Perez Hilton has spent greater than twenty years ricocheting between fame and infamy, scandal and redemption, reinvention and remorse.
He dreamed of changing into an actor, however ended up Hollywood’s most infamous gossip blogger, constructing an web empire by rattling the most important stars of the ‘00s. Nevertheless, scandals, celeb feuds and altering popular culture tastes compelled the self-styled “Queen of Imply” to confront — and reckon with — the Perez of his previous.
That culminated in essentially the most horrifying means conceivable this week.
On Tuesday evening, the 48-year-old appeared to chop himself with a knife and talked of suicide throughout a horrific TikTok livestream, prompting frantic viewers to name emergency providers. He’s now being handled in a hospital.
The one dad-of-three has lengthy battled together with his weight and despair, and simply months in the past survived a near-fatal bout of sepsis, earlier than dramatically declaring he had discovered God.
Pals say his psychological well being disaster got here out of nowhere, simply weeks after uprooting his household from Las Vegas for a brand new starting in his native Miami.
“He barely drinks, I can’t really bear in mind the final time I noticed him consuming any alcohol and he undoubtedly doesn’t do medicine, so all of that is utterly out of character,” one supply near Hilton instructed The Publish.
“It’s not like this has been a downward spiral. It simply hasn’t.”
Nevertheless, Hilton has been open about his mounting medical payments and the cross-country transfer taking a toll on him, in addition to struggling to flee the vicious on-line character that made him notorious.
“Outdated Perez is sort of a everlasting tattoo I can’t do away with,” he instructed a reporter in 2019, in a beforehand unpublished interview obtained by The Publish.
He began out as Mario Lavandeira Jr., born to Cuban dad and mom in Little Havana, attending a Jesuit preparatory faculty, then New York College to check drama earlier than transferring to Los Angeles.
Whereas Hollywood didn’t need him, the web did.
Hilton launched (ahem) PageSixSixSix.com in 2004, which was rapidly renamed PerezHilton.com, a moniker he additionally adopted as his stage title, a riff on the then-biggest web star Paris Hilton.
It was the daybreak of the anything-goes celebrity-blog period, with Britney Spears melting down in entrance of paparazzi and Lindsay Lohan’s discretions ruling the tabloids.
Hilton, who’s brazenly homosexual, capitalized. He grew to become identified for scribbling crude photos over paparazzi pictures, inventing insulting nicknames and gleefully skewering celebrities’ our bodies, relationships and private crises.
He relentlessly mocked Britney Spears throughout her extremely publicized mental-health struggles and, following Heath Ledger’s demise in 2008, notoriously bought T-shirts studying: “Why couldn’t it’s Britney?”
He publicly speculated about — and in some circumstances outed — stars, together with Lance Bass and Neil Patrick Harris, arguing on the time that exposing homosexual celebrities was official reporting.
Hilton claimed he was drawing in over eight million readers a day in 2007 and have become as recognizable as most of the celebrities he coated.
Three years later, the tide was turning. Hilton had racked up feuds with the Black Eyed Peas and Woman Gaga, sparked outrage by posting {a photograph} which appeared to indicate 17-year-old Miley Cyrus with out underwear and located himself embroiled in lawsuits with paparazzi over utilizing their copyrighted photographs.
“One of many many issues I remorse is that I harm so many individuals by giving them nasty nicknames, and above all that I used to be unkind to the kids of celebrities,” he later wrote in his 2020 memoir “TMI: My Life in Scandal.”
Hilton tried to indicate a unique facet of himself by showing on actuality reveals such because the UK version of “Superstar Large Brother” and “Worst Cooks in America.”
Life additionally modified when he grew to become a father by way of gestational surrogacy, welcoming son Mario Armando Lavandeira III in February 2013, daughter Mia Alma in 2015 and daughter Mayte Amor in 2017.
All three kids are genetically his and have been conceived utilizing eggs from the identical nameless donor, however carried by totally different surrogates.
Sources instructed Web page Six he has all the time been a “devoted dad” and fatherhood modified him an awesome deal.
“I’m actually joyful. I attempt to be even happier … I wish to work arduous at being even happier. That requires thought, analyzing, observing. And I like that as I get near 41, I’m doing issues in a different way than earlier than,” he stated within the 2019 interview.
Hilton’s mom, Teresita, has remained a significant a part of his life and helped him elevate the kids, whereas he’s additionally near his sister, Barbara.
“The particular person Mario is away from his social media and on-line character of Perez Hilton is so totally different from the person who individuals consider him as,” the good friend stated. “He’s so type, a bit shy, self-deprecating and extremely humorous.
As a part of a public reinvention, Hilton additionally targeted on his bodily well being.
At his heaviest, Hilton stated he tipped the scales at 255lbs, however misplaced greater than 60lbs by way of years of food regimen and train. He stated in 2025 sustaining his transformation was a every day combat.
“I’m a meals addict,” Hilton instructed The Publish on the time. “If I fall off the wagon, like an alcoholic, it takes a lot to get again on.”
Amid internet hosting a podcast, operating his website — which in recent times has develop into a extra area of interest curiosity — and making TV appearances, 2026 has confirmed a 12 months of great upheaval.
In March a bout of flu spiraled, with Hilton later saying he had been taking medicine with out meals and developed an ulcer, adopted by a abdomen perforation which led to sepsis.
“My stupidity landed me within the hospital for 21 days,” Hilton stated whereas recounting the ordeal in a video posted on Instagram. “My physique stored falling aside.”
A subsequent blood clot in his leg supplied one other severe well being scare.
“It scared the hell out of him and was a large awakening,” a supply instructed The Publish.
Then Hilton, raised Catholic and educated by Jesuits, however not likely a believer, discovered God.
He stated himself what he skilled, he might solely name “miraculous.”
In a tearful video after his hospitalization, he apologized and admitted he had harm individuals in pursuit of consideration, cash and clicks.
“No one’s good, however my errors are very public,” he stated in a video shared on social media earlier this 12 months. “The web is endlessly. Receipts are endlessly. I carry with me deep disgrace and remorse. I’m sorry, I’ll proceed to apologize.”
In June, he immediately introduced he and his household have been leaving Las Vegas, saying “That is heaven-sent. God instructed me to maneuver to Miami.”
Hilton acknowledged he felt responsible about uprooting his kids, and the town held tough reminiscences for him.
“For the longest time, for 30-plus years, I didn’t love Miami,” he stated in a June 17 clip, explaining clergymen had continuously shamed college students at his faculty about homosexuality, and his father and grandfather had died there.
“Despite the fact that I used to be born and raised there … I received out of there as rapidly as I might as a result of I had a lot trauma related to my time in Miami.”
Sources individually stated Wednesday Hilton discovered establishing a brand new residence in Miami tougher than anticipated, and monetary woes have been baring down on him.
“Some fairly excessive medical payments actually hit him arduous,” the supply stated. “He’s one of many hardest-working individuals I do know, and immediately being confronted with these mounting monetary pressures was lots for him.”
Hilton can also be the breadwinner for his complete household, which added to pressures, sources stated. Nevertheless, no one could possibly be ready for the horrific scenes livestreamed this week, which shocked the world.
“Our focus stays on Perez’s well being, restoration and the privateness of each him and his household,” his reps stated Wednesday.
And people near him are hoping he takes his personal recommendation, imparted seven years in the past when he stated experiencing despair in his 20s taught him one thing which might assist if he hit darkish instances once more.
“I’ll know that it’s momentary,” he stated.
