Paris Hilton explained why she chose to keep the recent birth of her son, Phoenix, under wraps.
Appearing on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna on March 14, the 42-year-old said that she kept the child's arrival a secret, even from family, because she wanted something private amid her life in the public eye.
"I just feel like my life has been so public and I just wanted something for me," she said. "I didn’t want the media and people online just speaking about my son even before he was here on this earth."
Though she embraces her playful side that the public sees, Hilton said she always wanted to be a mom. But she didn't have the right person to experience parenthood with until she met her husband, Carter Reum.
"I needed to find someone I could trust and open my heart to and this little baby is just my everything," Hilton said.
The reality star welcomed the baby boy via surrogate earlier this year.
On Jan. 24, Hilton announced the birth on Instagram with a picture of her newborn with his hand wrapped around her thumb. The post did not show the child's face or reveal his name, but a caption read, “You are already loved beyond words.”
In an episode of her “This is Paris” podcast, Hilton detailed her and Reum's tight-lipped approach to their son’s birth.
“We’re just so excited to start our family and can’t wait for you to see him. But for now, you’ve just been keeping everything really private,” she explained in her podcast. “No one knew, literally, until he was, like, over a week old. So it was really nice just to have that with Carter, (have) our own journey together.”
Hilton noted in her podcast that neither her mother, Kathy Hilton, nor her sister, Nicky Hilton Rothschild, learned her surrogate had given birth.
“I just really felt that I wanted to have this journey with us only,” she noted, adding, “It was hard to keep that in because we were so excited and wanted to tell our families, but you’re just nervous because if you tell one person then you know they tell someone and then all of a sudden it’s like in TMZ or Page Six."
She and her husband then made a pact that they would not tell anyone.
The socialite noted that, in the end, the decision to keep the news between her and Reum was worth it.
“When I introduced my mom to our baby boy, it was amazing to see the look on her face,” she added. “She was so surprised. Just the look on her face was just priceless.”
Hilton described her newborn’s arrival as surreal, saying, “It’s amazing being a mom. So weird saying that I’m a mom.”
Though determined to protect this new chapter of her life, the media personality is already filming the second season of her reality television series “Paris In Love.”
Speaking with TODAY.com in a recent interview, Hilton revealed that when it comes to the new season, she won’t be leaving much on the cutting room floor — a sign that she won’t be stepping away from the limelight entirely.
“It’s going to include everything. My whole journey, everything about becoming a new mom, my baby, running 11:11 Media, my media company, going on tour for my music, being in the studio recording, traveling on my book tour,” she said. “We’re shooting basically every single day. So they are capturing it all.”
