Paris Hilton was in Australia when her manager called and broke the news that there was a 37-second video clip of the then-19-year-old having sex circulating the internet. Now Hilton writes that she gave in to pressure when she made the infamous sex tape with then-boyfriend Rick Salomon. He was 31.
In an excerpt from "Paris: The Memoir," the heiress reveals details about what led to the 2003 sex tape.
After her boyfriend, the American poker player Salomon, repeatedly broached the idea of filming the two having sex, Hilton finally gave in.
"I don't remember that much about the night he wanted to make a videotape while we made love," she wrote in an excerpt published by the London Times.
"He had often said it was something he did with other women, but I felt weird and uncomfortable about it. I always told him, 'I can't. It's too embarrassing.'"
"He kept pushing," she continued. "I kept making excuses."
He promised her that the tape would just be for the two of them, that no one would ever see it.
"And then he told me if I wouldn't do it, he could easily find someone who would, and that was the worst thing I could think of — to be dumped by this grown man because I was a stupid kid who didn't know how to play grown-up games."
Hilton wrote in her memoir that she wanted to be "alive in a sensual way," and that she wanted to experience intimacy. She had struggled with her sexuality since suffering abuse as a young teen and she found it difficult to enjoy sex, to feel comfortable in her own skin.
"I wasn't capable of the level of trust required to make a videotape like that," she wrote. "I had to drink myself silly. Quaaludes helped. But I did it. I have to own that. I knew what he wanted, and I went with it."
It wasn't until years later that the "Stars Are Blind" singer was confronted with the consequences of appeasing "Scum," as Salomon liked to be called. The leaked clip from that night with Salomon was everywhere, and there were rumors that the clip was essentially the trailer for a forthcoming full-length release.
"The world thinks of me as a sex symbol, and I'm here for that, because symbol literally means icon," she wrote. "But when people saw that sex tape, they didn't say 'icon,' they said 'slut.' They said 'w—.'
"I felt like my life was over, and in many ways it was," she continued. "Certainly, the career I had envisioned was no longer possible."
The "The Simple Life" star also insisted that she would never be involved in the production and distribution of "an amateur teen porn video," before adding that if she had been involved, the lighting would have been better.
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