- Paris Hilton has opened up about her decision to terminate a pregnancy at the age of 22.
- She wrote about her abortion in her new book, "Paris: The Memoir."
Paris Hilton has opened up about her decision to terminate a pregnancy at the age of 22.
In an excerpt from her forthcoming autobiography, "Paris: The Memoir," published by Time Tuesday, the hotel heiress said it happened just before the first season of her reality show, "The Simple Life," premiered in 2003 and launched her into the public eye.
"I was having a wild-child moment, and it was sort of glorious," Hilton wrote of that time in her life in the memoir, which will be released on March 14.
However, it "all came crashing down" when she and her boyfriend of two years, Jason Shaw, realized she was pregnant.
"It was like waking up on the ledge outside a 40th-floor window. I was terrified and heartsick," she wrote. "The hormones sent my ADHD symptoms spiraling. Everything I knew about myself was at war with everything I'd been raised to believe about abortion."
"No one can ever know how hard it is to face this impossible choice unless she's faced it herself," Hilton continued.
Hilton added that she was lucky that she had Shaw, a former Tommy Hilfiger model, who she described as a "lovely, down-to-earth guy," to support her decision when she realized that she "wasn't in the right place to make any sort of commitment."
"It had nothing to do with him or a baby," she explained. "I just wasn't capable of being honest or loyal or whole."
"Trying to continue that pregnancy with the physical and emotional issues I was dealing with at the time would have been a train wreck for everyone involved," she wrote, referencing the trauma she endured after attending Provo Canyon School, a residential treatment center for teens.
"At that moment, I was in no way capable of being a mother," she continued. "Denying that would have jeopardized the forever family I hoped to have in the future, at a time when I was healthy and healed."
Hilton went on to describe how fortunate she felt to be able to have autonomy over her body, but admitted "choosing to have an abortion can be an intensely private agony that's impossible to explain."
—ParisHilton (@ParisHilton) January 25, 2023
Seemingly referencing the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year after nearly 50 years of legal abortion, she added: "The only reason I'm talking about it now is that so many women are facing it, and they feel so alone and judged and abandoned."
"I want them to know that they're not alone, and they don't owe anyone an explanation. When there is no right way — all that's left is what is. What you know you have to do. And you do it, even though it breaks your heart."
"I know I wouldn't have this life if I hadn't made that difficult choice in my early 20s," the excerpt concluded. "Women need to control their reproductive destiny. We need to know ourselves, trust ourselves, and know what's right for us — and when — and stay in the driver's seat."
Hilton, who is now 41, announced that she had welcomed her first child named Phoenix Barron Hilton Reum with her husband Carter Reum via surrogate in January of this year.
"Paris: The Memoir" will be released on March 14.