In 2004, a sex tape featuring Paris Hilton was released and the heiress’ world was turned upside down – the celeb has since gone on to admit that it sent her into depression

Paris Hilton was the victim of a sex tape scandal back in the early 2000s after her ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon released a short video showing the socialite engaging in a sexual act.

In the years that followed, Paris faced scrutiny from the media and critics after the highly publicised video circulated and the celeb was left totally traumatised by the whole ordeal. Since then, Hilton has spoken out against Salomon and shared her side of the story, most recently in her tell-all memoir Paris: The Memoir.

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Find out more about how the leak affected Paris, her life, career and the way her family saw her as they tried to sort “damage control” amid the widely reported scandal that almost tore the heiress apart.

In her memoir, Hilton also admitted that she “felt like her life was over” and that due to the leak, “the career she envisioned was no longer possible”. She continued: “Everything I wanted my brand to be, the trust and respect I was trying to rebuild with my parents, the sliver of self worth I’d been able to recover. All that was instantly in ruins.”

Paris recalled how her parents took the news – her mother “just crumpled into bed” while her father was “red-faced and furious” while “calling lawyers” to “try and help her marshal any hope of damage control”. Her brothers Barron and Conrad were “plenty old enough to understand what it all meant” and her siblings were “so weirded out they could hardly look at her”.

Throughout the 2000s and beyond, Paris became known for her sex symbol status.

The blonde bombshell was synonymous with short skirts, sparkles and a sassy attitude which made her a hit with both girls and boys alike. However, behind the scenes was not all that it seems – at one point, the heiress began questioning her sexuality.

In 2023, Hilton told Harper’s Bazaar that she was “terrified” of her link to the promiscuous title and even gave herself a nickname that teased her nature.

She told the publication: “I was known as a sex symbol, but anything sexual terrified me. 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 [….] It wasn’t until Carter [Reum] that I finally am not that way. I enjoy hooking up with my husband!”

In a sweet quip about her partner in crime, Hilton said that “after the hell she’s been through” she “finally has what she deserves,” which is “someone she can trust and build a real life with”.