Paris Hilton addresses long history of racist, homophobic comments: ‘I said the worst things’

Paris Hilton has said she is “horrified” by her past racist and homophobic comments, blaming it on the “gross” language she was forced to use while at boarding school.

Writing in her new book Paris: The Memoir, the Simple Life star explained that while living at “therapeutic boarding schools from the age of 16, she had to take part in group ‘attack therapy’, where participants were forced to hurl abuse at one another.

Hilton, 42, said that the therapy sessions included the “ugliest language possible”.

“The N-word. The C-word. The F-word. (Not that F-word, the worse one.) I look back on some of the things I said in the years after I left Provo [Canyon School], in the throes of PTSD, and I’m mortified,” she wrote in the memoir, adding that she was “horrified”.

The socialite has come under fire numerous times for her use of slurs and discriminatory language since her global rise to fame in 2003.

In 2012, Hilton was recorded suggesting that gay men “probably have AIDS”.

“Gay guys are the horniest people in the world. They’re disgusting. Dude, most of them probably have AIDS,” Hilton said in the audio clip. She later apologised for the comments.

In 2007, videos were obtained showing Hilton dancing to the Notorious B.I.G. song “Hypnotize” with her sister Nicky, in which Hilton says “We’re like two n*****s.”

The video also saw Hilton call a friend a “f****t”, while other footage showed the singer changing the lyrics of Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” to include racist and anti-Semitic remarks.

Expanding on her defence for making the comments, Hilton said that her abusive experience at the boarding schools left her with a “severely damaged filter”.

“I’m grossed out, because that means those creepy people got inside my head. I never really left them behind,” Hilton writes.

“I couldn’t party hard enough, couldn’t drive fast enough, couldn’t crank my music loud enough or vacuum up enough love to make it go away.

“Sometimes I fell back on that slay-or-be-slain mentality, and I’m not proud of that. I was f****d up, okay? And I drank a lot. Like, a lot.”

Hilton, who was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in 2006, said she “drank to dull the pain”, but added that was not an “excuse” for her use of derogatory language.

“Sometimes I was just wasted and being a fucking moron,” she said. “I don’t remember half the stuff people say I said when I was being a blacked-out idiot, but I’m not denying it.”

Hilton has made something of a comeback in recent years, from her Netflix reality show Cooking With Paris in 2021, to her New Year’s Eve performance with Miley Cyrus a few months ago.

Last month, the “Stars Are Blind” hitmaker opened up about navigating her sexuality in her 20s, revealing that she used to think she was asexual before meeting her now-husband, Carter Reum.