How much is Paris Hilton worth?
| Net Worth: | $200 Million |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Media Personality |
| Date of Birth: | February 17, 1981 (age 41) |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Height: | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) |
About Paris Hilton
You’ve seen her on runways, in advertisements, gracing the pages of every major tabloid, in well-publicized mug shots, on television, in movies and making numerous red carpet appearances. Now she is the Girl Boss that millions of young women want to be like. She’s shaken off her rebellious side and landed on her feet and looking as sexy as ever. With her simple catchphrases like “that’s hot” and her bubbly personality Paris Hilton has earned her place as America’s it girl once again.
The world first became aware of Paris Hilton through a Vanity Fair profile in 2000. The heiress turned entrepreneur told Vanity Fair about confronting her trauma and came out as what they described as “a hip-hop debutante”. Debutante means an upper-class young woman making her first appearance in fashionable society. Paris has also been described as a celebutante – a celebrity who is known for, well, her celebrity.
Whether you think that Paris Hilton shortcut her way to fame by leveraging her family’s wealth and connections. Or you are like me and count that in but see her genius and talent at the back of every one of those successes. One can’t put blinkers on and ignore this young Heiress’ impact on modern society. Or her now billionaire friends like Kim Kardashian who actually started out as Paris’ assistant and stylist.
Paris Hilton Today
She is the chairwoman of 11:11 Media (previously known as Paris Hilton Entertainment) an integrated media and product company that has surpassed over $4 billion in revenue, according to her website.
Paris Hilton also claims that she is an influencer, activist, DJ, designer, investor, recording artist, philanthropist, host, actress, chef, model and author. In 2004 she released the book ‘Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose’; the book dives into her life as an heiress including what it’s really like to live a life of “privilege” inside the protective walls of the Hilton household.
Paris Hilton is the great granddaughter of hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, and the granddaughter of Barron Hilton who passed away in 2019 leaving behind an estate worth as much as $5 billion. Paris on the other hand stays away (likely ushered in another direction) from the big complicated decisions that keep Hilton Hotels afloat and instead started her own reality television series The Simple Life in 2003.
The show ran until 2007 and had Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie struggling to do manual, low-paying jobs such as cleaning rooms, farm work, serving meals in fast-food restaurants, and working as camp counselors. In that time she also released two more books Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All to Me and “Paris Hilton Journal”.
A Star Is Born
Nicknamed “Star,” Paris Hilton was born in New York City to actress and socialite, Kathy Hilton and Richard Hilton (“Rick”). Her father Richard is the chairman and co-founder of Hilton & Hyland, a real estate brokerage firm based in Beverly Hills.
Paris’ great-grandfather on her father’s side was Conrad Hilton, who founded the worldwide hotel chain Hilton Hotels.
Growing up an heiress to the Hilton Hotel fortune much of Paris’ childhood was moving around luxury residences like the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan and in various upscale locations in the Hamptons and Beverly Hills. In that time she became friends with Nicole Richie and Kim Kardashian, both of whom would also become famous for apparently doing “nothing”.
Paris was exposed to the spotlight early on in life, attending fashion shows, charity events, and A List parties thanks to her family’s stature. All the glamour and media attention on the family may be the reason why Paris became somewhat of a rebellious youth.
Paris attended Canterbury Boarding School but in February of 1999 she had to leave by way of a “mutual agreement”. She was able to acquire a G.E.D and despite not showing enthusiasm in school Paris turned out to be a genius in other ways. At that time anyway Paris didn’t need much to have it going on upstairs because her height and drop-dead gorgeous looks drew the eye of modeling agents. At 19 years old she was signed with T Management, Donald Trump‘s modeling agency.
One of Paris’ early public appearances was at the Palms Casino Resort opening in Las Vegas in November 2001. Businessman George J. Maloof Jr. flew Hilton in his private jet and paid her to wear a $1 million dollar dress made of casino chips. I haven’t actually seen the dress and it leaves a lot to the imagination.
As she began to draw attention on the catwalk it was really her personal life that landed her in the spotlight. Romantic flings with Leonardo DiCaprio and Oscar de la Hoya, earned her status as the golden girl and she systematically partied her way through the biggest destinations in the world including Las Vegas, New York, London, Hollywood and Tokyo.
From The Runway To The Big Screen
Soon Paris was appearing on runways and in ad campaigns for the likes of GUESS, Tommy Hilfiger and Christian Dior and was considered one of the premier models in the world at that time. By 2001 she was labeled New York’s leading it girl and began to appear in movies too, appearing as herself in the film Zoolander. Paris also showed up in Nine Lives, Wonderland and The Cat in the Hat.
1 Night In Paris
While she continued her modeling career and starred in several movies, that wasn’t what made Paris famous. An event that catapulted her into global fame and Paris’ biggest scandal to date, came in the form of a 2001 sex-tape with then boyfriend Rick Salomon. The media loved it Entertainment Weekly wrote, “[w]e in the media have become Paris-ites” The NY Post went on to write more than 90 articles about Hilton that year alone.
Several weeks after the scandal, Paris appeared on Saturday Night Live, giving a humorous interview on the subject with Jimmy Fallon. The Hilton media frenzy fed the then-booming online gossip industry, and cemented her as the “It Girl” in a contentious but profitable time for all parties.
Despite the sex-tape arguably being the fire that forged Paris Hilton. In an 2011 interview she has said she felt “betrayed”. I think while this may be true, it also caused her to move forward and reinvent herself impacting her in positive ways as adversity often does.
The Not So Simple Life
By 2003 Paris Hilton’s star was so high that she had leveraged her new found fame into the FOX reality show, The Simple Life. The first episode attracted 13 million viewers, which many attributed to the mass exposure Paris had gotten from her leaked sex tape. Irregardless, Paris Hilton had suddenly become one of the biggest celebrities the world had ever seen and everyone was tuning in to get the latest scoop.
During this time Paris launched a record label and introduced perfume and jewelry lines. She also appeared in the film House of Wax, for which she earned a Teen Choice Award. We also began to see her around the fresh-faced Kim Kardashian who was likewise making her own way using fashion and reality TV to build fame and fortune. And then there was the feud with Nicole Richie which Paris has remained coy about simply saying, “Nicole knows what she did, and that’s all I’m ever going to say about it.”
While 2006 brought a reconciliation with Nicole. Paris began showing up with Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, two names that at the time weren’t far from synonymous with ‘wild girl nights’.
In September 2006, Paris was arrested for drinking and driving, for which she received a probationary sentence and was fined $1,500.
Then in May of 2007 after allegedly driving with a suspended license Paris was ordered to spend 45 days in jail. She was released after 22 days for good behavior and appeared soon after on Larry King Live, claiming that she wanted to reform her life.
Socialite Sentences
After a couple of quieter years with just a few appearances, like in The Hottie & the Nottie and Repo! The Genetic Opera, as well as broken engagements including one to musician Benji Madden and another to The Hills‘ Doug Reinhardt. Paris Hilton found herself in trouble again when in 2010 she was allegedly found in possession of cocaine in Las Vegas. Paris pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts in Las Vegas in order to avoid a possible felony sentence. Paris has maintained that the handbag the drugs were found in did not belong to her, “This purse in question was a high street brand – and by no means up to her high fashion standards,” her lawyer claimed.
Paris The Activist
It seems her run in with police in Las Vegas finally scared Paris straight and she left her wild party life behind and reinvented herself once again. She began to frequent fundraising events around the globe and became involved with the Starlight Children’s Foundation and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She is also listed on the “First Families” of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which means she has donated US$100,000 or more to the hospital.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as a means to promote donations for No Kid Hungry and Music Cares, Paris performed a DJ set at the virtual music festival #TrillerFest.
Hilton has also supported the LGBT rights organization NOH8.
Keeping Up With The Kardashians
Paris Hilton continues to keep up with her peers and is now more commonly seen with Kim Kardashian after a long hiatus.
In January 2018, Hilton modeled Kanye West‘s Yeezy Season 6 collection by recreating paparazzi photos of Kim Kardashian.
Paris Hilton is speculated at having earned about US$2 million between 2003 and 2004, US$6.5 million between 2004 and 2005, and US$7 million between 2005 and 2006, according to Wikipedia.
Most of Paris Hilton’s wealth comes from numerous endorsements and her retail business, as well as her numerous appearances. She is paid for her personal appearances at promotional events. Again according to Wikipedia her fees for this have been disclosed to be around US$250,000–US$300,000, and she has commanded up to US$750,000 and US$1 million.”
In 2009, Paris, 50 Cent and Lenny Kravitz made an appearance at the founder of Christian Audigier, Ed Hardy’s, 51st-birthday party and received US$4 million.
Paris has also earned revenue from her first book, Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue in Chic Peek Behind the Pose, released in May of 2004. The book made it to number seven on the New York Times Best Seller List. One of her quotes from the book was even added to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations: “Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in.”
Besides Confessions of an Heiress, and her second book, Your Heiress Diary, Paris also created or was involved in the creation of many products. These include a jewelry line, many fragrances, hair extensions, a canine apparel line, a hair and beauty line, a mobile app, and a footwear line. The bulk of her wealth comes from her 50 stores worldwide, 19 product lines and $2.5 billion in fragrance sales, according to Daily Mail.
She even opened up a store in Mecca. Which is no doubt profitable, but in all honesty. It’s a funny image people searching for the eternal stopping in to buy a handbag, but I’m sure there’s the foot traffic.
Before business Paris was all about entertainment and began appearing in several movies and TV shows. The truth is though Paris is probably more built for branding and I’m pretty sure many of the awards she won were for being terrible at acting, like the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress and the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress.
In August of 2006 Paris released her debut album, Paris and surprisingly it reached number six on the Billboard 200 and sold over 600,000 copies worldwide. The first single “Stars Are Blind” is a mid-tempo reggae fusion song written by Fernando Garibay, Sheppard Solomon and Ralph McCarthy, it received mixed reviews but did well in digital sales and reached No. 18 on on the US Billboard Hot 100. Interestingly a reggaeton remix version took off in South America and was played loud in clubs from Colombia to Chile.
Paris has become better know recently in the music industry as a DJ doing sets all over the world. Since debuting at a Brazilian pop-music festival Paris has done sets in France, Portugal, South Korea, Colombia and Spain to name just a few.
Paris Hilton the heiress is a debated topic. Barron Hilton who was Hilton’s grandfather pledged 97 percent of his estate (the Hilton family fortune) to a charitable organization in 2007. The organization is the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and it was founded by Paris Hilton’s great-grandfather, Conrad Hilton.
What Made Her So Successful?
Paris Hilton has achieved global fame and renown in business and in her creative pursuits. She has reached levels of fame much higher than that of her parents and siblings and turned her bad-girl image into a large fortune.
I think that it’s not so much that she has had incredible drive or perseverance. I think that it is her larger than life personality that couldn’t be contained that has caused her to succeed naturally while others failed. Paris Hilton was born something. She was born a star to be made through life circumstances that she herself, not her family, brought into being.
Her activities fruited in ways that could not easily be seen at first. Early on she could have been mistaken as a delinquent, in the formal sense of the word, not taking her position in society seriously and failing in her duty to the Hilton Hotel brand. But actually she was getting her wild days out of the way and in the process of becoming something so spectacular that it couldn’t be seen until it took our breath away.
She didn’t need to strive, she only needed to be who she was and success naturally followed.
Her success has been multiplied thanks to her uncanny ability of turning the tables on what appeared to be bad circumstances. From a sex-tape to her own reality TV series and from her new found celebrity status to a world renowned personal brand. She learned to leverage early on and with the name Paris Hilton becoming synonymous with luxury and glamour she was able to turn this into a formidable fortune through a number of successful product lines.
Summing-Up
Forget about her family for a minute. Sure it’s an easy mental shortcut to say “oh she was born into wealth and the fame easily followed” but this is never true. In fact the circumstances of Paris Hilton’s birth made her an easy target for ridicule and dismissibility. Paris Hilton triumphed all that to establish herself by her own wits and ingenuity into who she is today a brand unto herself that has earned billions in revenue.
