Paris Hilton: Born on February 17, 1981, Paris Whitney Hilton is an American media personality, entrepreneur, model, actor, singer, DJ, and socialite. Hilton is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the man who started Hilton Hotels and was born and reared in New York City and Beverly Hills, California. When she established herself as a fixture in New York City’s social scene in the late 1990s and began modeling at age 19, joining Donald Trump’s firm Trump Model Management, she initially came to the attention of tabloids.
Hilton was dubbed “New York’s leading It Girl” in 2001 after David LaChapelle photographed her and her sister Nicky for the September 2000 issue of Vanity Fair. She rose to popularity thanks to the reality TV show The Simple Life (2003–2007), in which she co-starred with her friend Nicole Richie, and a leaked sex tape from 2001 with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, eventually made public as 1 Night in Paris (2004).
In addition to releasing her self-titled debut studio album, Paris (2006), Hilton also published her first book, Confessions of an Heiress (2004), which became a New York Times Best Seller. She also landed her first significant acting role in the horror remake House of Wax (2005) and the hit single “Stars Are Blind.”
Her subsequent media projects include the documentaries Paris, Not France (2008), The American Meme (2018), and This Is Paris (2020), as well as her podcast, This is Paris (2021-present), on iHeartRadio. She also created the reality television series Paris Hilton’s My New BFF (2008-2011), Cooking with Paris (2021), and Paris in Love (2021-2022). She has performed as a disc jockey, recorded a line of stand-alone singles, and acted in Hollywood movies and television shows.
Hilton, a divisive and much-mocked celebrity, is credited with helping to revive the “famous for being famous” phenomena throughout the 2000s and was, for a while, one of the most well-known public people worldwide. She was listed as the Most Overrated Celebrity in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2007, and in 2006 and 2008, she was listed as the Most Overexposed Celebrity by Forbes.
Critics claim that she is a prime example of the celebutante, someone who became well-known through inherited wealth and an opulent lifestyle rather than through skill or hard work. Hilton has successfully tapped on her media stardom to launch various businesses. She has established 19 product lines, opened 45 boutiques worldwide, generated material for broadcast media, and opened an urban beach club in the Philippines under her firm. Over US$2.5 billion in sales have been caused by her perfume brand alone.
What Is Paris Hilton’s Early Life?
Richard Hilton, a businessman, and Kathy Hilton, a socialite and former child actress, welcomed Hilton on February 17, 1981, in New York City. She is the oldest of four children; her siblings are Barron Hilton II and Conrad Hughes Hilton, and she has one sister named Nicky Hilton. Her maternal aunts are the television celebrities Kim and Kyle Richards, and her paternal great-grandfather Conrad Hilton created Hilton Hotels. Hilton is descended from Norwegian, German, Italian, English, Scottish, and Irish people. The family was a practicing Catholic.
In her early years, Hilton moved about a lot, residing in Beverly Hills, the Hamptons, and a Manhattan room at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Her family members characterized her as “very much a tomboy” with aspirations of becoming a veterinarian. Her mother recalled an instance where a young Paris “left the snake out the cage at the Waldorf” and claimed she would save up her money to buy monkeys, snakes, and goats. Hilton’s parents were rigorous and forbade her from dating, wearing specific clothing or make-up, or attending school dances.
She was raised in a very “sheltered, traditional” environment. Hilton initially hesitated to enroll in etiquette classes because she did not think it was “genuine” or “natural” for her mother to introduce her as a debutante. “Extremely proper, very prim, almost like a Stepford wife,” was how she characterized it. Lionel Richie, Donald Trump, and Michael Jackson were among the people in the family’s social circle.
Hilton attended St. Paul the Apostle School and the Buckley School while growing up in Los Angeles, completing elementary school in 1995. Her first year of high school was spent at Rancho Mirage’s Marywood-Palm Valley School. Hilton and her family moved to the East Coast from California in 1996. She enrolled in Professional Children’s School when she was fifteen. While in high school, she participated in ice hockey and skating.
During his formative years in New York City, Hilton was a disobedient young man who frequently “skipped school” and “sneaked out at night” to attend parties. When reflecting on this time, Kathy, a mother who often contacted the New York Post to learn where her daughter was, said: “Put, everything spiraled out of hand, and I was terrified for her. Additionally, my husband was terrified of her. Additionally, those clubs are open all night long.” She claims that the staff at Provo Canyon School, where she was eventually placed when she was 16, mistreated her mentally and physically. Her parents subsequently sent her to several boarding schools for emotionally challenged teenagers.
In her documentary This Is Paris, Paris Hilton and several former students from Provo Canyon School describe their mistreatment, including being detained, hit, strangled, and forced to take medication. After 11 months at Provo, she was discharged in 1999 when she became 18 years old. She enrolled in the Dwight School after that but left a few months later. “She had no friends at [Dwight], according to her mother in an interview, who also characterized her as “kind of more sophisticated.” She was unique compared to everyone else. ” Later, she obtained a GED diploma.
Who Is Paris Hilton’s Grandfather?
Conrad Hilton, the great-grandfather of Paris Hilton, is regarded as the creator of the Hilton dynasty. He was one of seven children and the son of Norwegian immigrants. His father had a grocery shop in New Mexico, and he learned the business from him. After serving in France during World War I, he traveled back to the US and opened his first hotel in Texas.
Because it was so popular, he had to repurpose the dining rooms into more bedrooms. He later purchased the renowned Waldorf Astoria in New York for $3 million after he continued to buy hotels throughout the state and then the country. He married Mary Adelaide Barron, with whom he had three children (Conrad Jr., William Barron, and Eric Michael), Zsa Zsa Gabor, a Hollywood actress, with whom he had one daughter (Constance Francesca Hilton Gabor), and Mary Frances Kelly, his third wife.
One of the wealthiest men in the US, when he passed away in 1979, he left his two living sons, William and Eric, and his daughter Constance merely $500,000 and $100,000, respectively, with the remainder going to his name-brand charitable organization. ‘Charity is a supreme virtue, and the primary channel through which the mercy of God is conveyed onto mankind,’ he reportedly stated in his will, according to the New York Times.
I am deeply saddened by the loss of my grandfather Barron Hilton. He was a Legend, a visionary, brilliant, handsome, kind and lived a life full of accomplishment and adventure. Ever since I was a little girl I have looked up to him as a businessman. pic.twitter.com/eGFXAz1LUr
— ParisHilton (@ParisHilton) September 20, 2019
What Was Conard Hilton’s Early Life?
Mary Adelaide and Conrad Nicholson Hilton, the creator of Hilton Hotels, welcomed Conard Hilton into the world in Dallas, Texas. Conrad Nicholson Hilton, Jr., Eric Michael Hilton, and Constance Francesca Hilton were Hilton’s three siblings. His mother was from Kentucky, while his father was from New Mexico and was of Norwegian and German ancestry.
He was a photographer for the Navy during World War II. As a child, Hilton was always interested in flying and began learning to fly at 17. He attended the University of Southern California Aeronautical School after being discharged from the military, where he attained his twin-engine rating at 19.