Perez Hilton Is Hospitalized After Appearing to Harm Himself on Livestream
Perez Hilton, the celebrity blogger, was hospitalized after he appeared to harm himself on camera during a TikTok livestream on Tuesday, the authorities said.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday morning that Mr. Hilton had been transported from his home in Miami to a hospital, where he was receiving medical attention after “livestreaming acts of self-harm on social media.”
Video clips and screenshots from the livestream circulated widely online, appearing to show Mr. Hilton, 48, in distress and injuring himself on camera.
A representative for Mr. Hilton, Dante Rusciolelli, wrote in an email on Wednesday that he had no additional information on Mr. Hilton’s condition. “Our focus remains on Perez’s health, recovery, and the privacy of both him and his family during this incredibly difficult time,” he said.
Later on Wednesday, a statement on Mr. Hilton’s website said, “We can confirm that Perez is receiving medical care, and our family’s focus right now is on his well-being.”
The statement, signed as being from the Perez Hilton Team and Family, added: “Many of you have reached out with concern for Perez, and we are incredibly grateful for the overwhelming outpouring of love, support, and prayers.”
On Tuesday evening, sheriff’s deputies went to Mr. Hilton’s house after receiving multiple calls about a disturbing livestream, the sheriff’s office said in a statement Wednesday morning. When officers arrived to his house, they spoke with family members there and confirmed that Mr. Hilton was alone inside.
The sheriff’s office said deputies had monitored the situation rather than engaging directly, seeking to “prioritize de-escalation by creating time, distance, and opportunities for communication,” an approach that it said minimizes harm.
The office later said that mental health professionals were providing support to Mr. Hilton’s family.
He was hospitalized under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows authorities to hold someone involuntarily for up to 72 hours if that person poses a threat of harm to themselves or others, a sheriff’s office spokesman confirmed.
Dan Romer, the research director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, who has published studies on self-harm and social media, said he could not speak to Mr. Perez’s motivations for livestreaming the act. But, he said, “Often when people do self-harm, they are reaching out for help.”
That attention seeking is typically directed toward family or friends. It’s possible that Mr. Perez regards his large online following “as part of his social circle,” Dr. Romer said. And, he added, referring to the multiple calls that law enforcement received about Mr. Perez, “they intervened and got him some help.”
TikTok said in a statement on Wednesday that its automated moderation systems had flagged Mr. Perez’s stream as violating its community guidelines minutes after it had begun, and that the company’s U.S. human moderation team had been alerted to review it. The stream was closed in about 15 minutes, the company said, and several subsequent streams by Mr. Perez were closed within 90 seconds. TikTok then banned his account. The company also said it alerted law enforcement authorities to the situation.
Mr. Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, rose to fame in the mid-2000s with his popular celebrity gossip website, PerezHilton.com. His rapid rise to the national spotlight was fueled by both media-grabbing outbursts and dogged self-promotion. The oldest of two siblings from a working-class Cuban American family, he worked as a struggling actor, a publicist and then a reporter at Star magazine early in his career.
Then, seemingly overnight, he was a cultural icon creating no-holds-bar commentary on celebrities and pop culture for the masses. In 2006, he said, he began to devote 17 hours a day to produce blog items. By 2007, he was earning $9,000 a week for a single advertisement on his site, and had become a celebrity in his own right.
“I’m like Madonna, I’m not afraid to offend,” Mr. Hilton said in a 2007 interview with The New York Times.
In 2020, he was banned from TikTok for violating its community guidelines. At the time, Mr. Hilton told The Times that he had been “very depressed” and the social media platform “gave me something to really look forward to every day.”
In March, Mr. Hilton said on social media that he had been hospitalized for three weeks with an ulcer and sepsis. Mr. Hilton said that during the experience “God presented himself to me.” In April, Mr. Hilton announced his return to TikTok on social media, thanking both the platform and Jesus.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
Emmett Lindner, James McManagan, David Ovalle and Dana G. Smith contributed reporting.
Jonathan Wolfe is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news.