Drew Barrymore & Paris Hilton Share Their Experiences of Being Placed In Solitary Confinement As Teenagers
Drew Barrymore feels a bit closer with Paris Hilton after watching her YouTube documentary, where Paris revealed the past abuse she went through during her boarding school years as a teenager.
The 45-year-old actress hosted Paris, 39, on her new talk show, where the socially distanced two opened up about their past experiences of being placed in solitary confinement at the forcible hands of people in power.
“I’ve been where you’ve been and watching your documentary, I don’t know how many interviews and conversations I’m going to have on this show where I am watching a mirror image of everything I’ve been through as well and so I want to talk to you and have you know that I’ve had the people come and take me away,” Drew stated while talking with Paris.
Drew revealed that she too has been “locked up in solitary confinement. I’ve been in a place for lengthy periods of time we are talking year, year and a half plus. I haven’t seen a kind of story like this really reflected out there very often that’s one I recognize so deeply. Why did you decide to do this now?”
Paris shared that the documentary wasn’t originally supposed to focus on that: “I wanted to do a film to show the business woman I am and all I’ve accomplished because I feel like there are so many misconceptions about me and then during shooting I just became to close with the director that we had this like sisterly relationship where I felt I could open about anything with her.”
“She told me, ‘This is so important that you tell your story because you are going to help other survivors and people want to come forward with theirs.’ It was very difficult for me because it wasn’t something I ever wanted to talk about in public,” she says.
“I was embarrassed for people to know,” Paris admitted. “I now know that I shouldn’t be ashamed, the people who work at these places who are abusing children are the ones who should be ashamed.”
Drew and Paris continued to share their individual stories, bonding on that level.
“I have to tell you, the people at my place were really good,” Drew said to Paris. “I mean, I didn’t like being thrown in solitary confinement. I will say that I was very rebellious. I started riots there all the time.”
She went on, “There was a lot of other kids like me, and my mom just didn’t know what to do with me. I was doing drugs. I was out of control. She just threw her hands up and threw me in there, not knowing where else to turn to. And that place really did help me and it did save my life, and I actually wouldn’t change a thing.”
With Paris, the place she was sent to didn’t help her in any way and she came out with “trust issues [and] PTSD.”
“I didn’t deserve to go there,” she shared. “My mom and dad were just very strict and sheltered when I lived in L.A. I wasn’t allowed to go on dates, couldn’t wear makeup, couldn’t go to a school dance. They just didn’t want me to grow up. Then I moved to New York and that’s when my life changed and I just was sneaking out at night and going to clubs and ditching school, but not doing anything terrible — just wanting to go out at night, and that really scared my parents, because they were so protective.”
If you didn’t see, Paris opened up about the physical and emotional abuse she was going through when she was a teenager.
Here’s how her sister, Nicky Hilton, reacted to watching the documentary.