Paris Hilton's Surrogacy Decision Stemmed From Past Trauma
Celebrity

Paris Hilton's Surrogacy Decision Stemmed From Past Trauma

by Anyu Ching

Paris Hilton never had a simple life.

In an extremely raw and vulnerable interview with Glamour UK, the 42-year-old heiress details how her past trauma led her to use a surrogate for the birth of her son, Phoenix Barron Hilton Reum, with husband Carter Reum.

Hilton revealed how her fear of giving birth stretches back to Provo, the Utah boarding school she attended, and being in a doctor’s office where “they used to regularly take samples of her blood” as well as a traumatic moment on The Simple Life where she had to bear witness to a woman giving birth.

Hilton, whose talents span from reality starlet to pop star to a chef, first opened up about her dark past in her 2020 YouTube documentary This is Paris, where she described the physical and mental abuse she suffered in the 11 months she spent at Provo Canyon School, a boarding school for troubled teens in Utah.

This revelation came as a surprise to many viewers who primarily viewed the socialite as a “dumb blonde,” a persona that Hilton adopted as a coping mechanism due to past traumatic events. The character, she explains to Glamour UK, was inspired by iconic blondes Marilyn Monroe, Barbie and Dolly Parton — the last of whom she shared a stage with this past new year.

Hilton went on to share how she was taken advantage of by her teacher when she was just 15 and then drugged and raped by an older man that same year. She was also the victim of an encounter with Harvey Weinstein and a leaked sex tape with then-boyfriend Rick Salomon when she was 19.

The persona that fans of The Simple Life saw was “more comforting” to adopt than “deal[ing] with everything [she]’d been through in life.”

“I’m not a dumb blonde, I’m just very good at pretending to be one,” Hilton makes clear. “I think I’ve just been through so many things that I’m a warrior, I’m a fighter, I’m brave. And I’m a badass.”

“I just want to enjoy my life with my family and be normal,” she admits.

Photo via Getty/ Neilson Barnard