Featured Image Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Topics: Celebrity, Paris Hilton, Crime
Callum Jones
Topics: Celebrity, Paris Hilton, Crime
Paris Hilton has made a heartbreaking admission about a former relationship after her sex tape was leaked when she was just 19.
A sex tape of the now-44-year-old was leaked in 2004, allegedly without her consent, that involved her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, who was considerably older at 35 years old at the time.
The Telegraph reports that Solomon sold a video of the former couple having sex three years earlier and marketed it as 'one night stand in Paris'.
Hilton was mocked in the public eye for years following the leak, and has spoken about the damaging impact it has had on her over the years.
Advert
Now, the media personality has admitted she's discovered a sense of 'healing' that non-consensual release of such footage would be seen as an act of revenge porn in 2025.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Hilton said: "Like, that would be illegal today. People realise just how wrong it was. And that has also been healing for me, for people to be, like, 'wow, Paris was just a teenage girl being taken advantage of by this older guy'."
After the tape was released, Hilton said she felt 'like the world judged me from that point on', adding that the whole experience was 'painful and humiliating'.
Hilton sat down with Louis Theroux at Spotify Beach in Cannes, France, earlier this year to discuss the 'heartbreak and devastation' that came from the sex tape.
"It was the most painful experience I've ever been through in my life," she said back in June. "To trust somebody and have them put something out in the world that no one was supposed to see... and then to have people judge me based on one night with someone I trusted... that's something that will affect me for the rest of my life."
Hilton continued: "Back then, the media, the public, everyone was just so cruel to me. It was so heartbreaking and devastating. I had worked so hard and I wanted to be respected, I was about to come out with my reality show and then all of a sudden this happened to me."
The Take It Down Act was signed into US law in May this year by Donald Trump, alongside First Lady Melania, making it a federal crime to knowingly publish intimate images without consent.
This includes AI 'deepfakes', and those found guilty could spend up to three years behind bars.
If you or someone you know has had an intimate image or video released without their consent, you can visit the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative’s (CCRI) Safety Center for help deciding what to do. CCRI also has an Image Abuse Helpline at 1-844-878-CCRI (2274).