Perez Hilton spent years making headlines out of other people's worst moments. Now, as the celebrity gossip blogger faces a deeply troubling public crisis of his own, some of the people who remember his notoriously ruthless past are struggling with how much sympathy they are willing to offer.
Hilton was hospitalized this week following an alarming incident at his Miami-area home that unfolded publicly on TikTok. His family has described what happened as a "severe mental health crisis" and has pleaded for privacy, particularly for his three children.
But the crisis has also reopened a much older conversation about Hilton's role in one of celebrity culture's ugliest eras.
During the height of his fame in the 2000s, Hilton built an enormous audience by mocking celebrities, giving them cruel nicknames, altering their photographs with crude drawings and relentlessly covering stars such as Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan while they were experiencing highly publicized personal struggles.
He also faced fierce criticism for speculating about celebrities' sexuality and outing people before they had publicly discussed it themselves.
Now, the uncomfortable irony of Hilton's family requesting compassion and privacy has not been lost on some of his former targets.
Ireland Baldwin, the daughter of Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, delivered one of the strongest reactions.
"Perez Hilton has publicly humiliated my family for years, sexualized me from a young age, commented on my weight and body (as a child)," Baldwin wrote on Instagram, calling him a "despicable human being."
Still, Baldwin drew a distinction between Hilton and the children caught in the middle of his crisis.
"His children deserve better and a healthy father," she added.
Hilton himself has spent years acknowledging that his old persona crossed lines.
After becoming a father and watching the celebrity media landscape change dramatically, Hilton began publicly distancing himself from the vicious style of gossip that made him famous. He pledged in 2010 to stop using nasty nicknames and outing celebrities, and later admitted in his 2020 memoir, TMI: My Life in Scandal, that some of his behavior had been cruel.
In a podcast interview recorded before his latest hospitalization, Hilton appeared particularly reflective about the damage he had caused.
"I realized what I was doing was wrong," he said, admitting he had a "lot of regrets."
"It was cruel and that's something that I carry with me," Hilton added, describing his notorious past as his "scarlet letter" and "very heavy baggage."
Not everyone who once felt Hilton's wrath is responding with anger.
Adrianne Curry-Rhode, the original winner of America's Next Top Model, reminded followers that Hilton had previously "targeted" and "harassed" her - but nevertheless urged compassion.
"I think, sometimes, that's what it takes - not your friends rallying around you, but people who should hate you saying, 'Hey, your life has value. Don't do this,'" she said.
The latest ordeal follows an already difficult year for Hilton. In March, he revealed that he had spent 21 days hospitalized after an ulcer led to severe sepsis. He was subsequently hospitalized again with a blood clot and had recently moved to Florida to be closer to family.
His family says his three children, sister and niece were at the home during this week's crisis and that relatives quickly removed the children from the situation. They have since asked media, paparazzi, content creators and members of the public to stay away from the family home.
For Hilton, the situation has created a painful collision between past and present. The man who once helped turn celebrity breakdowns, addictions, bodies and private lives into mass entertainment is now confronting his own darkest moment under an unforgiving public spotlight.
And perhaps the biggest question emerging from the controversy is one Hilton's old gossip site was rarely interested in asking: How much compassion does someone deserve when they failed to show it to others?
