Paris Hilton is clapping back more than two decades after her infamous leaked sex tape made headlines around the world in 2004.
The Simple Life alum, who was a teenager at the time the intimate video was filmed, spoke candidly to reporters on Thursday, January 22 in Washington D.C. about the effect the “cruel” experience had on her at the time, per multiple media reports.
“When I was 19 years old, a private, intimate video of me was shared with the world without my consent,” Hilton, now 44, said while advocating for the Disrupt Explicit Forged Images and Non-Consensual Edits Act, or DEFIANCE Act.
She continued, “People called it a scandal. It wasn’t. It was abuse. There were no laws at the time to protect me. There weren’t even words for what had been done to me. The internet was still new, and so was the cruelty that came with it.”
Hilton detailed the reality of dealing with the aftermath of the leaked video, which also featured her ex, Rick Salomon — particularly in that era, when there was little sympathy for her predicament. Instead of being treated with concern, Hilton became a laughing stock because of the sex tape incident.
“They called me names. They laughed and made me the punchline. They sold my pain for clicks, and then they told me to be quiet, to move on, to even be grateful for the attention,” Hilton said.
She added, “These people didn’t see me as a young woman who had been exploited. They didn’t see the panic that I felt, the humiliation or the shame. No one asked me what I lost — I lost control over my body, over my reputation. My sense of safety and self-worth was stolen from me.”
Paris Hilton. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Hilton added that she was throwing her support behind the bill as generative AI and deepfake technology has added new challenges around consent and women’s bodies on the internet.
“I believed that the worst was behind me, but it wasn’t,” Hilton continued. “What happened to me then is happening now to millions of women and girls in a new and more terrifying way. Before, someone had to betray your trust and steal something real. Now all it takes is a computer and a stranger’s imagination. Deepfake pornography has become an epidemic.”
In Paris: The Memoir, which was released in March 2023, Hilton further shared her memories of making the tape with Salomon, 57.
“I don’t remember that much about the night he wanted to make a video tape while we made love. He had often said it was something he did with other women, but I felt weird and uncomfortable about it,” she wrote, adding that she was worried the older Salomon might leave her if she didn’t acquiesce to the request. (Hilton and Salomon had a 13-year age gap.)
Hilton added that she was under the influence at the time that the footage was created.
“I wasn’t capable of the level of trust required to make a videotape like that. I had to drink myself silly. Quaaludes helped,” she wrote. “But I did it. I have to own that. I knew what he wanted, and I went with it. … I needed to prove something to him and to myself, so I got hammered, and I did it.”
The tape was released after the couple split and Hilton said she was shocked and ashamed when she discovered it had been shared.
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