Perez Hilton’s website has provided an update on the celebrity gossip blogger’s progress following her suicide attempt in August, revealing that she has been allowed to see her children and mother.
According to the site, “They were first able to spend time together over several video calls, and since then Hilton has also been able to see her children and her mother several times for short, supervised visits at the facility.” “Seeing her children in person meant so much to Perez. There were definitely a lot of emotions for everyone, but being able to spend this time together was incredibly meaningful and healing.”
Mario Lavandeira Jr. Hilton, who was born , suffered a mental health crisis at her home in Miami on the night of August 4 and livestreamed herself harming herself with a box cutter and a knife after her followers begged her to stop and tried to contact her.
Hilton remained hospitalized for weeks to receive treatment for her physical injuries before being transferred to a residential treatment program where she could “focus fully on her mental health and recovery,” her family said earlier this month.
In August, Hilton was granted supervised visits with her children.
But Hilton’s brother-in-law said in an Aug. 24 podcast that Hilton didn’t have any contact with her children because “they weren’t allowed in that part of the facility.”
Tuesday’s update also announced a GoFundMe fundraiser created for Hilton’s mother, Teresita Lavandeira, and Hilton’s three school-age children. The fundraiser, organized by theater producer Tom D’Angora, who describes himself as Hilton’s longtime friend, promised that “none of the money would be used personally for Perez.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, the fundraiser had raised nearly $14,000 of its $25,000 goal. D’Angora was not immediately available for comment.
“Like any grandmother who suddenly finds herself responsible for raising three growing children, she took on significant and unexpected expenses,” the fundraising website says. “Perez’s family and friends are helping as much as we can. We also wanted to give the many people who asked how they could help a way to do so.”
In the site’s update on Tuesday, it was stated that there is no timeline yet for when Perez will be released from inpatient treatment.
“Communication with Perez is still limited and we cannot talk to him every day,” the statement said.
But it was a guarantee that he was making progress.
“He continues to work with his care team to understand what led to his mental health crisis, recognize the warning signs, learn better ways to cope, and work through everything that brought him to this point,” according to the site.
Hilton has been a controversial media figure since the mid-2000s, when she started a celebrity gossip blog called PageSixSixSix. After the New York Post sued him, he rebranded himself as Perez Hilton, a play on socialite Paris Hilton’s name.
Hilton’s successful website, where she posted snarky rants about Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan and spread conspiracy theories about celebrity deaths, generated nearly 8 million page views a day at its peak, The Times columnist Robin Abcarian wrote recently. According to the now-defunct news outlet Gawker, he rejected a $20 million offer for the website in 2010.