However, Hilton, 40, completely knows where Spears, 39, was coming from.

“I know that she didn’t mean it in that way. She meant when she saw it, she couldn’t even believe it. What she said was, people hear that, ‘It’s Britney Spears’ [or] ‘It’s Paris Hilton. They have these perfect lives. Who is gonna believe [it]? I didn’t even believe Paris, who’s gonna believe me?’ That’s when she first watched it,” Hilton said on the Monday, July 5, episode of the “This Is Paris” podcast. “I think it was just a misunderstanding on the media’s part.”

The Simple Life alum said that other survivors reached out to her after the testimony, and she explained that Spears’ comment wasn’t a malicious one, noting, “She did not mean it in that way, she was just using it as an example.”

During the June 23 hearing, the pop star used Hilton’s admission of her past abuse as a way to explain why she didn’t speak up sooner.

“To be honest with you, the Paris Hilton story on what they did to her at that school, I didn’t believe any of it,” the “Toxic” singer, who has been under a conservatorship for the last 13 years, said at the time. “I’m an outsider and I’ll just be honest, I didn’t believe it, and maybe I’m wrong and that’s why I didn’t want to say any of this to anybody [or] to the public because I thought people would make fun of me or laugh at me and say, ‘She’s lying, she’s got everything, she’s Britney Spears.’ I’m not lying. I just want my life back.”

During Hilton’s 2020 documentary, the World According to Paris producer revealed that she struggled to speak out about the abuse she had gone through.

“Every time I tried, I got punished by [the school] or they would say, ‘We’re just going to tell your parents you’re a liar, and they’re never going to believe you,'” she said at the time.

The heiress shared the clip of her latest podcast episode to her Instagram, revealing in the caption that she will “always love and support” the songstress.

“She is so kind and sweet, and she deserves her freedom. I’ve been saying #FreeBritney for a long time, and I will keep saying it until she is free,” the “Stars Are Blind” singer wrote of Spears on Tuesday, July 6. “We all need to use our voices to protect victims of abuse. She is so incredibly brave and an inspiration for speaking her truth. I know personally how hard it is to come forward to tell your story, and so I hope Britney knows that she is so loved and supported by the world right now.”

During the episode, the DJ added that listening to the testimony wasn’t easy.

“It just broke my heart,” Hilton said. “Dealing with it as a teenager was hard, but I can’t imagine, still, as an adult, after working your entire life. … She’s built a huge empire. She’s a legend, she’s an icon, she’s a mother. She’s amazing and she has these people controlling her money, her life.”

She added, “[It’s] so not fair but I’m so proud of her for speaking up and using her voice.”

This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Emily Longeretta