Perez Hilton’s family is sharing more about his harrowing ordeal.
The blogger’s sister Barbara Lavandeira detailed her own firsthand account after Hilton (real name Mario Lavandeira Jr.) was hospitalized for engaging in self-harm during an Aug. 4 livestream.
“Aug. 4 will forever be one of the darkest days my family and I have ever experienced,” Lavandeira told Page Six in an interview published Aug. 13. “That afternoon, Mario was in his bedroom with the door closed and locked, which wasn’t like him. His door was almost always open.”
Lavandeira recalled that Hilton, 48, stopped responding to her, at which point she became concerned and unlocked the door to his bedroom before entering his bathroom.
“When I opened the door, my nightmare became a reality,” she said. “Mario was standing in front of the shower, naked, cut up, covered in blood, with a box cutter in his hand.”
“What I can say with certainty is that I didn’t recognize my brother when I looked at him,” Lavandeira shared. “I saw it in his eyes. They didn’t look the same. Then, a split second later, he smiled at me. It felt like I was staring at someone else.”
At that point she grabbed the car keys and quickly left the Miami home with Hilton’s three children, whose ages range from 8 to 13. Once they were safe, she called 911 and messaged her best friend to come get the kids and “take them away from the scene.”
“Eventually, I was able to go back into the house while I waited for the ambulance and place towels over Mario to help stop the bleeding,” she continued. “He had already lost a significant amount of blood, yet he was somehow still able to speak, although his voice was very faint.”
Lavandeira explained that she wanted to share the details from the day because her older brother was “a public personality and someone who has shared so much of his life online.”
“I’m talking now for everyone who cares about him and has been sending their best wishes, but also because of all the rumors, false reporting, fake exclusives and made-up quotes going around,” she said. “I can only share what I personally witnessed and experienced, but I want people to hear directly from someone who was actually there.”
She also noted that comments calling the incident “karma” are “especially painful” for the family, asking that the public “recognize that he has changed tremendously over the past 20 years and has genuinely tried to become a better person.”
“Whatever anyone thinks about Mario, his children and our mother are innocent,” she concluded. “They shouldn’t be punished or tormented because of how people feel about him.”
Hilton remains hospitalized following the incident, with his mother Teresita Lavandeira filing for temporary custody of his kids.
According to Miami court documents obtained by multiple outlets, Hilton “voluntarily consented” to the custody request, which will allow his mom to make decisions regarding the kids’ necessary medical and dental care, grants her access to their medical and educational records and grants her liberty to make education decisions.
His family had previously shared that Hilton’s condition was stable, writing in an Aug. 8 update on his website, “He experienced significant blood loss and sustained additional injuries that will require surgery in the coming days. His treatment and recovery will be a long process.”