
As an 18-year-old, Paris Hilton wanted to make her 'first real boyfriend', 13 years her senior, happy. So she didn't protest when he pulled out a camera and set it to record while they had sex.
When the couple split three years later, professional poker player Rick Salomon sold the tape, and it was distributed as One Night in Paris.
What followed is well documented in pop culture: The tape no doubt buoyed interest in Hilton's TV show The Simple Life - and the character that she played, of the 'rich, ditzy blonde' worked to confirm the public persona of the socialite.
The This is Paris official trailer. Post continues below video.
Hilton became the butt of the joke, in private and on huge, public stages.
SNL ran skits, Pink mocked her in her 'Stupid Girls' music video and David Letterman shared a monologue about her before a howling audience.
At no point did we consider Hilton, and the impact this would have on her. For years, she's been talking about the trauma that came with the tape.
In Netflix documentary The American Meme Hilton wiped back tears as she spoke about it.
"Literally overnight my entire life changed. It was all over every news station, every single talk show host, everyone was making fun of it," she said.
"I didn't leave my house for, like months. I was so embarrassed. I felt like everyone on the street was laughing at me. I literally could not walk on the street because I felt like every single person had watched it, had seen me naked and was talking behind my back."
She then added, "It was like being raped. It felt like I've lost part of my soul and been talked about in such cruel and mean ways".
Hilton admitted she "wanted to die" at some points after the tape's release.