In an new profile with Harper’s Bazaar, Paris Hilton opened up about her sexuality in a way that might shock those who had viewed her as a sex symbol for years. In spite of how people viewed her, she revealed that she began thinking of herself as asexual in her 20s because the sexual stuff actually frightened her. This may be related to extremely negative and traumatizing early experiences that she’s spoken of in the past.
“I was known as a sex symbol, but anything sexual terrified me,” she said. “I called myself the ‘kissing bandit’ because I only liked to make out. A lot of my relationships didn’t work out because of that.”
Things finally changed after she met her current husband, entrepreneur Carter Reum, in 2020. After years of dating celebrities and finding that her relationships would end due to her fears around sexual contact, she found someone different who made her feel safe.
“He’s not famous. He’s smart. He comes from a nice family He’s a good person,” she told Harper’s. “It was the opposite of what I had been used to when I was looking for guys.”
What Hilton may have thought was asexuality, which is defined as a lack of sexual attraction rather than an aversion to sex, might have instead been the result of repeated sexual trauma. In 2022, Hilton revealed that the staff at the boarding school she was sent to at age 16, Provo Canyon School, would drug and sexually assault her and many other girls under the guise of mandatory “cervical exams” in the middle of the night.
She further alleged physical, psychological, and emotional abuse committed by the staff against the students, often in the form of extreme punishments such as solitary confinement.
Additionally, Hilton said the year before that the release of the infamous sex tape with ex Rick Salomon without her consent resulted in PTSD.
“That will always be something that will hurt me for the rest of my life,” she told Vanity Fair reporters. “When it happened, people were so mean about it to me. The way that I was spoken about on nightly talk shows and the media, to see things with my family was just heartbreaking.”
With these early experiences, it’s no surprise that she was terrified of overt sexual contact for so many years. However, with Reum, she says she can now enjoy the act and no longer thinks of herself as asexual.
“It wasn’t until Carter that I finally am not that way. I enjoy hooking up with my husband.”
Hilton and Reum were married in November of 2021 and soon had a child together via surrogacy. She’s also finding comfort in a more private and less fast-paced life, and is happy that motherhood is causing people to view her as something more than a sex symbol. It’s almost as though she’s a real person.
“It’s a good feeling to be real. To not feel like some cartoon character all the time. It’s a really good feeling.”
Commenters appear to be appreciating this new, more real Paris Hilton and are glad that she’s taking ownership of herself after going through so much, and nevermind the haters.
