work around the Troubled Teen Industry and recently received a grant from the Hilton Foundation to develop a mental health support model for survivors. Philanthropy is an important part of Hilton’s life and she frequently works with the Children’s Hospital in LA, as well as various group homes and hospitals overseas. Moving forward, child rights advocacy and mental health reform will continue to be important pillars of her platform.

This is just the start for Paris Hilton and 11:11 Media which has a mission to empower and inspire the next generation. In the coming year you can expect many innovative, exciting projects. Whether it is ParisWorld (a metaverse within Roblox), inventive new NFT drop formats, a beauty product line, a cookware/kitchen product line, or new TV shows and podcasts, 11:11 Media is poised to impress and will be a company to watch.

To get in touch with Team Paris, please fill out the contact form with your press or business inquiry.

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Paris Hilton

• Born February 17 , 1981 · New York City, New York, USA
• Birth name Paris Whitney Hilton
• Ms. Blue Baller
• Height 5′ 8½″ (1.74 m)
• One of today's most recognizable entrepreneurs and international influencers, Paris Hilton is a pioneer in reality television and an innovator in social media and celebrity branding. Since starring in "The Simple Life," Hilton has built a global empire as an influencer, DJ, designer, recording artist, philanthropist, host, actress, model and New York Times best-selling author. In 2006, she created Paris Hilton Entertainment, a multi-billion-dollar company consisting of 45 branded stores, 19 product lines and 27 fragrances, which have surpassed over $4 billion in revenue. In 2001, Variety declared Paris Hilton as a "Billion Dollar Entrepreneur" in recognition of her successful business and global brand. Hilton debuted "This Is Paris," her critically acclaimed YouTube Originals documentary on her life, which has garnered nearly 20 million views to date. Hilton has used her voice and dedicated her platform and resources to supporting Breaking Code Silence, the organization created to affect change in the industry, and eradicate the abuse of children in systemically abusive institutions. Hilton recently partnered with iHeartRadio to launch her "This is Paris" podcast and will continue to expand podcast production through her company London Audio. As an investor, she is committed to supporting and investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs positively impacting the world at companies such as Daily Harvest, R3SET, Good Catch, Zen Water, Podz, among others. In addition, Hilton launched her new production banner Slivington Manor Entertainment, which will develop long-form content for television, streaming services, and emerging platforms. She has signed an exclusive two-year overall deal with Warner Bros. Unscripted Television to develop, executive produce and star in original unscripted television programming on behalf of the studio. - IMDb Mini Biography By: JFPR
• Spouse Carter Reum (November 11, 2021 - present) (2 children)
• Children Phoenix Barron Hilton Reum London Hilton Reum
• Parents Rick Hilton Kathy Hilton
• Relatives Conrad Hilton (Great Grandparent) Nicky Rothschild (Sibling) Barron Hilton (Sibling) Conrad Hilton (Sibling) Kim Richards (Aunt or Uncle) Barron Hilton (Grandparent) Kathy Richards (Grandparent) Brooke Wiederhorn (Cousin) Whitney Davis (Cousin) Conrad Hilton Jr. (Aunt or Uncle) Francesca Hilton (Aunt or Uncle) Milou Alizée Hilton (Niece or Nephew) Theodora Marilyn "Teddy" Rothschild (Niece or Nephew) Hucksley Andrew Wiederhorn (Cousin) Hunter Montgomery Wiederhorn (Cousin) Kyle Richards (Aunt or Uncle) Lily Grace Rothschild (Niece or Nephew) Chad Davis (Cousin) Kimberly Jackson (Cousin)
• She used to wear blue coloured contact lenses over her naturally green eyes
• Quote and shirts that read "That's Hot"
• Long bleached blonde hair
• Valley girl accent
• Five of the films she has appeared in are listed on the Bottom 100 list (2008).
• She wears a size 11 shoe. Many top designers don't make their shoes in an 11, so they have them custom made just for her.
• She was the subject of a South Park (1997) episode entitled "Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset", in which she opens a store called "Stupid Spoiled Whore" selling girls everything they need to emulate her.
• For her 21st birthday, she threw five parties for herself in New York, Las Vegas, London, Hollywood and Tokyo.
• Has had public altercations with Natasha Lyonne , Shannen Doherty , Lisa Marie Presley , Shanna Moakler , Lindsay Lohan and Kelly Osbourne .
• I don't want to be known as the grand-daughter of the Hiltons. I want to be known as Paris.
• I went to Wal-Mart for the first time. I always thought they sold wallpaper. I didn't realise it has everything. You can get anything you want there for really, really cheap.
• I think the biggest misconception about me is that I'm this spoiled brat. But I'm not. I'm the total opposite.
• If you have a beautiful face you don't need big fake boobs to get anyone's attention.
• I desperately hate one thing about my body. I have size 11 feet. Yeah, it sucks, because I see all these super cute shoes in the stores: Guccis, YSLs, Manolos. And when they bring them out in my size, they look like clown shoes.
• Pledge This! (2007) - $1,000,000

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Paris Hilton Describes Her Utah Boarding-School Experience As ‘Living in Hell’ in New Doc

Heiress, DJ , and former reality-TV star Paris Hilton is opening up about a little known portion of her life — her high-school years — in a new documentary about her life, This Is Paris . In a New York Times Style profile titled “Who Is Paris Hilton, Really?” written by Ilana Kaplan , Paris Hilton discusses her forthcoming documentary, which delves into her traumatic experience at Provo Canyon School, a Utah based boarding school for troubled teens and psychiatric treatment center where she once spent 11 months. Hilton tells Kaplan that attending Provo Canyon was “just like living in hell,” and claims she was emotionally, verbally, and physically abused by teachers and administrators at the school. In the doc, Hilton recalls getting taken from her bed as though she were being kidnapped her first night at the school, being regularly served mystery pills that she refused to take, and getting sent to solitary confinement for 20 hours at a time without clothing.

Provo Canyon has noted on its website that it changed ownership in 2000, after Ms. Hilton was a student. A representative from the school told the Times that Provo Canyon does “not condone or promote any form of abuse” and that “any and all alleged/suspected abuse is reported to our state regulatory authorities, law enforcement, and Child Protective Services immediately as required.” In the interview, Hilton attributes her experience at Provo Canyon with why she has since avoided therapy. “From being at Provo and those types of schools, just the therapists in there I felt were just not good people,” Hilton said. “I just have never,  ever  trusted them.”

Hilton also discussed how her opinion on the Me Too movement and women who have come forward about their stories of abuse has changed over time. In 2017, Hilton told reporter Irin Carmen that she thought women coming forward with allegations against her family friend President Trump were seeking “fame” and “attention,” but since then she has changed her tune. “I’m happy that there’s been the Me Too movement where people have completely changed their views on that,” Hilton said. “But at the start, it was just really unfair for a woman to be treated that way because somebody exposed them.” This Is Paris was initially supposed to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this past April, but is now debuting on YouTube on September 14.

• paris hilton
• this is paris
• boarding school
• documentaries

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Paris Hilton’s memoir: 7 things we’ve learned so far about the It Girl’s younger years

By Natasha Leake

Paris Hilton, as seen in Tatler

She’s a former Tatler cover star, the great-granddaughter of the Hilton Hotels founder, one of the world’s highest-paid DJs, owner of a multi-million beauty brand and ultimate It girl. Now, Paris Hilton is due to release her memoirs on the 14 March ( Paris – the Memoir , Harper Collins) - and it offers a deep dive into the life of the woman behind the glamour. 

Extracts serialised in The Times give a flavour of what readers can expect when it hits bookshelves. In these extracts, she speaks openly about her experiences growing up - from clubbing as a young girl, to escaping a terrifying boarding school. Here, seven of the key takeaways from the memoirs so far.

Party dressing? Boots and ‘comfortable clothes’

Paris Hilton on a night out

By Harriet Johnston

By Isaac Bickerstaff

Paris gives her top tips for a night out: ‘stay hydrated’, ‘stay pretty’,‘tipsy is cute’, ‘drunk is gross’, and finally she advises ‘good, sturdy platform boots’ for the night itself. She also advocates ‘comfortable clothes so you can dance all night’ (as well as easily climbing in and out of windows). 

The iconic It girl shared the news on Instagram

By Stephanie Bridger-Linning

Even Paris has been stopped at the velvet ropes

Paris Hilton in Los Angeles 

In the same extract, Paris tells of the time that she tried to smuggle her sister, Nicky Hilton, their cousin Farrah and their friend Khloé Kardashian into a nightclub, Bar One. Khloé and Farrah were ‘little middle school girls,’ she says, and goes on to describe how she made Khloé up with ‘full makeup, a long red wig, and a floppy black hat.’ She says that she told her, ‘If anyone asks you, say your name is Betsey Johnson.’ And for their cousin Farrah, they put her on top of somebody’s shoulders. Despite their best efforts, they didn’t get through the doors. ‘We put so much effort into our disguises, we were shocked when we didn’t get past the velvet rope… I didn’t like how it felt to be rejected in front of everyone. I wasn’t going to let it happen again.’

Her great escapes

Paris Hilton was sent to boarding school, which she says ‘wasn’t a lockdown, but it was surrounded by a tall fence’. Planning her escape, she explains that the fact the school was surrounded by this fence didn’t scare her, as she used to climb fences all the time when she was younger: ‘to rescue a stray Frisbee or just because it was fun.’ She also says that she ‘scaled chain-link barriers around urban rave venues and wrought-iron gates at a friend’s house. I can hop a fence.’ 

In conversation with the duchess, the hotel heiress revealed that she had ‘forgotten who I was’ when playing up to her media persona 

By Dora Davies-Evitt

She begged to be rescued from boarding school

At her lowest moment, trapped in boarding school, Paris describes how she ran away, escaping through the toilet windows and running as far as she could until she reached a pay phone. There, she called her aunt, Kyle Richards, whom she begged to rescue her — and who refused. Richards, who stars in the the Real Housewives of Beverley Hills , is Paris’s maternal aunt. Reflecting on the incident, Paris says, ‘Aunt Kyle was in her twenties when this happened. Not much older than me. We’ve never talked about it, but looking at it from her perspective, how would she not call my mom? Her big sister. My parents did what you’re supposed to do when your kid disappears – they called the police.’

Paris doesn’t go down without a fight

Paris Hilton

When Paris was put in handcuffs and flown to another boarding school, she attempted to escape. In a toilet cubicle which was being guarded, she kicked the door with both feet, toppling the guard who stood directly outside. She claims that the reason she was able to do this with such force was because of her extra-strong thigh muscles which she built up whilst clubbing: ‘Here’s the thing about dancing in a really crowded club: there’s so little room to do anything, you end up basically jumping up and down for hours, which gives you the thigh muscles of a kangaroo,’ she explains. 

Grazie for the glamour, Milano! 

By Chandler Tregaskes

Paris’ alter-ego

When Paris managed to escape the terrors of her boarding school, she tells of the alter-ego she created for herself, who she named ‘Amber Taylor’. Amber, Paris explains, was ‘more than a disguise; Amber was a totally different person’. She chose the name as a blend of Amber Valletta and Niki Taylor: ‘Supermodel vibes’. The character, who she describes as ‘sassy and smart’ wore mostly black, baggy skater clothes. 

Her favourite ’90s TV shows

Paris Hilton in Los Angeles

Having created her alter ego, Amber Taylor, Paris fled to Connecticut where she stayed with her friend ‘Biff’ for around 10 days. There, she talks of how she stayed in his parents’ spare room, had time to catch up on sleep, and watch ‘a lot of television:  The X-Files , ER ,  South Park ,  Buffy the Vampire Slayer .’ After this, her parents came to collect her from a New York diner. 

By Clare Conway

By Catherine Ostler

Paris Hilton Has a Lesson for Everybody

Her memoir is a manual on how to construct a self for public consumption.

T he Paris Hilton with whom I am familiar is not the real Paris Hilton, Paris Hilton tells me. The Paris Hilton she describes in her best-selling new memoir is. “I just put it all out there. It was like writing in a diary, speaking about things that I’ve never said out loud to anyone in my life, not my closest friends or family members. So I would say it was definitely me,” she tells me over Zoom. “Yeah, it’s me.”

I do not believe this claim for a minute, nor do I believe that she believes it either. Paris: The Memoir is a glimpse into the lifestyles of the rich and famous; a dishy gift for her devoted fans, the Little Hiltons; and a horrifying recounting of a life filled with exploitation and abuse. It is also a manual on how to construct a self for public consumption, a skill at which Hilton is an immortal genius and a practice she has helped mainstream into American culture, curving it into a ouroboros of ceaseless posting, commenting, buying, selling.

Who is Paris Hilton? A wife and mom. A sweet weirdo. A sincerely enthusiastic partier. An advocate who just got a piece of legislation to protect kids introduced in Congress . A DJ and model, at the helm of a media-and-merch empire. A progenitor of and contributor to so many cultural phenomena: “nepo babies,” the phrase That’s hot , reality television, the Kardashian Cinematic Universe (Kim got her break organizing Hilton’s closet on TV), influencing as a career.

Read: Seven celebrities who published actually great memoirs

Most of all, she is a performance artist. That’s the term she uses for herself, and an apt one. “We’re putting on a mask when we’re going out into public and playing a character or just being what people want us to be or what they project onto us, in the way that some of my friends are playing a character on their TV show,” she says. “People’s voices are different. They’re completely different.” (Incidentally, Hilton is talking to me in her normal speaking voice, which is dusky and languid and roughed-up with vocal fry, nothing like the babyish one I associate with her public persona.)

The major revelation of her book is just how good she is at doing all this—creating a character, playing the character, selling the character. She performed one Paris Hilton for 20 years; she is now performing a more balanced, more mature version. She is never letting us in on the real one. As social media turns us all into mini Hiltons, posing and posting and performing the minutiae of our lives, mining them for content, that is a practice I hope we all can emulate.

S tar, as her dad calls her, was born in New York City in the winter of 1981. She grew up a beneficiary of the Hilton Hotels fortune, a lover of tiny animals (rats, ferrets, Chihuahuas), a nightmare at school (she has ADHD and does not care for academics), and a tomboy. She came alive in the bass-pounding, lights-flashing environment of the nightclub, which she began visiting at the age of 12.

Stupid Girl, as Hilton calls herself in her darker moments, was born in New York when she was a teenager. Her parents were afraid she would end up dead if she kept on sneaking out and partying. By her account, they had her kidnapped from her own bed in the middle of the night and transported to a residential “reform” school in California when she was 16. She recalls remaining at abusive institutions like it for the next 17 months or so, being beaten, degraded, strip-searched, starved, and sexually abused.

She escaped a few times. At one point, her parents tracked her down and trapped her in a diner, eight states away from where she was meant to be. “I breathed in the smell of [my father’s] dry-cleaned suit, and I wanted to put my arms around him and tell him how much I missed him and Mom,” she writes. “More than I’d ever wanted anything, I just wanted my dad to put his arms around me and take me home. ‘Let’s go, Paris.’ He said it quietly, not wanting to make a scene. My throat felt hot and tight. I said, ‘My name is Amber. You must have me confused with someone else.’” (Her mother, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kathy Hilton, has publicly backed up Paris’s account and expressed her regret for what her daughter went through.)

This was not the only time in her early life that she suffered abuse. She recalls being groomed and sexually assaulted by a teacher in middle school. “I framed this episode in my mind as ‘my first kiss,’” she writes. She was drugged and sexually assaulted again as a teenager. An old boyfriend released an intimate video of her without her consent when she was in her early 20s, and the story became a tabloid fixture for months. (One particularly offensive detail among many: The video was branded as a tribute to the 9/11 victims.)

She endured. She compartmentalized. She moved on, aided by a bit from an Adam Sandler movie, of all things. In Big Daddy , the comic consoles a frightened 5-year-old boy, handing him a pair of “magic” sunglasses that will make him invisible. Hilton put on her own pair and began wearing them day and night. “That little magic-sunglasses coping mechanism made it possible for me to stand up and start my real life,” she writes.

Her surreal life, really: Paris, glam mononym, was born at the turn of the millennium. She lied about where she had been—London, “boarding school.” And she proceeded to do whatever she wanted, making out with cute boys, wearing Von Dutch and Dolce & Gabbana, pretending to be her own publicist. The journalist Nancy Jo Sales wrote a Vanity Fair feature about her and her younger sister, Nicky, in which an unidentified person describes the two as “partners in bitch crime.” Accompanying the article were David LaChapelle photographs featuring the siblings. In one shot, taken in her grandparents’s posh home, Paris is wearing a pair of aviators and flipping off the camera.

The mononym has thrived and survived, her career an exploration of consumerism and consumption, a media-studies class clad in pink, photographed stumbling out of Les Deux at 4 a.m. Are the media exploiting her? (Yes.) Is Hilton exploiting herself? (Yes.) Is the media’s treatment of her sexist? (Yes.) Is she in on the joke? (Yes.)

Her memoir demonstrates just how in on it she is. She creates an image of herself and promulgates it. She works hard at this job—which is lucrative, if often miserable. She’s aware of the postmodern quality of her labor. “Think about that famous René Magritte painting that shows a pipe with the words Ceci n’est pas une pipe ,” she writes. “Magritte wasn’t asking us to pretend that the painting is a real pipe; he was daring us to accept the smoking-hot realness of art.” Indeed!

Over time, the advent of social media has given celebrities like her more control over their own images. She feels much safer now, she tells me, as the ubiquity of Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok has shrunk the market for tabloid photos. It has also given her more opportunities for self-monetization. She seizes them. She’s never not hustling. “Anybody with an iPhone and a talent or something that they love to do has the opportunity to build a real business and build a brand through using these technologies,” she tells me in our Zoom call, as she cuddles up under a Keith Haring–print blanket. “People are allowed to be almost their own media company.” To make their own media. To be their own media.

And they are. Nowadays, hundreds of teenagers and young adults are famous for being famous, in the way Hilton is. Every moment is Instagrammable and Instagrammed, TikTokable and TikToked. Regular-old moms, farmers who happen to be great dancers, big personalities trapped in small jobs—everyone is just a few posts away from fame.

T he Paris Hilton of the book was born three years ago, when Hilton decided to talk about her history of trauma. She is not really sure why she did it. She was tired of walling it all off, maybe. “The effort left me lean and detached, strong enough to survive head-spinning success, soul-crushing betrayals, and staggering amounts of my own bullshit,” she writes. “But sooner or later, everyone leaves Ibiza.”

The #MeToo movement played some part as well, she says. (Hilton recounts her own unpleasant run-in with Harvey Weinstein in the book.) It had felt good to watch media outlets reassess how they had treated human beings such as herself, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears back in the early aughts—the sneering, the sexism, the grotesque upskirt and nip-slip photos. It gave her a bit of confidence in reassessing herself. So she talked. She complicated the Paris Hilton that people knew. She opened herself up.

In doing so, she became a fierce advocate for children victimized by “troubled teen” programs, spurring several state legislatures to place restrictions on them. Last month, a bipartisan coalition of senators and representatives introduced the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act , a product of Hilton’s lobbying. And she became a more mature, more prismatic public figure, hardworking as ever. “I just want to be at home with my husband and my baby,” she tells me, before ticking off her current roster of work: launching a new fragrance, recording an album, filming her reality-television show, posting on social media, and on and on.

Today’s version of Paris Hilton seems wiser, happier. But this is not the Paris Hilton, not really. The book reveals how her traumatic experiences gave her practice in compartmentalization and shaping a character—common enough among actors and celebrities that it is a trope all its own. Her book is an exercise in discernment, omitting as much as she admits. She obliquely describes herself as being asexual for years. She briefly mentions going through in vitro fertilization. She never really talks about her body or its upkeep. She tells me that she is not wearing makeup. I am confident that no adult’s skin and eyelashes just look like that.

I ask her what advice she would give herself as a child. She tells me that the main thing was “not to be so trusting of people.” I ask her if she has gone to trauma therapy. “Never, because of those places,” she says, referring to her reform schools. “After experiencing that, it just made me not trust anybody. Especially therapists.” I ask her if she would want her infant son to become a celebrity, like her. “It’s not something that I would really want for my children,” she tells me. “I just want him just to be happy and not have to think about this type of stuff.” I ask her if all celebrities are performance artists, and she says yes.

Having read her book, spoken with her at length, and watched hours and hours of television footage of her, I feel like I can tell you a lot about Hilton and nothing about Hilton. I can tell you where she has lived, whom she has dated. I can tell you how much fun she had doing The Simple Life , and how hurt she was by her early treatment in the press. I can tell you I do not understand how she survived those troubled-teen programs. I can tell you about her astonishing empathy for and forgiveness of her parents.

There are cameras everywhere in her life, recording and transmitting every little moment—something so many of us do today. Yet somewhere, there’s the real Paris, the private Paris, playing with her kid, laughing with her friends, maybe restoring old radios . No amount of time spent with her media persona brought me closer to that. In the end, I found this fundamental unknowability exhilarating. I found it moving. I thought: That’s hot.

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Paris Hilton Raises Her Voice(s)

By Shane O’Neill

Paris Hilton was a fixture of tabloids and television in the early 2000s, when she was known as much for her hyperactive nightlife as for her five seasons on the hit reality show “The Simple Life.” Since then, Ms. Hilton, 42, has parlayed her fame into a multifaceted career that has included working as a model, musician, D.J., actor, entrepreneur and an unusually zealous purveyor of NFTs. And in January, she welcomed a baby named Phoenix, whom she is raising with her husband, the venture capitalist Carter Reum.

As part of a New York Times event on Twitter , we talked to the party-girl-turned-mogul on Tuesday about her new book, “Paris: The Memoir,” which dives into the glamour of her public persona as well as the abuse she experienced for almost two years at several live-in “troubled teen” facilities .

This interview has been edited and condensed.

How have you prepared yourself for a media tour where you’re going to be asked about traumatic things?

Most of my career I was playing a character, and people had no idea what I had really went through. And now that I’ve written this book, people are just realizing that I’ve lived through some very traumatic experiences, and it was really difficult to put them on paper. But it’s also been such an amazing time for me to really discover myself in ways I didn’t even know before.

You’ve become quite an advocate for investigating and regulating the “troubled teen” industry.

I’ve been going to D.C. and meeting with senators and legislators and explaining to them what’s happening behind closed doors. I am proud to use my voice and my platform to shine a huge spotlight on such an important issue. I know that I’m so proud of the woman I’ve become. And I just know that the little girl in me would be so proud of who I am today.

Speaking of which, you’ve been really open about how you deploy your literal voice — like, you speak in a baby voice when you want things.

I really see the character that I invented as a trauma response to what I went through, where I just kind of wanted to invent this kind of perfect-life Barbie doll character just to not have to think of the trauma that I had went through. And then when I got “The Simple Life,” then I had to continue playing that character season after season. And then going into interviews and doing it. And I feel that it was almost — or, it is and it was — a mask where I just felt like I could be someone else. And, you know, I feel like a lot of people have misunderstood me for a long time and underestimated me. And I’m proud now to show who I really am.

In your book, you talk about pretending to be your own assistant by doing a raspy, husky voice. Is there any way we could hear what that sounds like?

Yeah. [in what could be described as a New York accent] I would talk like this, and “I’m from Brooklyn” and “Paris is going to be available. I just have to check her schedule.” It worked.

You said in your book that you have five phones. One is for prank calls. Can you tell me why you need an entire phone for prank calls?

Because it’s something that we just love doing. My mom and my sister and I just have been prank calling people for so many years. When people press star 67 and it’s a blocked number, a lot of people don’t want to answer. So it’s just better to have another phone for that. My mom is the one who’s really good at it. She’s the O.G.

What is the difference between being famous now versus when you were first starting to be famous?

Now I’ve parlayed it into a huge business and a brand. It was so much fun, but it was also really hard because the media was just so cruel to us back then.

Are there are things about that era that you miss?

There was nothing like the 2000s before social media. People used to just be so free and just actually have fun and talk and dance. And now I just feel that everyone just has their phone with them. So it’s just a completely different experience.

A quote from your book that really jumped out at me: “I was struggling to understand my sexuality; there’s no way I could have explained it to anyone else. I had no language for it. I’d never heard the word asexual .” Why did you include that passage?

I think just because I had been through such traumatic experiences that it made me scared of the idea of letting someone in like that. And yeah, I think just what I went through, it made it really difficult for me to feel comfortable about that. So I just — I just — I don’t know, I just thought of myself that way because it wasn’t something that I enjoyed.

Do you feel as if that identity still applies to you?

I had such huge walls around my heart for so long. And it wasn’t until Carter that those walls came crashing down. I feel that maybe God put me through this so one day I could use it and help others. And I’m doing that now, and I feel like I have like a true mission in life now, in turning my pain into a purpose.

Camille Baker contributed reporting.

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