Gregory Robinson
Demi Lovato has had a huge impact on Paris Hilton and she may not even realise it.
The 42-year-old reality TV star and heiress has revealed how the ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ singer, 30, ‘rocked her world’ and left a lasting impression.
It should come as no surprise that Paris drops several brave revelations in Paris: The Memoir which hits stores today.
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She reflects on having an abortion in her twenties as well as the alleged abuse she suffered while attending a boarding school in Utah which she also discussed in her 2020 YouTube documentary This Is Paris.
Another major figure who has bravely shared some of the harder moments in their life in pop superstar and actress Demi Lovato.
The Camp Rock alum has appeared in two YouTube documentaries – Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated in 2017 and the four-part docu-series Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil in 2021.
Both chronicled Demi’s journey to sobriety and her personal struggles with mental health and addiction.
Now, the former Simple Life star has admitted that she had ‘no intention’ of ever sharing her boarding school story before ‘Demi Lovato rocked my world’.
The new mum said she was ‘stunned’ by ‘how real, vulnerable and courageous’ the Grammy-nominated singer was in Simply Complicated.
Paris writes how her pal - who also performed at her wedding to Carter Reum in 2021 - shared ‘a painful reckoning with a difficult past’ in her film and her ‘courage’ was a source of inspiration.
“Instead of worrying about what it would mean to my brand, I started thinking about what it would do to the troubled-teen industry if I stepped out of the shadows and told my truth,” she writes.
In Paris’ 2020 documentary, she made serious allegations against Provo Canyon School in Utah, where she was sent as a teenager in the 1990s.
She gave an emotional testimony in February 2021 about the 11 months of abuse she says she experienced while at the school.
“I was verbally, mentally and physically abused on a daily basis,” she shared.” I was cut off from the outside world and stripped of all my human rights.”
The testimony was given to the Utah Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee, in favour of a bill that would see more oversight from local government regarding similar institutions to Provo. The bill was passed unanimously after Paris and other survivors testified.
In a statement shared with the media in October 2022, the Provo Canyon School said that the boarding school ‘was sold by its previous ownership in August 2000. We therefore cannot comment on the operations or student experience prior to that time’.
The statement continues: “What we can say is that the school provides a structured environment teaching life-skills, providing behavioral health therapy, and continuing education for youth who come to us with pre-existing and complex emotional, behavioural and psychiatric needs."