Entertainment
Paris Hilton still has PTSD over sex tape scandal: ‘I felt like my life was over’
Paris Hilton reveals her sex tape scandal left her with PTSD.
The Simple Life star-turned DJ, 40, was left shaken when her ex-boyfriend, Rick Samolon, leaked an intimate video of them in the bedroom, in 2004.
Speaking about the release of the footage – which was filmed in 2001 – the socialite explained that she felt her ‘life was over’.
‘That will always be something that will hurt me for the rest of my life,’ she said during an appearance at the Vanity Fair Cocktail Hour Live! on Thursday.
‘It’s always there in the back of my mind. When it happened, people were so mean about it to me. The way that I was spoken about on nightly talk shows and all the media, every day to see things with my family was just heartbreaking.
‘I would be in tears every single day, I didn’t want to leave my house. I didn’t want to show my face, I felt like my life was over.’
Paris continued: ‘I had always looked up to these amazing women like Princess Diana and I just felt like when he did that to me, [he] took that all away from me and people would never look at me the same.’
‘It was humiliating, that was a private experience between two people. You love someone, you trust someone and to have your trust betrayed like that and for the whole world to be watching and laughing.
‘It was even more hurtful to me to have these people think that I did this on purpose — that killed me.
‘It still gives me post-traumatic stress disorder to talk about it.’
Samolon leaked the video in 2004, shortly after Paris starred in The Simple Life alongside former best friend Nicole Richie.
In a candid interview with the New York Times, she stressed that it was a ‘private moment’ between them that was broadcast to the world, leaving her ‘traumatised’.
The businesswoman recently made headlines when she spilled the beans on lockdown life with new fiancé Carter Reum.
The lovebirds announced their engagement in February, more than a year after they first started dating, in 2019.
Lifting the lid on how they’ve endured lockdown together, she told Tatler: ‘I’m loving it. I’m in the best place in my life. I’ve never been happier. I’m at home finally with my boyfriend and it’s so amazing.
‘My life was so hectic, travelling 250 days out of the year, for two decades. Obviously, it’s a really scary time around the world and my heart goes out to everyone.
‘But I try to see the silver lining and, for me, it’s been amazing to re-evaluate my life and my priorities.
‘I’ve lived such a full life, I now know that I am happy being at home. And I am excited for the next phase of my life: to grow up and get married and have a kid – kids – and live a real life. Because I never got to do that before.’
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