Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie became stars thanks to their 2003 reality show “The Simple Life,” but their famous families weren’t initially on board.
Hilton, daughter of Kathy and Richard Hilton, members of the Hilton Hotels family, and Richie, daughter of legendary musician Lionel Richie, had been friends for years, living a life of luxury and growing media attention as socialite starlets when they signed on for the show.
“I was completely wrong. I never wanted her to do any of that, modeling, I wanted her just to go to school. She was going to become a veterinarian, and she went ahead and did that show, and I was wrong,” Kathy told Fox News Digital during “DIRECTV’s Christmas at Kathy’s” holiday party, benefiting families at Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California.
She added, “It was the funniest. There will never be another [like it]. You can’t even try.
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Paris Hilton’s mom, Kathy Hilton, and Nicole Richie’s dad, Lionel Richie, both admitted they were hesitant to let their daughters star on “The Simple Life.” (Getty Images)
Lionel also was uncertain about the girls going to the middle of nowhere, telling Entertainment Tonight earlier this year, “When they first started doing things like driving down the freeway backwards and I kept saying, ‘What are you guys doing?’ [they’d say] ‘It’s reality television, Dad!'”
“Our parents did not want us to do it and told us not to,” Hilton told Glamour in their December cover story.
“The Simple Life” sent the duo to rural Arkansas, with no cellphones, money or designer gear to live and work with a family on their farm and revel in the fish-out-of-water contrasts as they struggled to adjust and as the people of the town marveled at their seeming cluelessness.
“She went ahead and did that show, and I was wrong… It was the funniest.”
The show became a hit, spawning four more seasons and setting the tone for reality series to come, like “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
“And I don’t know if the world knows this, they started this mess, and I was the first guinea pig daddy to go along with this,” Lionel told ET of the show’s success.
Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie’s hit reality show “The Simple Life” premiered in 2003. (20th Century Fox Film Corp/Everett Collection)
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“It was the first of its kind. They hear that we’re going to be sent somewhere and we don’t know where we’re going,” Hilton told Glamour. “But after the first episode aired, my mom called me and she’s like, ‘This is the most hilarious show I’ve ever seen in my life. You and Nicole are incredible.’ She’s like, ‘I was wrong for once.’”
Kathy explained the appeal to Us Weekly, saying the show “was without swearing, without fighting [and] it was really cute and fun and just silly and a lot like I am.”
While already famous by association thanks to their families, “The Simple Life” launched the girls to true stardom.
“I mean, we enjoyed doing it, so of course we hoped that people would like it, but the reason why we said yes was solely for the purpose of having fun,” Richie told Glamour. “We thought it would be such an adventure. We didn’t know what town we were going to. All we knew was that we were going to be gone for 30 days. It’s very different from signing up for something today because you’re doing it to build your brand. That model did not exist back then. So we were solely doing it because we have always chased joy and wanted to have fun.”
Nicole Richie told Glamour she and Paris Hilton thought signing on for the show “would be such an adventure.” (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
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But, unfortunately, with the fame and fun came increased scrutiny from fans, haters and the media.
“The media in the ’00s was so toxic. They would target a certain group of girls, Nicole and I being two of those, and it was very difficult to be a young girl and discover who you are with the whole world watching,” Hilton said in Glamour. “But then also exaggerating and creating these storylines just to sell tabloids. It’s amazing now how much times have changed. I think it’s just a lot more respectful and it feels a lot safer now. The ’00s were vicious to all the girls.”
“We were solely doing it because we have always chased joy and wanted to have fun.”
Richie added, “I think it took a heavier toll on me than I could have admitted even to myself at the moment. But looking back, I can see how big of an effect it played on my daily life and my daily choices. But it’s also been such a strong motivation for me to own my own voice and my own narrative. And it makes me really proud of women that we’ve come such a long way to say, ‘That’s actually not okay.’”
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Richie also said of the time, “I’m not angry about anything. I think there are and were much more mature 20-year-olds than I was, but boundaries were not necessarily something that I was encouraged to have.”
PAris Hilton called the media attention she and Nicole Richie received at the time “toxic.” (Ray Mickshaw/WireImage)
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Hilton and Richie are now reuniting 20 years after the series’ premiere for “Paris & Nicole: The Encore” on Peacock.
In the first episode of the three-part series, they return to Altus, Arkansas, and reconnect with some of the people they met in town, including the patrons at the bar where Richie dumped bleach on a pool table after a misunderstanding. (She does offer to pay for the damages in the episode.)
“The ’00s were vicious to all the girls.”
The family they initially stayed with, the Ledings, declined to be on camera for their part of the reunion, but during the episode, Hilton described reconnecting with them as “really special.”
“It was really nice, being able to thank them and honestly, 20 years ago, we really did come and plow through that city like bats out of hell,” Richie said.
In the first episode of their reunion special, Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton revisit the small town of Altus, Arkansas. (Sara Jaye/Getty Images for SONIC)
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However, reuniting with all their past adventures isn’t the ultimate goal of the special. Hilton and Richie are instead determined to complete an opera, based on a song they made up as children, consisting of one nonsense word, “Sanasa.”
“We were never going to sit down on a couch to recap what we did before and be like, ‘That was so fun,’” Richie told THR. “That’s not something I want to do. But mixing us with the musical elites for that same fish-out-of-water experience? That’s interesting.”
The rest of the series follows the longtime pals as they work with composers, singers (including Sia) and more to put on an opera in just three weeks.
“When we were shooting ‘The Simple Life,’ it was just our little inside joke, but it became an international sensation. People loved it. What people need, even though they don’t know it yet, is for ‘Sanasa’ to be an opera,” Richie told W magazine.
Instead of a traditional reunion special, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are putting on an opera to celebrate the 20th anniversary of “The Simple Life.” (Harmony Gerber/Getty Images)
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Hilton added, “The idea of the opera was very unexpected, and that’s exactly why we loved it.”
And now, their families are on board with the reality concept.
“I think it’s going to be exciting,” Kathy said in Us Weekly. “The two of them are a dynamic duo.”
Kathy Hilton called the girls “a dynamic duo.” (Jamie McCarthy/WireImage)
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Lionel joked, “They haven’t changed. Let me tell you something, those two scare me just standing next to each other,” adding, “And now these two are back together, oh, my God — world, hang on to your seat. Thank God I’m older and my medication will get me through this next phase of our lives.”
“Paris & Nicole: The Encore” is streaming now on Peacock.
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