Paris Hilton has said she still gets nightmares after she was made to attend an "emotional growth boarding school" for "troubled teens".
The socialite, media personality and entrepreneur appeared on The Ray D'Arcy Show on RTÉ Radio One on Monday to talk about her new book Paris: The Memoir and her new documentary, and she recalled the time she was made to join the facility.
"It is something that has given me nightmares ever since I was 16."
"The two men came into my room in the middle of the night... I had no idea who they were. I thought they were kidnapping me."
She added: "It was very scary. They don’t explain to you where you're going or what’s happening so it’s traumatising."
Hilton, who has a two-month-old son called Phoenix with her husband Carter Reum, also claimed she suffered physical and verbal abuse at the tough love school.
In her twenties, she was diagnosed with ADHD. "I had no idea as a teenager, when I was a teenager, people were just not talking about it, so I had no idea why.
"I couldn't concentrate in school, and it was very difficult for me with everything, memorising things and being responsible and now I realise that if you can harness it in the correct way, it’s really a superpower and my whole career I feel that I've always thought outside the box and been an innovator and someone who takes risks, so I see it as an attribute. It gives you an energy.
"I wasn’t really a bad kid. All I did was sneak out at night, I got bad grades, got kicked out of school but I didn’t deserve to go somewhere like that. No one does.
Asked about what her parents thought, she said: "They had no idea. They thought I was going to a normal boarding school... but people have no idea what’s happening behind closed doors, so my parents did not know."
Hilton has now met other survivors and has been to Washington DC to campaign for the closure of the boarding schools.
"I’m so proud of the impact we’ve made so far. I’ve helped change laws in eight different states and I'm going to be going back to DC in April to introduce our new bill so I'm just hoping that everyone does the right thing."
