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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Lizzie Edmonds

Paris Hilton reveals Princess Diana is her ‘idol’ while expressing sympathy for Prince Harry

Paris Hilton has said Princess Diana is one of her “idols” while drawing parallels between her life and Prince Harry’s.

The socialite, 42, spoke to Magic Radio Breakfast presenter Harriet Scott about her autobiography Paris: The Memoir.

She suggested she was a big fan of the British royal family, and in particular the late Princess Diana.

Ms Hilton compared her book to Prince Harry’s autobiography Spare and said she “knew how hard” being famous could be.

Speaking about Spare, the Hilton heiress said: “I did read it and I watched the series as well and I thought he has been through so much.

“I can’t imagine just losing my mum and Princess Diana was always one of my idols.

“It just breaks my heart they had to go through that and I know how it is with the media it can be so hard when they are just invading your lives constantly and he has had that his entire life.”

Hilton recently welcomed a son, Pheonix Barron, with her husband Carter Reum via surrogate.

Paris Hilton arrives for the Versace Fall/Winter 2023 fashion show earlier this month (AFP via Getty Images)

The star revealed loved motherhood - and had already planned her daughter’s name should she have another child.

“I’ve been planning my children’s names for years and years, so I want to name my daughter London,” she said.

“I was trying to think of a boy’s name that was a city as well and Phoenix is just a beautiful name, I love the meaning behind it as well, so I thought it was the perfect name for my baby boy.”

Hilton shot to fame after starring in reality show The Simple Life with childhood friend, socialite Nicole Richie.

The star said she would portray herself as a Barbie-like character in the show and in public because she is actuall “very shy” and was hiding her true self due to a trauma in her teens.

She has previously spoken about being drugged and raped aged 15.

Hilton told the show: “I think a lot of that character stems back to being a teenager and a trauma response and developing this kind of Barbie perfect life, so I wouldn’t have to think about what I went through.

“And then getting the Simple Life, it got magnified to the whole world where I had to continue playing that character year after year, and then I kind of just got stuck in it...

“I am very shy, people don’t know that about me. I am such a naturally shy person so when I play the character it’s like I am someone else and I don’t get as shy.”

In her memoir Hilton also writes about being left in tears after she appeared on the cover of Playboy in photos she hadn’t given the publication permission to use.

She said Playboy founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner offered her a seven-figure sum to star in the magazine.

But Hilton claimed she turned the opportunity down as she was worried about her reputation following her infamous sex tape scandal.

She recalled how the late editor-in-chief offered her “more and more money” to star, promising her: “I wouldn’t have to be totally naked, just topless. And then saying, I didn’t have to be topless, just sheer. And then saying I could wear whatever lingerie I wanted.”

Hilton went on: “Even when he offered seven figures, I turned it down, because I knew my mom would lose her mind, and because I had already been branded as a s**t after the sex tape. I felt like a Playboy pictorial would just cement that in people’s minds.”

But just four years later in 2005, Hilton did feature on Playboy’s front cover under the guise of her winning Sex Star of the Year Award. The magazine used a picture from an “old test shoot” taken by a female photographer for the image. The nature of the feature meant the magazine could claim her appearance was “news” and not a “pictorial” shoot.

In the wake of the cover, Paris recalled that her mother Kathy and father Richard were “p****d” – adding she “cried” at seeing it.

She said she didn’t confront Hefner – because at the time “you just didn’t do that.”

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