We’ll always have Paris
Reality-TV pioneer services her empire and craves her own family
Before Keeping Up with the Kardashians, there was The Simple Life, the reality show starring Paris Hilton and her friend Nicole Richie that ran from 2003 to 2007. There was also an infamous sex tape that leaked online around the same time The Simple Life began. By strange coincidence, a sex tape of Kim Kardashian was made public in 2007, not long before her reality show started. The great-granddaughter of hotelier Conrad Hilton is on the phone from Ibiza, Spain, where she is doing a summer residency as a DJ at Amnesia nightclub for the fifth year running. While we were all laughing at the socialite’s caricature of richkid laziness and excess, Hilton was busy building an insanely profitable brand, encompassing property, fragrances and event-hosting (Hilton is one of the highest-paid celebrity DJs in the world). She’s also about to release a single, Summer Reign, and has a new TV project in the works.
“I’m not allowed to say that much about it yet, but it’s a very innovative idea — and not a reality-TV show,” she says. “I haven’t watched any reality shows since Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (an American series that ran from 2012 to 2014), because it’s all so scripted and fake now, which isn’t interesting to me.”
It’s easy to see this as a dig at the Kardashians, but Hilton seems genuinely pleased about her old friend’s success.
“Kim never asked me for advice; our friendship wasn’t like that. We were always together experiencing life, and anyway that whole family are geniuses when it comes to building a brand. They never needed any advice; they know exactly what they’re doing.”
The difference in their route to fame as Hilton, 36, points out, is that “I did it all on my own” — without the aid of Instagram, Twitter or any of the other social media that has become so key when turning yourself into a brand.
“I also had no manager, no publicist, no stylist,” she says. “Now all kids need to sell themselves is a phone. But I do like that it gives people coming from obscurity a chance to make a name for themselves, and although I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, there are some, I know, will always stick around.”
Hilton is in awe of how childhood friend Ivanka Trump is dealing with the hostility she gets as the daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump.
“She must be going through such a lot right now. I can’t even imagine the pressure. But she’s doing so well and she’s such a savvy businesswoman and a great mother.”
She admires Kardashian’s defiance, too. “I love how she deals with all those trolls. Kim’s a brilliant woman. She’s super-confident and she doesn’t worry about what anyone says about her, which I think is empowering to other women.”
Where Hilton will confess to a certain pride is when it comes to the new generation of models and It girls who see her as an icon. When she turned 21, supermodel Kendall Jenner paid homage to Hilton by recreating her famous coming-of-age metal mesh mini dress. “And I loved that!” she says. “I’ve known the Jenners and the Hadids (Bella and Gigi) for such a long time.”
When told how funny it is to see her in this matriarchal role — for so long, she seemed to epitomize carefree youth, and she still looks about 20 — Hilton grows serious. “I can’t wait to start a family. I’m so excited about it. I’ve had so much fun in my life, but now that I’ve built this incredible business and I’m really in love, I’m ready for the next step.”
The man with whom she wants to take it is boyfriend, Chris Zylka, the 32-year-old actor who stars in the TV drama series The Leftovers.
“We’ve only been together nine months but it feels like 10 lifetimes. He’s really changed my life.”
Her younger sister, Nicky, married British businessman James Rothschild in 2015, and spending time with her one-year-old niece, Lily-Grace, has made the elder Hilton sister consider the kind of mother she would like to be.
“I’m going to be a very hands-on, very strict mom. My parents (socialite Kathy Hilton and businessman Richard Hilton) were never very strict, but when I see the way young girls go out nowadays, it makes me really scared. I don’t want my kids doing that.”
She’s equally wary of social media. “If I had a girl … it’s so much pressure. And young girls don’t understand there’s such a lot of Photoshopping and that women they’re looking up to don’t even look like that — so it only makes them feel sad and insecure.”