Paris: The Memoir

Kathy and Rick Hilton are Paris Hilton’s parents. Kathy is a strong influence in her girls’ lives. She has strict expectations for them, wanting them to represent the Hilton name proudly. She sends them to etiquette classes, and she does not want them to model. Kathy’s own mother would not let her model for Playboy when she was younger, and she, in turn, does not want Hilton to model for the magazine.

Kathy has difficult feelings about Hilton’s time at the residential camps. Even though Hilton tried to get her mother to take her away from the facilities, her mother never did. She maintains that she believed that the homes were the best place for her and that they were necessary to save her life. Hilton acknowledges how hard it must have been for her parents when she would run away and her parents would not know where she was. Kathy says that she toured the facilities before sending her daughter to them, but she never saw the isolation rooms or the other indicators of abuse. She believed Hilton would graduate from the schools with a diploma. Kathy expresses regret for her daughter’s pain once she learns what truly happened to Hilton while she was locked away.

Rick Hilton is a business mentor to Hilton. He is not described in as much detail in the memoir as his wife is. Hilton maintains that fathers and daughters often have difficult relationships, and this is the case with her father. She particularly cites the movie Repo! The Genetic Opera as a film that helped her come to terms with her complex relationship with her father. When he comes into a restaurant to get her and take her back to a residential facility after she escapes, she does not go gently and kicks and screams. He is a successful businessman, however, and he gives her solid advice as an adult.

Nicky Hilton and Nicole Richie are two of Hilton’s closest confidantes in her adolescence. Hilton talks about fun times she had with her sister while they lived at the Waldorf. As the two grow up, Hilton says that Nicky became a tattle-tale. While Nicky would sometimes go out to clubs with Hilton, Nicky was more concerned with her studies than Hilton was and would not go out on weeknights. The two desire modeling careers and work together to acquire modeling jobs without their mother knowing. While Hilton is two years older than Nicky, when Hilton is released from Provo, she feels like the younger sister. Nicky is very protective of Hilton during this time. The fact that Hilton never told Nicky about what happened at the residential treatment programs demonstrates how secretive Hilton was about what happened to her. She says that she told Nicky everything in life except about the trauma she experienced. Nicky had also never been told the truth about where her sister was when she was away.

Nicole Richie is Hilton’s partner in crime in many ways. The two get into trouble together when they are younger, and in an attempt to keep Hilton out of trouble after Nicole and Hilton sneak out of their hotel room in Las Vegas, the two are no longer allowed to talk to each other. They have a strong pull toward one another, however, and scream to each other from their balconies. One of the bad parts about Hilton getting kicked out of traditional school is that Nicole remained at school.

Originally, the producers of The Simple Life wanted Nicky to partner with Hilton on the show. Nicky believes she will be humiliated on the show, and she wants to protect her reputation, so she turns it down. Hilton immediately turns to Nicole as her partner on the show. The two develop characters: Hilton is the blonde ditz, and Nicole is the trouble maker. They are depicted as young people who came from privilege and are first encountering the real world. They achieve fame together through this show. The two remain friends.

Carter Reum is Paris Hilton’s husband. He does not play a large role in Hilton’s memoir because much of the book centers around the years before Hilton knew Carter. She depicts their relationship as one of hope. One reason this relationship is different from others she was in is because it is built upon her disclosure of the whole truth about herself. None of her previous partners knew what happened to her while she was in the residential facilities, and so there was always a secret between Hilton and her romantic interests. She tells Carter what happened to her from the beginning, helping to establish a more open relationship between them.

When Carter learns that Hilton has ADHD, he does all he can to learn about it. Hilton considers this a very loving act. It proves that he tries to understand Hilton and all aspects of her. It is with Carter that she finds a doctor who gets her medication that helps her. As the memoir ends, Carter and Hilton are expecting a baby. This hopeful ending supports Hilton’s growth and acceptance of her past.