Paris Hilton says she could have been like Princess Diana if not for sex tape

Paris Hilton (left), Princess Diana (Photo: Getty Images/AP Images)
Paris Hilton (left), Princess Diana (Photo: Getty Images/AP Images)

Paris Hilton was on her way to becoming the next Princess Diana if it weren’t for her sex tape. This, according to Paris Hilton.

The socialite-turned-businesswoman sat down with Marie Claire for a wide-ranging interview on everything from family friend President Trump to that infamous video. Hilton, now 36, says the sex tape with then-boyfriend Rick Salomon is something she regrets.

Hilton was 18 and Salomon 33 when the tape was released without her consent. The heiress denies she participated in the video’s release for fame or profit.

“That’s one thing that really pisses me off when I hear it, because I never, ever received one dollar from that video,” she says. (According to TMZ, Salomon made $10 million in the first year.) “That is the last thing that I would want out there.”

“It’s really hurtful, because my whole life I really looked up to Princess Diana, all these elegant, amazing women, and I feel like [Salomon] just took that all away from me,” Hilton adds. “I could have been like that, but because of that tape, I will always be judged and thought of as whatever they say about me because of a private moment between my boyfriend and me.”

Hilton continues, “I wish I had never met him. That is actually the one regret in my life. I wish that I had never met that guy. I could not leave my house for months. I was so depressed, humiliated. I didn’t want to be seen in public.”

Paris Hilton and ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon. (Photo: Getty Images)
Paris Hilton and ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon. (Photo: Getty Images)

One person who admits to watching the tape? Hilton family friend Trump. He’s been close with Paris’s father, Rick Hilton, for decades.

Paris was asked if it creeped her out that Trump watched the intimate video, and the Marie Claire interviewer writes that Paris “shrugs it off: It was on Howard Stern’s show.”

Hilton says she didn’t vote for Trump — she didn’t vote at all — but also dismisses his infamous “grab them by the pussy” tape.

“I’ve heard guys say the craziest things ever, because I’m always around guys, and I listen to them speak,” she says.

As for the women who alleged that Trump sexually assaulted them, she told the magazine, “I think that they are just trying to get attention and get fame.”

Nicky Hilton, Donald Trump, and Paris Hilton in 2001. (Photo: Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect)
Nicky Hilton, Donald Trump, and Paris Hilton in 2001. (Photo: Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect)

Still, Hilton views herself as a feminist. “I just feel it’s about women’s empowerment and girl power, and I’m very into that,” she says.

The love is mutual between Paris and Trump, who once called the heiress “dumb like a fox.” Her sister, Nicky Hilton Rothschild, also tells the magazine, “[Paris] didn’t get this far by being dumb.”

“People love to talk s***,” Paris says. “I’m used to it, over the years. I love how, anyone I meet, I always change their mind right away. I’m not what people think. It’s fun to kind of laugh with it and say I’m in on the joke.”

For example? Her baby voice. Paris says she used to use it “when I was little, anytime I wanted something.”

The producers on her 2003 reality show, The Simple Life, wanted the baby voice and then some.

“I was really kind of shy in the beginning,” she says. “So the producers just said, ‘Act spoiled, a kind of blond airhead.’ I did that and then I realized it was a brand, so I played along with it. And when I felt shy, I would just do it.”

Paris continues, “Now I actually think it’s cuter to be intelligent and to have a normal, low, sexy voice. … Now when I hear the baby voice, I want to punch myself.”

For those thinking Paris is a has-been, thanks in part to her former assistant Kim Kardashian for filling the world’s sex-tape-turned-reality-star void, Hilton is laughing all the way to the bank.

According to Marie Claire, her 25 fragrances alone have brought in almost $3 billion globally. She has 18 product lines sold in at least 63 countries, is about to open her second hotel property in the Philippines, and is the highest-paid female DJ in the world, sometimes making $1 million in one night.

We’re sure Donald Trump is proud.

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