Paris Hilton opens up about infamous sex tape, says she was pressured to do it

In her upcoming memoir 'Paris: The Memoir', the 42-year-old wrote that she did not remember much about the night she made the tape. Photo: AFP

American socialite Paris Hilton has opened up about her infamous sex tape, which she filmed when she was 19 and was later leaked by her former boyfriend, poker player Rick Salomon.

In her upcoming memoir Paris: The Memoir, out on Tuesday, the 42-year-old wrote that she did not remember much about the night she made the tape.

“He had often said it was something he did with other women, but I felt weird and uncomfortable about it. I always told him, ‘I can’t. It’s too embarrassing,’” she wrote in an excerpt published by British newspaper The Times last Saturday.

“He kept pushing. I kept making excuses,” she said, adding she had to get drunk and take drugs to film the video, which he assured her would remain private.

American media outlet USA Today confirmed the validity of the excerpt, although Hilton did not mention Salomon by name in her account, using only his nickname Scum.

“He told me if I wouldn’t do it, he could easily find someone who would, and that was the worst thing I could think of – to be dumped by this grown man because I was a stupid kid who didn’t know how to play grown-up games,” said the reality television star turned entrepreneur, who found infamy after Salomon leaked the tape in 2003.

The following year, he started distributing the video through an adult film company under the title 1 Night In Paris.

Hilton, who is married to businessman Carter Reum, 42, has a newborn son, who was born via surrogacy.

She spoke to Harper’s Bazaar for its March cover story: “A big message in the book to other young women is to not let shame hold on to you when it shouldn’t be you – it should be on the person who hurt you. A lot of girls, when they’re hurt in life, they’ll hold on to that shame when it’s not theirs to be held on to.” – The Straits Times/Asia News Network