Perez Hilton's sister breaks silence on blogger's disturbing livestream revealing moment she discovered him
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
Perez Hilton's sister has described the horrifying moment she discovered the blogger seriously injured at his Miami home, before getting his three children to safety and calling 911.
Barbara Lavandeira gave Page Six a firsthand account of August 4, when Hilton, whose real name is Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., appeared to livestream acts of self-harm on TikTok before being taken to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment.
"Aug. 4 will forever be one of the darkest days my family and I have ever experienced," Lavandeira said.
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She said the day began with a warning sign that something was wrong: Hilton was in his bedroom with the door closed and locked, despite normally leaving it open.
Lavandeira, who was visiting from California, said she initially asked her brother if he was okay after noticing the closed door.
Hilton apparently told her he was fine, but she could barely hear him. When further knocks went unanswered, Lavandeira called his cellphone, only to receive no response.
"Something just felt wrong," she said.
Lavandeira unlocked the bedroom door and discovered Hilton was inside the bathroom. She knocked again and warned him she would enter if he did not open the door.
When he still did not respond, Lavandeira unlocked that door too.
"When I opened the door, my nightmare became a reality," she said. "Mario was standing in front of the shower, naked, cut up, covered in blood."
Lavandeira said the image has stayed with her.
"What I can say with certainty is that I didn't recognize my brother when I looked at him," she said. "I saw it in his eyes. They didn't look the same."
She added that Hilton smiled at her moments later, saying it felt like she was 'staring at someone else'.
Once the children were away from the house, Lavandeira contacted 911. She also sent a message to her best friend, who lived nearby, asking her to come and take the children while she remained on the call with emergency dispatchers.
She then went back inside as the family waited for an ambulance. Lavandeira said she covered Hilton with towels in an effort to slow the bleeding.
By that point, she said he had already lost a 'significant amount of blood', although he could still speak to her in a voice she described as 'very faint'.
Hilton was taken to hospital by ambulance, while Lavandeira stayed behind to speak with the crisis team that had arrived.
She said she had spent several days considering whether to publicly discuss what she had witnessed.
Lavandeira described herself as 'a very private person' who had largely remained behind the scenes, despite working with her brother for years.
Her decision to speak was also prompted by what she said were 'rumors, false reporting, fake exclusives and made-up quotes' surrounding the incident.
As the person who witnessed what happened from beginning to end, she said she wanted to provide an account based on her own experience.
"I can only share what I personally witnessed and experienced, but I want people to hear directly from someone who was actually there," Lavandeira said.
She also addressed criticism of Hilton's past, including comments calling the incident 'karma'.
Lavandeira acknowledged that her brother has admitted wrongdoing from his earlier career and apologized for his conduct.
"I'm simply asking people to recognize that he has changed tremendously over the past 20 years and has genuinely tried to become a better person," she said.
She stressed that she was not asking anyone to forget or excuse Hilton's past, but urged people to separate their feelings about him from the family members caught up in the crisis.
"Whatever anyone thinks about Mario, his children and our mother are innocent," Lavandeira said. "They shouldn't be punished or tormented because of how people feel about him."
On August 5, Hilton's family confirmed that he was 'able to communicate, which has given our family hope'.
They added: "We respectfully ask for your continued prayers, understanding, and grace as Perez continues to recover. We will share additional updates as we receive confirmed information and are able to do so. For now, we’re taking things one step at a time and keeping our focus where it belongs, on Perez and his recovery."
Who is Perez Hilton?
Perez Hilton, real name Mario Lavandeira, is a celebrity gossip columnist, whose pen name is a pun on socialite Paris Hilton.
He launched his website PerezHilton.com in 2004, originally using free WiFi in coffee shops because he couldn’t afford to install an internet connection in his home.
But he became infamous in the Noughties for his controversial coverage of the era’s biggest stars.
He had high-profile friendships with the likes of Lady Gaga, Amanda Bynes and Lindsay Lohan, but other celebs such as Mila Kunis called out what she described as his ‘mean’ coverage.
Hilton appeared on UK reality show Celebrity Big Brother in 2015. He also fronted his own show Perez Hilton Superfan in 2011, with appearances from Katy Perry, Kelly Rowland and Enrique Iglesias.
Writing in his 2020 memoir TMI: My Life in Scandal, Hilton said: “I have a ton of regrets, particularly because I now see that I never needed to be so mean or cruel.
“One of the many things I regret is that I hurt so many people by giving them nasty nicknames, and above all that I was unkind to the children of celebrities.
“I have apologised publicly and privately to dozens of people."
In March 2026, Hilton was hospitalized with sepsis for three weeks from a perforated ulcer and was forced to undergo emergency surgery.
Hilton said that following the experience, he would ‘start taking the kids to church every week’.
Hilton is a single father to three children: Mario, 13, Mia, 11, and Mayte, 8.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 to reach a 24-hour crisis center or you can webchat at 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.
Topics: Mental Health, TikTok, Celebrity
Thomas Bamford