While Paris Hilton has previously opened up about the abuse she said she suffered at several boarding schools she attended as a teenager, the DJ and businesswoman is sharing even more details about her harrowing experience in her Paris: The Memoir. Paris issues a trigger warning before opening up about the trauma she endured during the two years she spent at various CEDU (CEDU Educational Services, Inc.) schools, including Provo Canyon School in Utah.
Paris first recalls begins with being dragged out of her bed in the middle of the night. “My mind instantly went to the obvious,” Paris writes. “I’m about to be raped. I’m about to be murdered. Here the memory shatters—a broken mirror in my mind. Two men. Hands on me.”
From there, Paris details being repeatedly strip-searched, verbally and physically abused and “force-fed drugs intended to dull my wits and make me comply.”
The 42-year-old writes that she made multiple escape attempts from the schools, but was always found and brought back to the facilities, including one time where they “beat the s–t out of” her upon her return.
In February 2021, Paris testified in a Utah court against Provo Canyon School in support of a bill focused on ending abuse in the state’s congregate care facilities. In describing her alleged experiences at the institution, she said, “I was verbally, mentally and physically abused on a daily basis. I was cut off from the outside world and stripped of all my human rights.”
The bill was ultimately passed and Paris continues her advocacy work for survivors of the “Troubled Teen Industry” through her 11:11 Impact Foundation.
In a statement shared to E! News in October 2022, the Provo Canyon School said that the boarding school “was sold by its previous ownership in August 2000.”
“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, behavioral and psychiatric needs,” the statement read. “These youth have not been successful in typical home and school environ