Perez Hilton has long road to recovery, had struggled with depression, sister says

In her first public interview, Perez Hilton’s sister opened up about discovering her brother during his self-harm incident, revealed he had been grappling with depression and offered thoughts about his long road to recovery.

Barbara Lavandeira told the New York Post’s Page Six that Aug. 4 “will forever be one of the darkest days my family and I have ever experienced.”

That was the evening Hilton, who rose to fame in the early 2000s as a celebrity gossip blogger, appeared to engage in self-harm during a livestream.

Police responded to his Miami home, and Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, was hospitalized for treatment.

Lavandeira was staying with her brother at the time and noticed his bedroom door was closed and locked, which she said “wasn’t like him,” Lavandeira told the outlet.

She called out to him, but he stopped responding.

“When I knocked, he said he was fine, but I could barely hear him,” she said. “After I knocked a few more times and asked him to open the door, he stopped responding. I tried calling his cellphone in case he couldn’t hear me, but he wouldn’t answer. Something just felt wrong.”

She said that she unlocked the bedroom door and saw he was inside the bathroom and that when he didn’t answer, she unlocked that door, too.

“When I opened the door, my nightmare became a reality,” she told Page Six. “Mario was standing in front of the shower, naked, cut up, covered in blood, with a box cutter in his hand.”

“What I can say with certainty is that I didn’t recognize my brother when I looked at him. I saw it in his eyes. They didn’t look the same. Then, a split second later, he smiled at me. It felt like I was staring at someone else,” she continued.

Lavandeira said she left the bathroom and corralled her daughter and Hilton’s three children out of the home, put them in the car and called 911.

“The first call I made was to the police. Then I messaged my best friend, who lives nearby, while I was on with dispatch, and asked her to please come get the kids and take them away from the scene,” Lavandeira said.

With the kids safe, she tended to her brother.

“Eventually, I was able to go back into the house while I waited for the ambulance and place towels over Mario to help stop the bleeding. He had already lost a significant amount of blood, yet he was somehow still able to speak, although his voice was very faint,” she said.

Finally, an ambulance arrived and took him to a hospital.

Hilton speaks at the Perez Hilton Music Showcase at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, in 2013.Rick Kern / Getty Images for SXSW file

She said Hilton had checked himself into a hospital for “severe depression” shortly before the Aug. 4 incident. That came on the heels of “an extremely difficult year” of health issues, she said.

About two weeks earlier, Hilton approached her and their mother and opened up about his mental health.

“He told us that a few days earlier, he had felt empty, hopeless and like he was a burden on everyone. He then admitted that one night when he couldn’t sleep, he had taken the remaining painkillers from his surgery in March. He said he just wanted to sleep,” she told Page Six.

Lavandeira told her brother he needed “proper psychiatric help.” Hilton agreed, and she took him to the hospital that same day, she said.

“He went voluntarily,” she said. “After several days of evaluation and treatment, the facility determined that he could be discharged.”

Hilton seemed to be on the up, spending time with the family and using coping mechanisms and grounding techniques he learned at the hospital, she said.

On Aug. 3, Hilton returned to his regular therapy sessions, and the next day he “completed an intake call for an intensive outpatient program and was supposed to begin outpatient group therapy the following week,” his sister said.

“Later that same afternoon, our lives changed forever,” she added.

In March, Hilton said in a series of posts that he had been hospitalized for three weeks with an ulcer and sepsis. He said in a YouTube video addressing his hospitalization that his condition was a result of taking medication without eating.

“He was hospitalized for close to a month. Doctors initially didn’t know what was wrong. His body became septic, he coded and he nearly died several times,” Lavandeira said.

“He underwent abdominal surgery, had fluid drained from around his lungs twice and then had to recover from surgery and begin physical therapy,” she said.

Hilton was back in a hospital a few weeks later for deep vein thrombosis, he said in an interview with NBC South Florida last month.

After he was released, “he began struggling with depression, anxiety, stress and overwhelming thoughts,” Lavandeira said.

She said that the family took those signs seriously and that he saw a therapist and a psychiatrist to get better.

He moved from Las Vegas to his hometown, Miami, in June to be closer to his family.

“Soon after arriving in Miami, Mario started having doubts. He worried that moving had been a mistake, a financial drain and an impulsive decision. He wondered whether he should have stayed in Las Vegas, and those thoughts wouldn’t leave his mind,” Lavandeira told Page Six.

She said Hilton was prescribed a low dose of antidepressant.

She said that while things “seemed to be looking better,” when it came to Aug. 4, “my brother was not well that day. He needed help, and he still needs help.”

She said that Hilton remains hospitalized and that the family’s priority is the health and safety of him and his children.

“His physical and mental recovery is going to take a lot of time, but we remain hopeful,” she said.

“He did sustain cuts to his face and other areas, but it’s still far too early to know the extent of any lasting damage or scarring,” she told Page Six. “What I can say is that he has a long road ahead of him, both physically and mentally.”

She said he has no cellphone or internet access in the hospital.

Lavandeira said she decided to speak out as the “only person who witnessed what happened from the beginning to the end.”

“I’m talking now for everyone who cares about him and has been sending their best wishes, but also because of all the rumors, false reporting, fake exclusives and made-up quotes going around,” she told Page Six. “I can only share what I personally witnessed and experienced, but I want people to hear directly from someone who was actually there.”

Lavandeira stressed that Hilton’s kids love their father and that the family’s goal is for him to get better and care for his children again.

“In the meantime, our mother is caring for them, and our entire family is helping provide the love, stability, privacy and professional support they need,” she said.

Lavandeira also stressed that her brother isn’t the same person he was when he launched his gossip website and condemned people who were casting judgment or making jokes about his experience.

“I don’t believe someone should be reduced forever to the worst things they did in their past, especially when they’ve admitted the harm and genuinely tried to grow.”

If you or someone you know is struggling or in emotional distress, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7, to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For additional resources, visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.