Celebrity commentator Perez Hilton has apologized for mocking a number of celebrities over the course of his career.
Per a report by Page Six, the 42-year-old blogger and gossip columnist (real name, Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr.) has expressed contrition for his past behavior in his new memoir, entitled: TMI: My Life in Scandal.
In the book, co-written with Leif Eriksson and Martin Svensson, Hilton opened up about the backlash he experienced when he offered to lend aid to the It Gets Better campaign (founded by writer Dan Savage) to help to struggle LGBT+ youth.
Hilton had previously outed celebrities without their consent, which was what led to him being strongly criticized online.
In his book, Hilton writes:
"People wrote such hateful comments that I couldn’t bring myself to read even half of them. The strength of the hate storm really shook me, and popped the bubble I had been living in.
"I realized for the first time that it wasn’t just a handful of people who disliked what I did — it was the overwhelming majority. I finally understood that the things I wrote genuinely hurt people, and deeply."
Hilton continues:
"I didn't care. That was partly down to being young and believing I would be successful forever, but it was also because I thought I was happy. In reality, I was drowning in negativity. I was stuck playing a part, too afraid to change, too afraid of losing my readers if I suddenly stopped being so mean."
Hilton also writes about his friendship with renowned pop icon Lady Gaga, whom he claims was changed negatively by fame and success. However, he acted in her defense in many respects, savaging Christina Aguilera when he believed she had plagiarized Gaga in her Bionic album.
Hilton writes:
"I started giving Christina all kinds of terrible nicknames. Looking back now, it’s one of the things I’m most ashamed of, and I can also see that Gaga was using me as a tool - not only against Christina but against other rivals too."
"One of the many things I regret is that I hurt so many people by giving them nasty nicknames, and above all that I was unkind to the children of celebrities,. I now see that I never needed to be so mean or cruel. I would’ve been fine anyway, just by being who I was," he added.
Although Hilton still runs his world-famous gossip site, he has pledged to be kinder about the way he reports.