TV star, DJ, singer and one-woman power-brand Paris Hilton is officially engaged to businessman Carter Reum, and we are so fkn happy for her.
Paris, who turned 40 yesterday on February 17, revealed on Instagram that Carter had proposed while they were on holiday together on a private island.
“When you find your soulmate, you don’t just know it. You feel it,” she began her caption. “My love & I have been together since our first date, and for my birthday, he arranged a special trip to tropical paradise.
“As we walked to dinner along the beach, Carter led us to a cabana adorned with flowers and dropped to one knee. I said yes, yes to forever. There’s no one I’d rather spend forever with.
She added: “Here’s to Love – the Forever Kind.”
Writing on her website, where you can check out galleries of photos from the engagement, she wrote that being with Carter makes her feel that anything is possible.
“He accepts me for who I am and encourages me to show my true self. I’m eternally grateful to have him in my life.”
Her engagement ring was designed by Jean Dousset, the great-great grandson of Louis-François Cartier (yeah, that Cartier).
In an interview with Vogue, Paris revealed that the couple got engaged on February 13, before celebrating the news and her birthday with fam and friends.
“I am excited about this next chapter and having such a supportive partner,” she said. “Our relationship is one of equals. We make each other better people. He was absolutely worth the wait!”
May we say, that’s hot.
“From our very first date, I was able to get to know the real Paris,” Reum told Vogue. “As people who have seen her documentary and recent advocacy work know, Paris is kind, smart, driven, authentic, and an amazing woman, and I can’t wait to have her as a partner in life.”
Paris and Carter have been together since the end of 2019, but have known each other for more than 15 years.
Paris Hilton has been engaged three times before: to model Jason Shaw from 2002 to 2003, shipping heir Paris Latsis in 2005, and to actor Chris Zylka in 2018.
Over the last year especially, the public has started to rethink the way Paris Hilton was treated by the media and wider society in the ’00s. See: the violation of her consent through the release of her sex tape, or the relish with which people watched as she was jailed for driving infringements.
The release of YouTube doco This is Paris, where she spoke for the first time about her experience of child abuse while at boarding school, was a major turning point.
She’s since become an advocate for survivors and reform of the so-called troubled teen industry, i.e. boarding schools that offer to rehabilitate “difficult” young people but can become the site of abuse and violence.
Paris Hilton, along with other young women celebrities, like Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Amanda Bynes and Mischa Barton, were dismissed and made the subject of cruel jokes, despite (even because of) their public struggles with things like mental health and substance abuse.
It’s cooked that we treated these young women not just without empathy but with sheer disdain. Here’s hoping their stories, and the new light with which we see them, mean that young women who are now in the limelight are offered compassion.
And, in terms of Paris’ engagement, here’s hoping this is finally her happily ever after.
For more Paris (WE. WANT. MORE. PARIS), her new podcast with iHeartRadio, This Is Paris, premieres on February 22. And you can listen to a Paris-centred series of Even The Rich from earlier this year here.
