It’s easy to feel a residual fondness for Paris Hilton. Like Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie, she was a staple figure in the gossip press of the mid-Noughties, and seems to have emerged relatively happy and healthy. Perhaps as a result of this early-onset nostalgia, the hotel heiress and entrepreneur has been enjoying something of a comeback lately, giving splashy interviews in which she discusses pre-social media era fame, gives tips on how to get paid to party, and is described as “the hardest-working woman in the game”.

However, troubling comments made by Hilton about Donald Trump and sexual assault look as though they could damage her reputation.

In a recent interview with US Marie Claire, Hilton dismissed President Trump’s 2004 “grab ’em by the pussy” comment as nothing more than laddish banter.

“I’ve heard guys say the craziest things ever, because I’m always around guys, and I listen to them speak,” Hilton told writer Irin Carmon.

When asked what she made of the multiple women who accused Trump of sexual assault, Hilton replied: “I think that they are just trying to get attention and get fame.”

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Now, Carmon has tweeted a screengrab of the transcript of her interview with Hilton, revealing details of their conversation that were edited from the final article.

On the subject of the Access Hollywood “pussy” tape, Hilton said: “I’ve heard guys say some pretty crazy things. Like, worse than that. So I think that when someone doesn’t realise they’re being filmed or recorded, they say things. Especially with a guy.”

The businesswoman also expanded on her views of the women who made allegations against the then-presidential candidate.

“I feel like a lot of people, when something happens all these opportunists will come out,” she said. “They want to get money or get paid not to say anything or get a settlement when nothing really happened. So I don’t believe any of that.”

Hilton even suggested that some of the women who accused Trump of assault had actually been trying to seduce him.

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“I’m sure they were trying to be with him too,” she said. “Because a lot of women, I’ve seen, like him because he’s wealthy and he’s charming and he’s good-looking so I feel like a lot of these girls just made the story up.”

Hilton’s family moved in the same elite circles as the Trumps while she was growing up, and she praised the president as “an incredible businessman” – although she said that she didn’t vote for him in the election (she didn’t vote at all).

“I’ve known him since I was a little girl,” she said. “And he’s always been so nice, so respectful and sweet.”

During a 2003 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Trump said he found Hilton “beautiful” before she reached her teens. “I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12, her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’”

He also told ‘shock jock’ Stern that he had watched Hilton’s sex tape.

But despite the fact that Hilton said that the release of her sex tape left her “so depressed [and] humiliated” that she “didn’t want to be seen in public”, she brushed off the suggestion that Trump may have sexualised her inappropriately.

“Anyone that’s on [the Howard Stern] show, Howard just loves to say weird things and people say things that they normally wouldn’t say,” said Hilton. “It wasn’t creepy at all. [Trump’s] not like that at all, he’s always been so respectful.”

Many of Hilton’s comments echo those of Melania Trump, who has also dismissed her husband’s accusers as liars and described his comments about sexual assault as “boy talk”.

However, Hilton said that she considers herself a feminist. “I just feel it’s about women’s empowerment and girl power, and I’m very into that.”

Images: Rex Features