Paris Hilton Goes From Hotel Heiress to Activist for Youth in Congregate Care

She’s a DJ, reality star, and member of the Hilton family, a family whose net worth encompasses hundreds of millions of dollars. And now Paris Hilton is an activist, lobbying Congress and Joe Biden for a federal “bill of rights” for youth in congregate care.

And as she said in a Capital Hill speech on Oct. 20, 2021, such legislation could have prevented the trauma she suffered earlier in her life. “Today I come here not as Paris Hilton, but as a survivor,” she told reporters. Here’s more on Hilton’s backstory and her recent activism.

Her surname says it all: Paris is the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton hotel chain. Conrad’s son Barron Hilton, Paris’s grandfather, took over as president and CEO of Hilton Hotels Corporation before selling the company to Blackstone Group for $26 billion in 2007. Prior to Barron’s death in 2019, he pledged to leave 97 percent of his fortune to charity, following his father’s example, as The New York Times reports.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Paris’s parents—businessman Richard Hilton and reality star Kathy Hilton—have a net worth of $350 million. Richard is one half of the Beverly Hills, Calif., real estate brokerage firm Hilton & Hyland, and Kathy Hilton is an actress who has appeared on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills off and on since the Bravo show began in 2011. Her half-sisters Kim and Kyle Richards are also cast members.

Paris isn’t far behind her parents, however: Celebrity Net Worth reports her fortune is currently $300 million. Paris started off as a model who became a fixture in the Los Angeles party scene in the early 2000s. She and fellow Hollywood heiress Nicole Richie starred in the FOX reality series The Simple Life from 2003 to 2007.

The socialite later starred in other unscripted series: MTV’s Paris Hilton’s My New BFF, Oxygen’s The World According to Paris, Viceland’s Hollywood Love Story, and Netflix’s Cooking With Paris. She also ventured into acting—appearing in the 2005 horror movie House of Wax—and singing—releasing the single “Stars Are Blind” the following year.

Paris has also become a highly sought-after DJ who has commanded as much as $1 million per gig, as she confirmed to Page Six in 2014. “My mother always told me it’s not polite to discuss money, but it’s true,” she told the outlet. “I’m very proud. I’ve worked hard. I love music. It’s my passion … I don’t want to be bragging, but it’s great to be paid well for what you love doing.”

According to The Hill, Paris voiced her support for the Accountability for Congregate Care Act on Oct. 20, 2021, speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., organized by Rep. Ro Khanna (D–Calif.). It also included Sen. Jeff Merkley (D–Ore.), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D–Conn.), and Rep Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

And in an opinion piece that The Washington Post published two days earlier, Hilton described upon her own experience in four facilities of the “troubled teen industry,” facilities in which she suffered “physical and psychological abuse” at the hands of staff members.

“Every child placed in these facilities should have a right to a safe, humane environment, free from threats and practices of solitary confinement, and physical or chemical restraint at the whim of staff,” she added. “Had such rights existed and been enforced, I and countless other survivors could have been spared the abuse and trauma that have haunted us into adulthood.”