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Over the years, socialites have become well known by a lot of people, but very few actually find and maintain a mainstream appeal. With the advent of reality television, there have been some socialites that are household names, and perhaps none have been as famous as Paris Hilton. Hilton was a socialite that became a model during her early adult life, and eventually a star of reality television (and more tapes that we won’t mention). Now heading into her 40s, Hilton is still living the high life with a net worth estimated to be $300 million.

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Hilton was born on February 17, 1981 in New York City to Kathy Avanzino, who was an actress before she met Rick Hilton. Rick is the grandson of Conrad Hilton, the man that founded the Hilton chain of hotels. Paris had bounced around to multiple cities while growing up before eventually landing in Los Angeles. She wouldn’t finish school due to her busy life, but earned her equivalency.

In the late 1990s, Hilton got into modeling, signing into the agency that was owned by now U.S. president Donald Trump. Then in the early 2000s, Hilton got into acting with a role in “Nine Lives”, and then landed a reality show called “The Simple Life”. The series showed Hilton and fellow socialite Nicole Richie living well below their normal means, and it was a popular series for Fox. 

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Looking back at her time on the show, Hilton says that “I laugh so hard that I cry.” When she mentions reality television, Hilton says that “Nowadays, everything is just so scripted and fake. Everything is planned out. There’s nothing real, really. I’m glad that I did it in the beginning when it was organic and fun.”

“The Simple Life” ran through 2007 before coming to an end, and she continued to have guest acting roles during that time in shows such as “George Lopez”, “The O.C.” and “Veronica Mars”. She followed this up with big screen roles in “House of Wax”, “Bottoms Up” and “The Hottie and the Nottie”.

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Now, a lot of us love our pets, but Hilton is someone that has been notorious for giving her pets an incredibly lavish life. Dog houses are something that people will often get for their beloved canines, though Hilton took it to a completely new level. In 2009, Hilton bought an entire home just for her dogs. It’s a two-story home that’s fully furnished and comes with air conditioning, setting Hilton back a whopping $325,000.

The dog house is more like a dog mansion, which Hilton displayed on social media in 2019. Hilton has five dogs in total, so they need a lot of room, but even this might be a little much. “So happy to be back home in LA,” she said after returning home from a trip. “Missed my doggy mansion.” She also has an Instagram account just for her pets, with a post that toured the building and said “Who else wants to live in our million dollar doggy mansion?”

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Since buying the doggy mansion, Hilton hasn’t done much acting work, with her most recent role coming in the 2010 television movie “The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation”, appropriately enough. She has continued to make appearances on reality television, however. In the past few years, Hilton has popped up on shows such as “Germany’s Next Top Model”, “The Grand Tour” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”.

On top of all of that, Hilton has also gotten into a couple of other ventures. In 2004 and 2005, she released biographical books titled “Confessions of an Heiress” and “Your Heiress Diary”. Hilton has even dabbled in the music world, releasing her first album in 2006 called “Paris” that contained the top 20 hit “Stars Are Blind”. Since then, Hilton has had multiple singles, many of which have done well on the Billboard Dance charts such as “High Off My Love” and “I Need You”.

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These days, there are a lot of people that are called “influencers” on social media, but Hilton claims that she’s the one that set the trend. “We started a whole new genre of celebrity that no one had ever seen before,” she said of herself and the likes of Nicole Richie. “Nowadays, I feel like it’s so easy becoming famous. Anybody with a phone can do it.”

As for her future goals, Hilton wants to build on the empire that she’s created over the years. “I want to have something substantial and something that lasts,” she says. “I’m very blessed that I grew up in a family with amazing mentors and businessmen I really look up to, and can get advice from. It just runs in my blood.”