Paris Hilton and Carter Reum welcomed their first child together last month — but the socialite says she almost entered motherhood over 20 years ago.
During a recent interview with Glamour, the 42-year-old revealed she had an abortion in her early 20s but didn’t feel comfortable talking about it at the time.
“This was also something that I didn’t want to talk about because there was so much shame around that,” she said. “I was a kid and I was not ready for that.”
While Hilton has kept the secret for decades, it wasn’t until Roe v Wade was overturned last year that she felt the need to speak out on the matter.
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“I think it is important,” she says. “There’s just so much politics around it and all that, but it’s a woman’s body … Why should there be a law based on that?”
She continued, “It’s your body, your choice and I really believe in that. It’s mind-boggling to me that they’re making laws about what you do with your reproductive health, because if it were the other way around with the guys, it would not be this way at all.”
Although Hilton is primarily known for her role in “The Simple Life” and her self-described “dumb blonde persona,” the socialite has since become an activist against institutionalized child abuse.
From 16 to 18, Hilton moved around from different behavioral modification programs — specifically the Provo Canyon school in Utah — where she was sexually, physically and emotionally abused.
She detailed the experience in her 2020 documentary “This Is Paris” and went on to work with lawmakers to push through legislation, such as the “Troubled Teen” Industry Law — known as SB127.
While Hilton has been able to use her pain to help others, the trauma still impacts her day-to-day life.
In fact, the hotel heiress says she decided to have her son, Phoenix, via surrogacy because she feared pregnancy would bring back all the bad memories.
“I’m just so scared, I think, again, leading back to Provo of even being in a doctor’s office, just all of that,” she explained. “The shots, the IVs that they put in [she claims they used to regularly take samples of her blood].”
“When I was in ‘The Simple Life,’ I had to be in a room when a woman was giving birth and that traumatized me as well. But I want a family so bad, it’s just the physical part of doing it. I’m just so scared … childbirth and death are the two things that scare me more than anything in the world.”
Despite always knowing she wanted to have her children via surrogate, the “Stars Are Blind” singer kept the decision hidden from the public — and her closest friends and family.
“I felt my life has been so public, I really wanted to keep it private,” she said. “Of course, it was hard not to tell anyone, because it’s such an exciting time. But I also loved being able to share this with just Carter.”
She and Reum started dating in late 2019 and tied the knot in November 2021.