Paris Hilton declares her life’s ‘real’ calling is rescuing abused kids
Paris Hilton believes her life’s “real” calling is to rescue abused kids from “hell hole” schools.
The hotel heiress, 43, was left traumatised by the abuses she suffered at the institutions for troubled teens she was packed off to in her youth, and now travels the world to help children feared to be trapped in similar situations.
She told Flaunt magazine she had just returned from a trip to Jamaica to help boys who said they were being abused at the Atlantis Leadership Academy wilderness camp in Jamaica – claims denied by its founder Randall Cook through his attorney.
Paris said: “I wanted to go there because they had their court case and they weren’t being taken seriously.
“So I knew I needed to go there and shine a big spotlight on that and really put the pressure on these people.
“The five employees who were abusing the kids just got arrested yesterday, and people are being held accountable, finally.
“So that makes me really proud to be the hero that I needed when I was a teenager, and be able to do that for these boys and other children in these types of places – these hell holes.
“I feel this is my real purpose in life and something very dear to my heart. I won’t stop fighting until change is made.”
Paris is now a mum-of-two to 15-month old son Phoenix and five-month-old daughter London, both born via surrogacy, with her 43-year-old entrepreneur husband Carter Reum.
She last year said she finds it “horrifying” children are still sent to schools for troubled youths.
The former IT girl used her autobiography ‘Paris: The Memoir’ to lay bare the abuse she suffered at the institutions when she was sent to them after her family feared she was falling into wild ways.
At one of the specialist schools where Paris was sent she endured “raps” sessions in which kids would verbally abuse one another before being told to cuddle.
And at the institution where she was sent in Utah it was regulation for children to get invasive cervical exams as punishment, as well solitary confinement in the nude – and to be whipped, sedated and beaten.
Paris told The Guardian in a chat to promote the book: “What’s horrifying is the fact that it’s still happening today. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry with hundreds of thousands of kids being sent to those places every year.
“It’s heartbreaking to me that people could treat children like this. Now, hearing about so many things, the deaths that have happened, it’s just heartbreaking: so, even though it’s hard for me to talk about, I think it’s so important for people to understand what’s happening behind closed doors.
“(These schools) brainwash the kids and they also do that to the parents. They say, ‘Your daughter is a liar, she’s just manipulating you.’
“The moment I got out of there, it was the happiest day in my life. I was so grateful.”