Paris Hilton Reveals ‘Awkward’ Truth Behind Iconic Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan Outing

In 2006, Paris Hilton was photographed driving a car with Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan inside after a night out, and the image quickly became infamous. During a recent episode of her podcast, This Is Paris, Hilton discussed the story behind the snap, revealing that Lohan actually crashed the car ride.

“That was a night that Britney and I went out, and we were at the Beverly Hills Hotel, at our friend’s party, and we decided to leave to go home,” Hilton recalled. “We were walking to the car and all the sudden got swarmed by tons of paparazzi. Just as we were walking to the car, that’s when Lindsay came up. It was kind of awkward because we were having some drama.” Fans had been surprised to see the photo at the time, as it was rumored that Hilton and Lohan were feuding. Hilton said that as she and Spears were getting into the car, a paparazzo asked her about a video that was circulating in which Lohan claimed that Hilton had hit her.

“At that moment I saw Lindsay walking towards us, and I said ‘Why don’t you just ask her?’” she explained. “And Lindsay said … ‘No, Paris would never hit me, I’ve known her since I’m 15.’ It was basically just, not admitting what she did. It was quite awkward, you know, to be asked that question, and it was just weird how that whole thing happened.”

“All of the sudden, I looked over, and she’s in my car. We weren’t getting along, so I was polite,” Hilton continued. “It was really hard just to even get out of there because I couldn’t see just with all the cameras.”

The 40-year-old explained that while she and Lohan were once “close friends,” their relationship got complicated. “She did some things to really hurt me and betrayed my trust, and caused a lot of drama. So we weren’t friends anymore, and it was kind of like this on and off friendship,” Hilton said, adding that the media culture at the time perpetuated their feud. “But when I think about it now, we were just so young, immature. It was like high school drama, especially in the L.A. scene, and to live it out in public with the media constantly trying to stir things up and make things worse than they were,” she said. “Back then, the media really enjoyed having girls feud with each other.”

Hilton has recently been revisiting a number of moments from her past amid a renewed discussion of how women are treated in the media including an interview with David Letterman and Sarah Silverman’s jokes about her during the 2007 MTV Movie Awards.