LIFE AS MUMS

FROM CLUBS TO BUBS - THE STARS OF THE SIMPLE LIFE REFLECT ON HOW THEIR WORLDS HAVE CHANGED AHEAD OF THEIR REALITY SHOW REBOOOT

- Jennie Noonan

When socialites Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie were approached to star in the 2003 fish-out-of-water reality series The Simple Life, they had to sell the idea to their famous families. “Our parents did not want us to do it and told us not to,” Hilton, whose parents are hotel tycoons Rick and Kathy Hilton, told Glamour magazine in an interview published December 5. “It was the first of its kind. They hear that we’re going to be sent somewhere, and we don’t know where we’re going. But after the first episode aired, my mum called me and she’s like, ‘This is the most hilarious show I’ve ever seen in my life. You and Nicole are incredible.’ She’s like, ‘I was wrong for once.’”

The show was a life changer for Hilton and Richie – the daughter of musician Lionel Richie and his first wife, Brenda Harvey – and 21 years on, the pair are revisiting that culture-shifting chapter for three-part reality series Paris & Nicole: The Encore (streaming now on Hayu).