Paris Hilton Biography

Paris Hilton

Hilton is a socialite in both Manhattan and Los Angeles and she has been described as a celebutante, a portmanteau of celebrity and debutante. She initially became well known due to her participation in the reality series, The Simple Life, and also 1 Night in Paris; an unauthorized sex video of her with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, which was leaked onto the Internet in late 2003. She has since branched out into many careers, and recently, as of August 2006, she has launched a serious bid at a music career with her debut pop album Paris.

Hilton is the oldest of four children of Richard Hilton and Kathy Richards. Her younger sister is Nicky Hilton (after paternal great-uncle, Conrad Nicholson Hilton II, 'Nicky'), and her younger brothers are Barron Hilton II (after paternal grandfather Barron Hilton), and Conrad Hilton III (after paternal great-grandfather Conrad Nicholson Hilton I).

On the maternal side of her family, Hilton is a niece of two popular child stars of the 1970s—Kim Richards and Kyle Richards, who appeared in the motion picture Escape to Witch Mountain and TV shows such as Nanny and the Professor, Little House on the Prairie, and later, ER. By marriage, she also is related to Zsa Zsa Gabor (the Hungarian-born actress married Paris Hilton's great-grandfather Conrad Hilton), as well as Elizabeth Taylor (the actress's first husband was Paris Hilton's great-uncle, Conrad Nicholson Hilton Jr.).

Her paternal grandparents are hotel chairman Barron Hilton, and his wife, the former Marilyn Hawley; and Hilton's paternal great-grandparents were Hilton Hotel founder Conrad Hilton and his first wife, Mary Barron. When Conrad Hilton died in 1979, he left nothing in his will to his children or other descendants. Barron Hilton contested this decision and won in 1988. The value of Paris's inheritance has been variously estimated at between (US) $30 and $50 million.

Hilton moved between several exclusive homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons. Currently, her parents own a $30.5 million mansion in Bel Air, a $12.3 million estate in the Hamptons, and a $10 million house in the Hollywood Hills in which she and her sister stay to give them privacy and for easy access to clubs in Los Angeles. She attended her freshman year of high school in Rancho Mirage, California at the Marywood-Palm Valley School and her sophomore and junior years of high school at the Dwight School in New York, but dropped out and eventually earned a GED. Hilton did not attend college.

Hilton first came into the public eye as one of the more famous New York socialites and heirs. Along with her sister, she has made countless appearances in the party section of New York society magazines.

Next page of the Paris Hilton Biography