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Paris Hilton shares photos taken after alleged boarding school abuse

Paris Hilton is sharing photos of herself that were taken immediately after she allegedly suffered abuse at a boarding school in Utah.

Hilton, 39, first opened up about the alleged abuse in the 2020 documentary "This Is Paris." The former "Simple Life" star said her parents, Kathy and Rick Hilton, sent her to a series of "emotional growth schools" when she was a rebellious teen. After running away from the first two schools, Hilton was sent to Utah’s Provo Canyon School, which she described as "the worst of the worst."

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKUvMJJHOtN

In the throwback photos she shared to Instagram on Thursday, Hilton is seen posing in a hat and T-shirt with NYPD logos. Her face in one image looks noticeably weary.

"These photos were taken when I was 18 and had recently came home from the horrible experiences I went through at #ProvoCanyonSchool. I can see the pain in my eyes. I was so traumatized that I pretended everything was okay, trying to block out the painful memories," Hilton wrote in the caption.

"Looking at this now, I know that the teen me would be so incredibly proud of the woman I am today," she continued. "Being brave and using my voice to make a difference and save children from having to endure the abuse myself and so many others have had to go through. #iSeeYouSurvivor #BreakingCodeSilence 🙌"

In "This is Paris," which was directed by Emmy winner Alexandra Dean, Hilton described the abuse she allegedly suffered at the school as verbal, emotional and physical.

"You’re sitting on a chair staring at a wall all day long, getting yelled at or hit," she recalled in the film. "I felt like a lot of the people who worked there got off on torturing children and seeing them naked. They would prescribe everyone all these pills. I didn’t know what they were giving me."

'I would just feel so tired and numb. Some people in that place were just gone, like the lights are on, no one’s home. A lot of people were on suicide watch, and I was so scared that was going to happen to me," she added.

The school's staff allegedly forced Hilton into solitary confinement when they discovered she wasn't taking the pills they'd given her.

"I got into so much trouble for that. Solitary confinement, like something out of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.' They’d make people take their clothes off and go in there for 20 hours. It felt like I was going crazy," she recalled. "Someone was in the other room that was in a straitjacket screaming. I was just freezing, I was starving. I was alone, and I was scared."

Several of Hilton's former Provo Canyon School classmates appeared in the film to corroborate her story and share their own tales of abuse.

Following the documentary's release last September, Hilton organized a protest in a park near Provo Canyon School , along with hundreds of others who said they were also abused at the school or at similar schools for troubled youth. Hilton has called for the school to be closed.

In September, a representative for Provo Canyon responded to Hilton's allegations in a statement to TODAY: "Originally opened in 1971, Provo Canyon School was sold by its previous ownership in August 2000. We therefore cannot comment on the operations or patient experience prior to this time."

The statement added, in part: "Provo Canyon School today is an intensive, psychiatric residential treatment center for youth between the ages of 8 and 18 that have special, and often complex, mental health and emotional needs. We offer innovative, evidence-based therapeutic interventions, academic instruction and life-skills training tailored to the needs of each of our students."

Gina Vivinetto is a writer for TODAY.com.

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Paris hilton was the center of it all. now she's shedding the 'character' she created.

Juana Summers

Hilton says she has been misunderstood and underestimated. Cole Bennetts/Getty Images for Paris Hilton hide caption

Hilton says she has been misunderstood and underestimated.

Before the word "influencer" was a household term, before Instagram and TikTok allowed users to document every moment of their life in real time, Paris Hilton was the woman at the center of it all.

A platinum blonde heiress with a mega successful reality show. A mainstay of tabloid gossip, thanks to an ever-present throng of paparazzi and a leaked sex tape. A consummate party girl who leveraged her starpower to launch a career in modeling and music. An early-aughts emblem of femininity and excess, whose breathy baby voice still conjures memories of the catchphrase, "That's hot."

Now, Hilton, 42, is ready to harness her voice in a new way after spending years living as what she describes as a manufactured caricature — in part, to protect herself.

"I just feel for so long I've been misunderstood and underestimated," Hilton told NPR. "And I feel that the past over two decades in this industry, my story has been told by other people. And I was just ready to get real and tell my truth."

Much of that truth involves unpacking the trauma of some of her teenage experiences in her new book, Paris: The Memoir , which has just published. In it, Hilton details an inappropriate relationship with a teacher when she was underage; sexual assault; and the abuse she experienced during years spent at boarding schools that were allegedly for "troubled teens."

The memoir delves into Hilton's pre-fame life. Dey Street Books hide caption

Hilton said her exasperated parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton, decided to send her to these intensive residential schools after she spent years sneaking out of her home at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York to go to clubs, and she was kicked out of several elite schools.

Hilton also shares more fond memories of her adolescence and tales that set her on a path that the culture would later deride as being "famous for being famous." There are stories of teen antics with her sister, Nicky, including an attempt to sneak a young Khloe Kardashian into a bar by dressing her in a long wig and floppy black hat. There are musings on how an adult ADHD diagnosis changed her life for the better. Hilton also gives her take on the modern day influencer, a title for which she thinks she deserves a fair share of credit.

"I've been doing this so long, even before there was a name for it," Hilton told NPR. "And it's just amazing to see that something that I started so long ago has now become like a full fledged career and started this whole new genre of celebrity."

Hilton performs a DJ set in Austin, Texas in 2022. Rick Kern/Getty Images for The Sandbox hide caption

But Hilton also writes about that pop culture ubiquity serving as a way to cope with her experience in the so-called troubled teen industry. In the book, Hilton describes being dragged out of her bed in the middle of the night by two men and being flown across the country to attend a "therapeutic" school run by the now-defunct CEDU Educational Services. There, she was subjected to an invasive cavity search, she writes. She was initially not allowed to wear shoes – and was told they were a privilege she had to earn. Students were forced to participate in what Hilton called "raps," a nightly ritual where they were forced to insult and denigrate one another for hours.

"I know that wasn't my family's fault. They were lied to and manipulated," Hilton told NPR. "My parents had no idea. When I was there they would always be monitoring every phone call and if I tried to say anything, [the school] would immediately hang up the phone ... and take away my phone privileges, and then just tell my parents, 'Oh, she's lying. She just wants to leave. She's being manipulative.'"

At times, passages of the memoir read like a thriller as Hilton describes several attempts to escape CEDU facilities, and later, Provo Canyon School, where she writes about spending hours in solitary confinement, often without clothing, and being provided with pills that made her feel like "my head was disconnected from my body."

Hilton first divulged her experiences to film director Alexandra Dean in the 2020 documentary, This is Paris . It was a conversation that she says she never planned to have.

This Is Paris documentary trailer.

"When I got out of there, I made a promise to myself that I was never going to tell anyone about it. And this was not a part of my story," Hilton told NPR. "And that's why I basically created this character, Paris Hilton, in order to not have to think about, or feel the trauma I went through and experienced."

In a statement posted on the school's website, Provo Canyon School noted that it changed ownership in August 2000, after Hilton was a student there, and that the school does not "condone or promote any form of abuse."

"We are committed to providing high-quality care to youth with special, and often complex, emotional, behavioral and psychiatric needs," the statement said.

Hilton said that while it's been "very scary and really hard" to publicly reveal that trauma, writing her memoir has also lifted a weight.

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"I just know that there are so many girls, boys, women, men who have been through the same thing as me. And they hold on to a shame. And that shame should not be on us. It should be on the people that hurt us," she told NPR.

The process of trying to let go of that pain and shame changed everything about her world, she says, including her romantic relationships.

She met now-husband Carter Reum, a venture capitalist, in 2019, at a family Thanksgiving dinner in the Hamptons. In the book, Hilton describes telling Reum about the harrowing revelations in This is Paris . She says it was the first time she "began a relationship of full disclosure."

"I feel so lucky that I found him," Hilton told NPR of Reum, whom she married in 2021. "That was the first time that I really let those walls down that I had around my heart. I just feel that timing is everything, and Carter is just my twin flame."

Hilton and Reum attend the 10th Annual LACMA ART+FILM GALA in 2021. Rich Fury/Getty Images for LACMA hide caption

This year, Hilton and Reum announced the birth of their first child, Phoenix Barron Hilton Reum, via surrogate after more than two years of IVF treatments. Hilton says that with motherhood, some of her priorities have changed.

"Now that I'm a mom, it's way easier to say no. Before I didn't, you know, have something like this. So this is the most important thing in my life, and I want to be there for all the special moments."

Yet, as Hilton indicated to NPR, her spirit of risk-taking remains – but these days, it involves more honesty.

"I think it's so important for people to come out and be vulnerable and tell their stories, because life isn't perfect," said Hilton. "And it's important for others to know that they're not alone and that we all go through the same thing."

Ashley Brown and Kat Lonsdorf contributed to this report.

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Who Is Paris Hilton, Really?

The heiress and proto-influencer says that she spent nearly two decades playing a character. Now she’s ready to be herself.

“I built this kind of shield around me and kind of this persona, almost to hide behind,” Paris Hilton said. Credit... Daniel Jack Lyons for The New York Times

Supported by

By Ilana Kaplan

• Published Sept. 12, 2020 Updated Aug. 4, 2021

Lounging cross-legged on her bed at home in Beverly Hills and wearing a turquoise hoodie, Paris Hilton appeared at ease. There were none of the affectations that have defined her public image for two decades: the flat baby voice, the tiny, shimmering outfits, the faux ditziness, the stance that everything cool was “hot.”

“I built this kind of shield around me and kind of this persona, almost to hide behind, because I’ve been through so much where I just didn’t even want to think about it anymore,” Ms. Hilton, 39, said over Zoom. Behind her stood a towering mirror illuminated by a sea of LED lights that refracted off her platinum hair like diamonds.

Before there were influencers, there was Paris Hilton: a beautiful blank slate of a person onto whom all kinds of ideas and brand sponsorships could be projected. She was the celebrity burnished, if not created, by a sex tape. She was the face of the Sidekick (and the victim of a Sidekick hack that brought more of her personal life into the public eye). She was a reality star, trying her hand at manual labor as a rich person. She recorded music, modeled, appeared at parties, made TV cameos, wrote an advice book . And she was mercilessly criticized, written off as “famous for being famous.”

Regardless of whether that characterization was fair at the time, it seems pretty hard to defend these days. Ms. Hilton spends more than 250 days of the year traveling the world as a D.J., raking in a reported $1 million per gig . She oversees more than 19 product lines, including fragrances, clothing (for humans and pets) and accessories. And so many people are now famous for being famous, she might now seem more venerable pioneer than contemptible fly-by-night.

Now, moreover, she’s ready to talk about the past. On Sept. 14, the documentary “This Is Paris” will be released on YouTube. It aims to crack the facade she created in the aughts, focusing instead on the decade that preceded her fame.

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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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