Famous for being famous or not, there’s hardly a person on this planet who hasn’t heard of Paris Hilton. Great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, she’s a socialite, model, actor, DJ, singer, and entrepreneur—there isn’t much Hilton hasn’t tried her hand at. Here are 50 fabulously hot facts about the “celebutante.”
1. Meet the Hiltons
Paris Hilton is from a long line of businessmen. Apart from her famous great grandfather, her grandfather was Barron Hilton, her father is Rick Hilton and mother is Kathy Hilton, a former actor whose maiden name was Kathleen Elizabeth Avanzino. Paris is the eldest of four siblings, with a younger sister and two younger brothers.
Although her sister Nicki is also a socialite and entrepreneur, none of Paris’s siblings is as consistently in the news as she is.
2. Early Days
Paris Whitney Hilton was born on February 17, 1981, in New York City. She moved a lot when she was young and lived in a suite at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons. Her sister described her as a tomboy at that age and her dream was to become a veterinarian.
3. Instant Fame
Paris Hilton catapulted to fame when a tape of her and her then-boyfriend, Rick Salomon, was leaked to the public. The tape was titled 1 Night in Paris and caught the couple being extremely intimate on camera. Three weeks after the tape was leaked, Hilton’s reality show came on air. The show was titled A Simple Life and starred her friend Nicole Richie as well.
It was a ratings success, and the high viewership was attributed to the publicity Hilton had received for her tape.
4. School Years
Paris Hilton went to school in Los Angeles. Her high school was Marywood-Palm Valley, also in L.A., but the family moved to the East Coast after she had completed her freshman year there. For a while, she attended the Provo Canyon School, which is for “emotionally troubled teens.” Eventually, she dropped out of school and later got a GED certification instead.
5. Canine Love
A huge dog lover, Paris Hilton has always had lots of them. They can be found living the high life, chilling in Louis Vuitton trunks, jet setting around the world with her, and living it up in their 300 square foot doggy mansion, which cost Hilton $325,000. The mansion is air-conditioned, painted pink, and is decorated with Philippe Starck furniture.
Not a bad life at all!
6. Petstagram
It isn’t enough to have her own Instagram account with 11.5M followers, Hilton has a separate account for her pets. They go by the handle @hiltonpets and have 21.2K followers of their own. While most of the pictures are of her dogs, the cats do sometimes make an appearance as well! And although they have yet to make an appearance on the ‘gram, she has supposedly also had bunnies, monkeys, ferrets, and even a slow loris as a pet before.
7. Giving Back
Hilton has been involved in various causes and charities. These include Starlight Children’s Foundation, Make-a-Wish Foundation, Cancer Research UK, American Foundation for Aids Research, and Precious Paws, to name a few.
8. She’s Got the Look
Although her natural eye color is brown, Paris Hilton wears blue contact lenses and dyes her hair blonde to maintain a look she feels her fans associate with her. She considers herself a brand and feels this is the image she must maintain. Over the years she has sometimes appeared in blonde-brown hair and once as a brunette as well.
However, most people do only know her as the blonde-haired and blue-eyed Paris.
9. First Time
Paris Hilton modeled as a child at charity events, but she was 19 when she signed up with a modeling agency—Donald Trump’s “T Management.” She also acted in her first movie around that time. It was called Sweetie Pie and it featured a cast of fellow young, privileged rich kids—all of whom suffer disastrous fates in the film.
Like her character, the movie also suffered from a terrible destiny: it was a total flop.
10. Fashionable Canines
Hilton’s love for dogs and dressing up culminated in her designing an apparel line for dogs called Little Lily by Paris Hilton. Some of the proceeds from this venture went to animal rescue agencies.
11. Friend Zone
From childhood, Paris Hilton has been friends with socialites like Ivanka Trump, Nicole Richie, and Kim Kardashian. She had a falling out with Richie at one point, but they seem to be on speaking terms again now. As for the Kardashian family, Hilton is proud of them and of Kim’s success. “Her family is beautiful, the little boy and girl, and I’m really happy for her.”
And although she hasn’t seen Ivanka Trump in years, Hilton admits that the connection has always been there too.
12. One (More) Love
Associated with many men over the years, it is hard to keep track of all of Hilton’s romantic involvements. One source claimed she may have had more than 50 boyfriends over the years. Let’s just say, that’s a LOT! From Leonardo DiCaprio to Cristiano Ronaldo to Jared Leto and most recently to Chris Zylka, Hilton has certainly had a happening love life.
She is believed to be single at present though. Let’s hope #55 is the charm.
13. Scent of a Woman
Paris Hilton started her own line of perfumes in partnership with Parlux Fragrances in 2004. It was going to be a small release, but there was so much demand that the company had to create more. Her perfume was the main reason behind a 47% increase in their sales. Since then there has been no looking back and she had 23 fragrances out by 2017.
14. Spray and Slay
You may think she spends hours laying outside to achieve her golden tan, but the truth is the heiress believes there is no need to do that. Spray tanning works perfectly for her and she prefers it to achieve her tan the natural way.
15. One of a Kind
Paris Hilton once wore a dress made of $1 million US in poker chips! In 2001, businessman George J. Maloof Jr. paid Hilton to attend the opening of Palms Casino Resort in Vegas, wearing the dress. This led to a string of nightclubs offering Hilton to visit them for promotion.
16. Worth It
The most recent estimates show that Paris Hilton has a net worth of $300 million, which is a lot considering she hasn’t been in the limelight recently. Her media outings have contributed to her current worth, as have her business ventures. Her perfumes, shoes, and canine apparel continue to sell, and she has stores all over the world.
17. Singing in the Rain
Hilton released her first album in 2006. It was titled Paris, and despite mixed critical reception, it did really well. It was number 6 on the Billboard Top 200 and the first single “Stars are Blind” was in the Top 10 in more than 17 countries.
18. Movie Tales
Although she has appeared in several movies, as a supporting character, the lead, and herself, none of them have done very well. In fact, she has been nominated for the Golden Raspberry (or Razzie) “Worst Actress” award several times, and her some of her films also feature in IMDB’s Bottom 100 films of all time.
Some of these include The Hottie and the Nottie, Pledge This, and The Cat in the Hat.
19. One for the Decades
In 2010 Hilton won the “Worst Actress of the Decade” Golden Raspberry award, which she got for her movies House of Wax, The Hottie and the Nottie, and Repo! The Genetic Opera. I suppose there’s nothing like bad publicity.
20. On the Other Hand…
It must be mentioned that in 2009, the year before she won the Golden Raspberry for “Worst Actress of the Decade,” she also won a Fifi Award for “Female Celebrity Fragrance of the Year” and a Fox Reality Award for “Innovator of the Year.” To keep things real, she also won three Golden Raspberries the same year for “Worst Actress,” “Worst Supporting Actress,” and “Worst Screen Couple.”
She must have a shelf full of those Golden Raspberries. Now that might be a “shelfie” worth taking!
21. Write Away!
Paris Hilton has co-written two autobiographies with Merle Ginsberg. The first one was titled Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose and it reached The New York Times bestseller list. The second one was published the next year and was titled Your Heiress Diary: Confess it All to Me. While it may not have made it to the bestseller list, it still has a 3.6 rating on Goodreads.
22. The DJ Life
Hilton started DJing in 2012 at a Brazilian music festival. Although other DJs criticized her performance, she went on to become one of the most popular celebrity DJs, holding club residencies all over the world. Clearly there is no doing things by half measures in Hilton’s book.
23. DJ Famous
Not only did Hilton win two NJR DJ awards for “Best Breakthrough DJ” and “Best Female DJ,” as of 2014 she was also the highest-paid female DJ. Way to go, Paris!
24. Reality Check
The Simple Life premiered to a grand total of 13 million viewers. That is more than the highest ratings of The Hills and Keeping up with the Kardashians together. One of the original reality shows, it inspired many others to follow suit.
25. The Façade is (Not) Real
Hilton played a stereotypical “dumb blonde” on The Simple Life. She said that was how it had been described to her, as “Green Acres meets Clueless.” She was happy with it at the time because she was having fun and “was in on the joke.” However, she found the image difficult to shake off later when she wanted to be taken seriously as a businesswoman and entrepreneur.
26. Paris IRL
Emmy award-winning director Alexandra Dean has made a documentary on Hilton’s life. Dean initially turned down the offer to direct the movie, thinking there wasn’t much she didn’t know about Hilton, having seen her on magazines and tabloids all the time. However, she agreed to do the project when she heard a heartbreaking story about the heiress. Hilton was very nervous about making this film herself because it was very raw and emotional.
She decided to do it because she wanted to “pull the curtain back” and “talk about things that are very hard to talk about and things…never discussed before.” The documentary is titled This is Paris and releases in May 2020.
27. A Model Career
Hilton began her modeling career in her adult years by posing for famous photographer and director David LaChapelle with sister Nicky. He enjoyed photographing her and said, “Paris had a charisma back then that you couldn’t take your eyes off.” She started appearing on the covers of many magazines like Tatler (UK), Giola (Italy), and FHM (US). She modeled in campaigns for Dior and Hilfiger and has recently modeled for Kanye West’s “Yeezy” collection.
28. Korean Favorite
Hilton certainly has fans in South Korea. In 2012, she appeared in a music video for a song by Kim Jang Hoon, a Korean pop star. The video earned her US$1 million, which is a pretty sweet deal, considering the shoot only took two days. In 2019, she launched her skincare line ProD.N.A. in South Korea. She was keen to get in the Korean market because “they just love skincare.”
She was happy as she felt “it’s going to be a huge success because everybody is already loving it so much.”
29. Love and Hate in the Time of Controversy
Hilton is considered a gay icon, a status that makes her grateful for her fans. However, there was a backlash when an audio recording of hers was leaked in 2012, in which she was heard making some “derogatory” remarks about the community. She apologized immediately through GLAAD and said she was a “huge supporter” and considered gay people “the strongest and most inspiring people” she knew.
The remarks led Logo TV to cancel plans of airing a documentary on her. Opinions change with time though, and in 2018 Gay Times featured her on its cover and called her an “ally” who “uses her platform as an advocate for minority groups.”
30. Not Without my Sister
Paris Hilton has a very close relationship with her sister, who she calls “her best friend.” She trusts her opinion completely and says that though they’re unlike each other they’re very close. It’s a good thing Nicky is nothing like her sister, I don’t think the world could handle another Paris!
31. Foot Long
If there is one thing Hilton would change about her body, it’s her feet. Since she’s a size 11, she feels she can only wear high heels, as tennis shoes and ballet flats would look like “canoes.”
32. Celebutante
Hilton has been called a “celebutante,” which means that she is famous because of her celebrity lifestyle and not because of any particular talent or skill.
33. Best Friend Forever
Since we can’t seem to get enough reality TV, Hilton started a new show in 2008 titled Paris Hilton’s My New BFF. The show ran for two seasons in the US, and there was later a UK and UAE version as well. Supposedly, Hilton had planned to do a showdown of sorts, with winner “BFFs” from all shows competing against each other, but the idea was scrapped when she declared, “I’ve really grown up and the show…was really fun, but…I feel like I’ve moved on from that show.”
34. Rules of Engagement
In 2018, Paris Hilton got engaged to boyfriend Chris Zylka when he proposed to her on a skiing trip in Colorado. Zylka had previously had his lady love’s name tattooed on his arm in Disney font as well and sealed the deal with a $2 million ring. If it sounds like it’s too good to be true, it’s because, unfortunately, it was.
35. Happiness Can Wait
The lovebirds called off their engagement after just a year. Reportedly, they felt things were not working out and perhaps their hectic work schedules had some part to play in the breakup as well. Both stars seem to have moved on, and Zylka recently got the “Paris” on his arm covered up by a gorilla tattoo. Ouch. That seems to be a pretty clear message that he’s done here.
36. Influencers Unite
Kendall Jenner copied Hilton’s 21st birthday party dress for her own 21st birthday. Hilton said she was extremely flattered that Jenner had loved her dress so much that she had got it made for herself. Jenner posted a picture on Instagram with the caption “Paris Hilton vibes,” which Hilton also thought was “really sweet.”
37. Trademarked Phrase
Next time you say, “that’s hot,” please know that you are using a copyrighted Paris Hilton phrase. She trademarked it for use on all her products.
38. Character in Video Game
A Hilton-inspired character was created for a multi-player online game, World of Warcraft. The character was a socialite named “Haris Pilton.”
39. Virtual Fun
Paris Hilton loves virtual reality and can spend hours on games. “When you put it on, it’s like you’re in another world. And when you take it off, it’s weird to be back in reality.”
40. Too Many Cooks?
Hilton recently shared a cooking video on Youtube with her fans. The general public panned the video. They could not get over the fact that Hilton was cooking with “fingerless gloves,” with her hair flying about. Throughout the video, Hilton did not seem to know what she was doing, and she made the whole cooking process seem like an exercise in torment rather than something fun that she loves to do.
That said, I bet the people who took it seriously didn’t get the “this persona is a character” memo.
41. The Ancestors
Hilton comes from Norwegian, German, Italian, Irish and English ancestry. What? You don’t have ancestors from five different countries?
42. Family Act
It isn’t hard to see why Hilton thought she could act. There have been quite a few actors in her family. She is related to both Elizabeth Taylor and Zsa Zsa Gabor by marriage. Taylor married her great uncle Conrad Nicholson Hilton, and Gabor married her great-grandfather, Conrad Hilton. Hilton’s mother had also been an actor before she married.
43. Modeling No-No
Although it might seem unbelievable when remembering the tape that made her famous, Hilton refuses to pose for bare-it-all pictures.
44. Car Connoisseur
Apart from her other interests, Hilton loves cars. She has many supercars and luxury cars in her garage. Her favorite supercar to drive is the LFA, and one of her favorite luxury cars is a pink Bentley Continental GT. She also adores SUVs drives around a Land Rover and a GMC Yukon Hybrid.
45. Couture Queen
Hilton made Juicy Couture tracksuits all the rage when she began wearing them in the early 2000s. She asked her friend Lara Shriftman, former Juicy Couture publicist, to send her the entire collection and Shriftman obliged. She would wear them everywhere and would even customize them by gluing on crystals. The rest of the world noticed, and Juicy Couture tracksuits became a popular trend.
46. Out of the Frying Pan...
In 2006, Hilton found herself in trouble with the law after driving while drinking. Officers suspended her license, and she then spent 23 days in the slammer after driving on that suspended license. She remembers it all as a “traumatic experience.” However, she said it gave her a “new outlook on life” and time to get to know herself better.
47. Japanese Drama
In 2010, authorities caught Hilton with cocaine. She plead guilty and got one year of probation. You might think that was it (and so did she), but alas, her nightmare wasn’t over. Authorities later stopped her and her sister Nicky at Narita airport because of the conviction. They had to spend the night at the airport and went back to the US the next day after Japan denied them entry.
48. Stalkers
Scarily, but perhaps not surprisingly, Hilton has had some crazy stalker experiences. These include someone who hacked her credit cards and emails, a drunk man (covered in tattoos of her) outside her gate, one “obsessed fan” flying a plane over Malibu with banners declaring his love, and perhaps worst of all, a man caught with knives outside of her home.
49. A Trump Tale
Hilton has known the POTUS since she was very young and has always claimed to like him. However, she was in Mexico during the 2016 elections, so she does not claim to have voted for him. She also came under fire for some comments that seemed to imply she was questioning the statements of the women who had accused Trump of harassment and assault.
She clarified her stance later, saying she did not mean to undermine any of those women for their claims.
50. Music
Hilton is an excellent pianist and can also play the violin. She started playing the piano when she was five and the violin when she was 11. She played in piano recitals every month and was in the orchestra as a violinist.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35