Paris Hilton Opens Up About Childhood Abuse And Pretending To Be Dumb

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Since she came on the scene, Paris Hilton has had the reputation of a rich party girl heiress with a ditzy personality. While she’s built an entire career on being air-headed, she’s used that same reputation to launch an empire that includes everything from music and fashion to books and television. So, how can someone so clueless be so business savvy? Probably because that’s not who she really is.

Now, the 39-year-old is letting the world know that the “Paris” she’s presented to the world for all these years doesn’t reflect her true personality.

“There’s so many differences. With the character, it’s mostly kind of this blonde, bubbly, kind of Barbie airhead. And, in real life, I’m the exact opposite,” she revealed to CBS Sunday Morning‘s Tracy Smith recently. “I’m not a dumb blonde. I’m just very good at pretending to be one.”

This is exactly the type of information Hilton opens up about in her upcoming YouTube documentary, This Is Paris, which is set to premiere this month. The heiress claims she created a character as a way to suppress the childhood trauma she endured at a “behavior modification school” in Utah. Paris says she was choked, hit, and generally abused while she was enrolled, but for multiple reasons, she never spoke about that traumatizing experience until recently.

“When I got out, I was just so grateful and so happy to be free and to be out of there that I just didn’t want to bring it up,” Hilton admitted. “I was, like, I’d rather, you know, just never talk about this. Just don’t think about it. And the moment I stepped out of that building is when I decided I’m never telling this story to anyone, ever.”

Hilton’s sit-down with CBS Sunday Morning airs this Sunday on CBS. This Is Paris will be available on YouTube on September 14.