Aug. 16 (UPI) — Paris Hilton says she “could have been like” Princess Diana if it weren’t for her highly-publicized sex tape.
The 36-year-old designer said in the September issue of Marie Claire that her video with ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon robbed her of becoming like the late humanitarian and her other “elegant” role models.
“It’s really hurtful, because my whole life I really looked up to Princess Diana, all these elegant, amazing women, and I feel like [Salomon] just took that all away from me,” Hilton told the magazine.
“I could have been like that, but because of that tape, I will always be judged and thought of as whatever they say about me because of a private moment between my boyfriend and me,” she explained. “I wish I had never met him.”
“That is actually the one regret in my life,” the star added. “I wish that I had never met that guy. I could not leave my house for months. I was so depressed, humiliated. I didn’t want to be seen in public.”
Hilton, who was 18 when the tape was filmed, settled out of court with Salomon in 2004 after he allegedly leaked the video without her consent. She said on Piers Morgan Tonight in 2011 that the tape was “the most embarrassing” thing to ever happen to her.
“I didn’t want to be known as that,” the star told host Piers Morgan. “And now when people look at me they think that I’m something I’m not because of one incident one night with someone who I was in love with.”
“It’s something that’s changed my life forever and I’ll never be able to erase it,” she added. “[It was] the most embarrassing, humiliating thing that has ever happened to me in my life.”
