Paris Hilton’s New Memoir Narrates Her Horrific Sexual Abuse Experience In A “Tough Love” Boarding School As A Teenager
On March 4, The Times published an excerpt of Paris Hilton’s latest memoir, which details the horrifying sexual abuse the heiress suffered as a teenager in Provo Canyon School, Utah.
In the self-titled memoir released on March 4, the media personality gives a detailed account of her suffering and ordeals during her time in a “tough love” boarding school. She reflects on enduring rape, sexual harassment, being drugged, and being bullied by her teachers.
“I swallowed the pills and stared at the wall with the flawless mask of a runway model. Whatever they were giving me made me feel like my head was disconnected from my body,” she narrates in the book.
Paris points out that the pills scared her, causing her to learn the coping mechanism of tucking “the capsules inside my lower lip and waited for an opportunity to spit them out.”
Going further, she revealed that the staff at the boarding school had a preference for “pretty girls,” however, she didn’t think the abuse was all about being pretty.”
During a recent interview with TalkShopLive to promote her newly released book, the Simple Life star pointed out that the purpose of narrating her gruesome experience while at Provo is to inform her readers that “anything is possible” and that so “it may help other teen girls.”
Paris had rebellious teenage years of sneaking out to nightclubs at 15, forcing her parents, Ricky and Kathy Hilton, to send her to a “therapeutic” boarding school to help control her behavior. Between the ages of 15 to 18, she attended four different boarding schools. The fourth came after her parents tracked her down in New York, where she lived under the pseudonym Amber Taylor.
Addressing her traumatic experience at Provo, she tells TalkShopLive, “I want anyone to know who has been through what I’ve been through in the troubled teen industry at these types of —I don’t even want to call them school — these hellholes.”
Paris, who reminds her readers that they are not their trauma and that they can channel trauma into positive work, led a protest calling for the shutdown of Provo Canyon in 2020. The school reacted on its website, stating that it is no longer operating with the management it had in 2000. It noted that “therefore cannot comment on the operations or patient experience prior to that time.”
In January 2022, Paris started a docu-style podcast, Trapped in Treatment, in which she “examines and exposes the dark secrets of the ‘Troubled Teen Industry.’” The debut episode was about her Provo Canyon experience.
