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“It put me into such a depression.”
Kathy Hilton has revealed she finally watched her daughter Paris’ heartbreaking documentary, “This Is Paris,” over a year after its release.
While appearing on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM radio show, Radio Andy, on Wednesday, the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star shared that she has seen the YouTube film — which came out in September 2020 — and detailed her reaction.
As viewers can recall, in the documentary, Paris opened up about the alleged abuse she endured as a teenager while at a private boarding school.
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When Andy, 53, asked Kathy, 40, if she still hadn’t seen “This Is Paris,” Kathy revealed that it was “was true” and that she had watched it for the first time just a few months ago. “They did make me. [Paris] said to me, ‘It’s very important to me, Mommy, that you watch this.’”
The reality star added that she threw a release party for Paris when the documentary was released but admitted that she couldn’t bear to watch it at the time.
“Outside, we did a big screen,” Kathy recalled. “It was too much after just watching a lot of the little clips, you know, the promos and trailers. And ’cause you can imagine me just find out and I’m not one of those people, ‘Oh this is about me’ ’cause it’s not about me, but yet it really was so devastating the way I was told.”
“For her to keep that in for 20 years …,” she added, referencing Paris’ claims that she was physically, mentally and emotionally abused at Provo Canyon School in Utah.
Kathy went on to share that she finally decided to see the film after she and Paris returned from Washington D.C. In late October, Paris visited Capitol Hill to advocate for troubled teen care reform, speaking in favor of legislation that would create protections for youth in congregate care facilities, while also sharing her experience at the Utah private school.
“I mean, I said to her finally like a few weeks ago, and then when I went to Washington with her, I said, ‘I’m still not ready to watch it,’” Kathy recalled to Andy. “So when we got back, I did watch it and we held hands and I could see how important … we held hands for an hour watching this thing. And just the energy that I was feeling from her and how relieved and happy that she was that I would watch it.”
“But it put me into such a depression that I mean, a lot of people understood that [husband Rick Hilton and I were] trying to help our daughter. You know, we were trying to save Paris,” she continued. “… We were worried. She was living in New York. She was sneaking out and sometimes didn’t come back home for three days. Not going to school. And so we put her in this boarding school, this one, [and] this one. I thought, ‘Gotta keep her away from the city and all these predators and people that want her to model.’ It was just, she escaped everywhere. I mean, you only saw 20 minutes basically of that entire chunk of her life. Everything else was business.”
At the time, Kathy said she felt “helpless,” adding that she and Rick ultimately decided to send Paris to Provo Canyon School.
“I was ready for the booby hatch,” she explained. “I’m literally saying to myself, ‘What do we do? Move to Mars? What are we gonna do?’ … I was so helpless. And we finally had to send her [to Provo Canyon School in Utah] and we’d gone and visited. And we had met with school placement people. It was handled extremely professionally.”
She continued, “We were told, in fact, — I found out after this came out — there’s people that you and I both know that have had these problems or sent their child to the school. And then finally that they talked about it. You know, you feel kind of ashamed.”
As shown in “This Is Paris,” Paris’ claims about the Provo Canyon School in Utah were backed up by similar accounts from her former roommate and classmates, who all reconnected as they reflect on their shared trauma.
These stories, at least in part, played heavily into Paris’ reluctance to have her mother see the film. She had never opened up to her about these alleged experiences before filming for the documentary.
In fact, the doc not only captured one of their first-ever conversations about it, but it also featured Kathy learning about some of what Paris said she went through for the first time ever.
“Had I known this, Dad and I would have been there in one second,” Kathy told Paris in the film after Paris spoke about her time at the school. “I’m so proud of you.”
For those who haven’t seen “This Is Paris,” you can check it out in the video, above.
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