Paris Hilton sat for an open conversation with The New York Times regarding the abuse she says she suffered while attending a boarding school in Utah. The 41-year-old socialite turned reality star and DJ alleges she was forced to get cervical exams at 16 years old while at Provo Canyon School in the 90s.
“Very late at night, this would be around like three or four in the morning, they would take myself and other girls into this room and they would perform medical exams,” Hilton explained. “This wasn’t even with a doctor. It was with a couple of different staff members, where they would have us lay on the table and put their fingers inside of us. And I don’t know what they were doing, but it was definitely not a doctor.”
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Hilton is one of more than 50 former patients, employees and experts who detailed similar accounts and say they bore witness to the physical, verbal, and emotional abuse at hand. The facility was designed to help students with mental and behavioral issues. She was sent to the school for 11 months in order to try and tame her partying ways as a teenager. In her account, Hilton added of the exams: “It was really scary, and it’s something that I really had blocked out for many years but it’s coming back all the time now, and I think about it,” Hilton said while tearing up. “And now, looking back as an adult, that was definitely sexual abuse.”
Former patients have filed lawsuits against the facility. The Times also recovered security camera footage of patients being assaulted and restrained. She told the outlet that she and other students were threatened with having phone privileges taken away and that the administrators would tell her parents she was lying about the allegations.
It’s not the first time Hilton has spoken out about her time in the Utah school. “Sleep-deprived & heavily medicated, I didn’t understand what was happening,” Hilton wrote of her experience on Twitter. “I was forced to lie on a padded table, spread my legs & submit to cervical exams. I cried while they held me down & said, ‘No!’ They just said, ‘Shut up. Be quiet. Stop struggling or you’ll go to Obs.’” Hilton also spoke about the trauma in a YouTube video.
“This was a recurring experience not only for me but for other #survivors. I was violated & I am crying as I type this because no one, especially a child, should be sexually abused,” Hilton added. “My childhood was stolen from me & it kills me this is still happening to other innocent children. It’s important to open up about these painful moments so I can heal & help put an end to this abuse.”
