Paris Hilton has opened up about her alleged experience of sexual abuse at a boarding school, and claims male staff members performed ‘cervical exams’ on her in the middle of the night.
The socialite, 41, first came forward with her alleged incidents of physical and mental abuse in 2020 with the release of her YouTube documentary This Is Paris.
Hilton attended the Provo Canyon School for 11 months in the 1990s and said she felt like a ‘prisoner’ after being sent there – and to several other boarding schools – by her parents Rick and Kathy Hilton for her rebellious teenage antics.
The Simple Life star has now shared more of her alleged experiences at the school in hopes of preventing other children from being subjected to abuse.
‘Very late at night – this would be around three or four in the morning – they would take myself and other girls into this room, and they would perform medical exams,’ Hilton said in an emotional video for The New York Times.
‘This wasn’t even with a doctor. It was with a couple different staff members, where they would have us lay on the table and put their fingers inside of us. And I don’t know what they were doing, but it was definitely not a doctor and it was really scary.’
She added: ‘It was really scary, and it’s something that I really had blocked out for many years. But it’s coming back all the time now, and I think about it. And now, looking back as an adult, that was definitely sexual abuse.’
Hilton detailed the alleged abuse further in a Twitter thread, and said she was ‘sleep-deprived and heavily-medicated’ after being woken up in the middle of the night by the staff.
‘I didn’t understand what was happening,’ she wrote. ‘I was forced to lie on a padded table, spread my legs & submit to cervical exams. I cried while they held me down & said, “No!” They just said, “Shut up. Be quiet. Stop struggling or you’ll go to Obs”.
‘This was a recurring experience not only for me but for other #survivors. I was violated & I am crying as I type this because no one, especially a child, should be sexually abused. My childhood was stolen from me & it kills me this is still happening to other innocent children.’
Hilton added: ‘It’s important to open up about these painful moments so I can heal & help put an end to this abuse. Watch the @NYTimes video that shares my story & deeply disturbing information about Provo Canyon School’s owners Universal Health Services. Help me #ShutDownProvo #UHSTakeAction.’
After Hilton’s allegations in 2020, the boarding school released a statement which said: ‘Provo Canyon School was sold by its previous ownership in August 2000. We therefore cannot comment on the operations or patient experience prior to that time.
‘What we can say is that the school provides a structured environment teaching life-skills, providing behavioural health therapy, and continuing education for youth who come to us with pre-existing and complex emotional, behavioUral and psychiatric needs.
‘These youth have not been successful in typical home and school environments, and in many cases have a history of engaging in dangerous behaviors such as self-harming and/or attempting suicide, physical violence and/or aggression toward others, and use of illicit substances.
‘While we acknowledge there are individuals over the many years who believe they were not helped by the program, we are heartened by the many stories former residents share about how their stay was a pivot point in improving – and in many cases, saving – their lives.’
You can read this post on My Celebrity Life.