Paris Hilton has opened up about the painful aftermath of her infamous sex tape, which was leaked without her consent when she was just 19 years old, in her new documentary, Infinite Icon: A Visual Memoir.
Back in 2003, the hotel heiress was informed by her manager that a 30-second clip of the tape, made with her then-35-year-old boyfriend Rick Salomon, had been sent to a late-night talk show.
Initially dismissing it as fake, Hilton soon realized the footage was real, and before long, the full tape was circulating online.
"I had been through a lot in my life, but then to be publicly humiliated in such a way with someone who I loved and trusted... I had no idea that anyone would ever even see this," Hilton said, cited by Fox News.
"It was just humiliating. I didn’t want to leave my house. I felt the whole world was looking at it, laughing and villainizing me. I was a young girl who had come out of a very traumatizing place and met the wrong person who could do something like that to me."
She added, "It’s something that will affect me for the rest of my life. I don’t know if I’ll ever fully be healed from that. It’s something that will haunt me for the rest of my life."
Manipulation and Pressure
Hilton spoke about how Salomon pressured her into making the tape in her 2023 book titled In Paris: The Memoir.
"He had often said it was something he did with other women, but I felt weird and uncomfortable about it. I always told him, 'I can’t. It’s too embarrassing,'" she said, per Daily Mail.
Eventually, her ex-partner told her that if she refused, he would find someone else. “That was the worst thing I could think of - to be dumped by this grown man because I was a stupid kid who didn’t know how to play grown-up games," she said.
The entrepreneur also revealed that she had been drinking alcohol and taking Quaaludes at the time, which made her feel even more vulnerable.
When the tape was released, she felt as though her life was over. "I felt like my self-worth was in ruins," she admitted, saying she could "never be like" Princess Diana, Grace Kelly, women she admired, because "no one would ever see me that way because of what he did to me. And that always broke my heart so much".
A Deeply Personal Struggle
The mom-of-two reiterated that she never intended for the tape to be made public, and that she begged Salomon not to release the full version.
"He said he had every right to sell something that belonged to him," she recalled, expressing her devastation.
The 'Turn It Up' singer's experience with the leaked tape profoundly impacted her life and career, but she has slowly reclaimed her narrative.
"With this film, it’s really just seeing my life through the lens of music, how music is something that really saved me and how powerful it is," Hilton said.
"For so long, I played this character as an armor or shield to protect myself. And I never really wanted to let anyone in because I didn’t even want to talk about anything deep or serious."
"But ever since I have been telling my story, it’s just been so healing and so empowering. It makes me proud of this woman that I am, how strong and resilient I am, and that I can be an inspiration to others," she added.
In recent years, Hilton has found true love with entrepreneur Carter Reum, whom she married in 2021. Together, they have two children, son Phoenix and daughter London, both born via surrogacy.
Hilton's documentary, Infinite Icon: A Visual Memoir, premieres on January 30.