Paris Hilton Opens Up About Surrogacy Judgment In Never-Before-Read Book Excerpt

Paris Hilton is a lot of things: a DJ, entrepreneur, philanthropist, actress, recording artist, model, and now, a New York Times bestselling author. But in 2023, she added a new title to her resume: Mom.

The multi-hyphenate exchanged "I dos" with entrepreneur Carter Reum in November 2021. They welcomed their first child, son Phoenix Barron Hilton Reum, via surrogate on Jan. 16, 2023. And the following Thanksgiving, the couple announced the birth of their daughter, London Marilyn Hilton Reum.

In the midst of becoming a first-time mom (while also secretly preparing for the arrival of her second child), Hilton published her revealing memoir, PARIS. The raw narrative showcases the woman behind the billionaire heiress that fans have come to adore and follow... and, to some degree, largely misunderstood.

While the novel touches on more riveting topics like the sexual and emotional abuse she says she experienced at boarding school, Hilton also opens up about her IVF experience — a topic she's diving into headfirst in the forthcoming paperback edition of PARIS, which publishes on June 4.

In addition to a glossy new cover, the paperback includes a never-before-read bonus chapter about Hilton's journey to motherhood. Real, vulnerable, and relatable, it'll tug on your mom heartstrings. And Scary Mommy has a sneak peek!

Excerpt from PARIS by Paris Hilton

A lot of people are ready with the side-eye when famous women become moms with the help of a surrogate. No one says a word about the men who are part of this process, but it seems like people jump in there to judge women no matter what we do. Everyone has an opinion, trying to shame us, questioning why we make the choices we make instead of trusting that we know what’s best for ourselves.

Some people are so insensitive. They’ll ask me to my face at a party or even in public — I’m talking red-carpet interviews — and the subtext is like “What’s wrong with you?” I’m so shy about it, I never have a good answer. It is a long, painful, difficult process that involves so many tears and tough decisions. I can’t sum that up in a twelve-second sound bite for their convenience, and I shouldn’t have to.

No matter what I say, half these people will go ahead and print stuff that doesn’t even make sense: “Paris Hilton used a surrogate because she wanted to keep her stomach flat.” Oh, you mean, my stomach that I’ve been jabbing needles into for three years? Plus, have you seen Nicky’s stomach? She’s had three babies, and her stomach is as flat as your iPad. It has nothing to do with that.

For all the red-carpet curiosity mongers out there: You wanna know why we chose surrogacy? NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS! No one other than me and Carter and our fertility team is entitled to an opinion about our reproductive healthcare choices. What our surrogates did for us was huge. I’ll be grateful to them every day of my life, but I’m not going to talk about it because they deserve to be happy with their families and not have their lives blown up by paparazzi. Thank you for respecting our privacy, their privacy, and the privacy of all women in the future.

Byeeee!

Okay, back to the happiness.

Oh, my gosh. Happiness doesn’t even begin to express it.

The dream was to have a girl and a boy, born separately but at the same time, so they’d grow up as twins. (Miscarriages are more common with multiples, so we chose not to implant one surrogate with twins.) Everything was going according to plan: Our embryos were implanted, and it worked! Our angel surrogates were pregnant, one with a boy, one with a girl. This real-life miracle was happening right in front of us, and I can’t even explain how thrilled and happy and thankful we were. This was everything we hoped for. All those months of injections and the crazy-making hormones — it was all worth it. We would have the perfect family we had both been dreaming of: Mama, Dada, London, and Phoenix.

We told no one.

Our obstetrician said, “A lot of people choose not to say anything during the first trimester. First trimester miscarriage is not uncommon.”

“Nothing’s going to go wrong,” Carter said, and I loved him for sounding so absolutely sure of it.

I was afraid to breathe. It was like keeping your eye on two little baby birds in a nest — so fragile, so precious, and completely out of our hands. When I’m scared, my instinct is always to do something — anything — and Carter is the same. The more nervous he is about a situation, the more he wants to micromanage every detail. In this case, there was nothing we could do but wait. I just focused on working on this book and the show and all the busywork of business.

The weird thing is, I felt kinda pregnant — and not just because of the hormones. I felt so full of joy and possibilities and new life. I wanted to know what it felt like to be pregnant, so I bought a prosthetic stomach and wore it around the house for a day. I know that sounds crazy, but I wanted it to feel real — even in just this small way. Feeling that weight on the front of me, running my hands over it, envisioning a whole life ahead of us. It crossed my mind that if I went out like that it would trigger the typical PARIS BABY BUMP headlines. It might have been fun to punk the paparazzi, but I didn’t want to make a joke of something so close to my soul.

This was a good mind game to play. By the end of the day, I was like, This is so silly. I didn’t need to pretend. I was about to be a mom for real. I can’t speak for other women who’ve had babies via surrogacy, but for me, the baby bump was something inside me — emotional, psychological — and I imagine that’s probably what it feels like for men expecting a baby, too. It didn’t matter that no one else could see that I was expecting. My emotional baby bump was real, it was precious, and I was so completely happy to know it was exactly where it needed to be, growing warmer and bigger every day.

PARIS is available for preorder and hits bookstores on June 4, 2024.