Paris Hilton gets real about enduring abuse as a teen: 'It was continuous torture'

Paris Hilton recently came forth sharing her abuse story in new documentary This Is Paris.

The reality star revealed that she had suffered abuse as a teen at her boarding school in Utah.

“I buried my truth for so long,” Hilton told PEOPLE about her experience of attending the Provo Canyon School in the late '90s. “But I’m proud of the strong woman I’ve become. People might assume everything in my life came easy to me, but I want to show the world who I truly am.”

She went on to mention that she used to live in a hotel with her parents and siblings in the New York City.

“It was so easy to sneak out and go to clubs and parties,” recalled Hilton. “My parents were so strict that it made me want to rebel. They’d [punish me] by taking away my cell phone, taking away my credit card, but it didn’t work. I would still go out on my own.”

As a result, Paris revealed she got fed up and opted for a boarding school.

Almost immediately after she arrived, “I knew it was going to be worse than anywhere else,” said Hilton. The abuse she faced, she added, took place on a daily basis.

“It was supposed to be a school, but [classes] were not the focus at all,” said Hilton. “From the moment I woke up until I went to bed, it was all day screaming in my face, yelling at me, continuous torture.”

“The staff would say terrible things. They were constantly making me feel bad about myself and bully me. I think it was their goal to break us down. And they were physically abusive, hitting and strangling us. They wanted to instill fear in the kids so we’d be too scared to disobey them.”

Soon after, one of her classmates told the staff that Hilton had plans to run away (“you couldn’t trust anyone there,” she said), and then she was placed in solitary confinement. “They would use that as punishment, sometimes 20 hours a day.”

“I was having panic attacks and crying every single day,” said Hilton. “I was just so miserable. I felt like a prisoner and I hated life.”

"Attempts to tell her parents about the conditions at school were fruitless. “I didn’t really get to speak to my family,” revealed Hilton.

"Maybe once every two or three months. We were cut off from the outside world. And when I tried to tell them once, I got in so much trouble I was scared to say it again. They would grab the phone or rip up letters I wrote telling me, ‘No one is going to believe you.’ And the staff would tell the parents that the kids were lying. So my parents had no idea what was going on.”

Finally when she turned 18, Hilton left the school and came back to NYC.

“I was so grateful to be out of there, I didn’t even want to bring it up again,” said Hilton. “It was just something I was ashamed of and I didn’t want to speak of it.”

Braving her fears decades later, Hilton said she could finally muster up the courage to talk about it publicly.

“It feels like my nightmare is over,” she said. “And I’m going to watch the movie with my parents — I think it will be good for us, but emotional too. There are no more secrets.”

“I want these places shut down,” added Hilton. “I want them to be held accountable. And I want to be a voice for children and now adults everywhere who have had similar experiences. I want it to stop for good and I will do whatever I can to make it happen.”