Aug. 5, 2026
Celebrity Blogger Perez Hilton Hospitalized After Disturbing Self-Harm Livestream
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RSS Feed The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s office responded to a disturbing scene on Tuesday after receiving multiple calls from concerned fans who were watching a bloody livestream involving celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. It appeared Hilton was cutting himself live, on his TikTok feed, and was covered in blood, as people watching were begging him to stop. The video has been taken down, but is still circulating online, as Hilton recovers in the hospital. While his reps have said publicly they haven’t been able to reach him, there are so many questions as to how and why things took such a violent turn. Sadly, self harm videos have been plaguing social media sites in recent years, and are considered by mental health professionals as a potential gateway to more serious outcomes, including death.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. We're always told we need to be careful in how we talk about suicide. I don't know, necessarily though, Robes, how we're supposed to talk about self harm. Welcome everybody on TJ. That's Robes. We're talking about this because of Perez Hilton, celebrity blogger, and what just happened with him. Robes, it had to do with self harm, and I have been learning a lot about this in the past twenty four hours.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was an incredibly disturbing situation that a lot of folks didn't realize they were joining when this.
00:00:46
Speaker 3: Happened on Tuesday.
00:00:49
Speaker 2: And you have someone who most people know, this is a household name for most people, Perez Hilton.
00:00:55
Speaker 3: He's been around for decades.
00:00:57
Speaker 2: I think he calls himself the original influencer. He was the guy who started holding celebrities accountable and yes, making fun of them sometimes.
00:01:08
Speaker 1: He's this guy is a part of the story. He's been awful to people. There's no outing people. Absolutely in Hollywood. All that's out the window, and that should be said, because who gives a damn Right now, We're all concerned for him because we saw with our own eyes someone who was in trouble.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: In pain, and he's a human being and regardless of past acts or how he's operated, and I will say he has softened significantly over the years. But for anyone who has been a target of his attacks, certainly they had feelings about him. I would think that that is all suspended and changed when you see the state he was in and the choice he made to put it out there on a live stream. Bottom line, if you haven't seen it, I would suggest you don't look it up because because unfortunately I did watch parts of it that are still online, and there are still versions of it online where you see Perez Hilton covered in his own blood.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: He's cutting himself, he appears to be harming himself. This went on for a little bit, not just one cut, but multiple This was ugly, that was awful, and people didn't know what direction it was going to go. We can say, yes, the incident did happen as of this recording. It happened just overnight, but robes the people were online, people who were watching this, his fans, friends were telling him via the live stream, stop, don't do this, but calls were going in to authorities. We ended up showing up, got the situation under control, I guess, and he went to the hospital. More on that in the second, but Robes did there is a whole community out there of this thing of self harm, which is a precursor to possible suicide. And if nothing else, Robes it made me stop and pay attention to something because there's so much talk about depression, anxiety and finding community online and kids ending up dying by suicide. But Robes, this is something I didn't this part of it. People, This is a regular thing, and thousands and thousands of these videos are out there.
00:03:26
Speaker 3: I'll be honest, I had no idea about that either, but I guess it makes sense.
00:03:30
Speaker 2: There's a community for everything, and even perhaps a community where this is an outlet.
00:03:35
Speaker 3: This is a release.
00:03:36
Speaker 2: And unfortunately, when kids or anyone truly who is suffering doesn't maybe have someone to turn to, needs help, needs attention, needs someone to come in, they see something like this and it sparks an idea and it creates, unfortunately, copycats, and it makes something that might be an isolated event somehow become community event, and that might be intoxicating or something that people want. Because a lot of these videos, these live streams, they are christ for help. They're very public cries for help, and I think that's how we have to look at this. But obviously we need to find a way for these not to occur, because not only are we concerned for the people who are harming themselves, but for the people who might do it later today or tomorrow or the next week because they saw something and it sparked an idea and it made them feel like they were a part of something.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: There is an effort over the past several years, specific effort to go after these types of videos that a lot of the social media companies got together on. We'll mention that in just a moment at least to get you caught up on what this happened in Miami. Robes and yes, he's live streaming on TikTok and this is not And again, some of the things you were saying are one thing, but where we add into this element of the blood, it was terrifying. This wasn't a trickle of blood. This looked like a horror scene. And so when you consider that, we do have the official statement. Now while this was going on, Miami Dade put this initial statement out letting us know what was happening, and it was important to note that there was nobody else in harm, which they were trying to explain. It's why we are not just busting down the door right now, which makes sense.
00:05:31
Speaker 2: And they were trying to make sure he didn't inflict further harm or there was this notion.
00:05:35
Speaker 3: Of people talk suicide by cop. That's sort of a thing.
00:05:39
Speaker 2: They're trying to de escalate, not escalate things, or make him feel more violent towards himself or towards other where they would then have to take action. So yes, they were trying to keep everyone as safe as possible, and they did release this initial statement.
00:05:54
Speaker 3: They said. The Miami Dade Sheriff's.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: Office received multiple calls regarding an individual who was live streaming acts of self harm on social media. Deputies quickly located the individual's residence, where they spoke with family members on scene and confirmed he was alone inside.
00:06:13
Speaker 3: That's important, they say.
00:06:14
Speaker 2: In many incidents involving a person experiencing a mental health crisis or actively harming themselves, deputies prioritize de escalation by creating time, distance and opportunities for communication unless there is an immediate threat to others, slowing the situation and utilizing crisis intervention techniques can reduce the likelihood of suicide by cop encounter and minimize the risk of injury to the individual, deputies and the public.
00:06:45
Speaker 1: They follow up a little while later when there was actually done, just letting folks know the individual will safely recover, transported to the hospital and receiving medical attention. His reps as well put out a statement here erbes I didn't see a follow up for them him to suggest that they had gotten in touch with him, But this was These are his representatives, Robes who even they were desperately trying to get a hold of him and say they could not. Yeah, we are aware of the concerning content circulating online involving our client. At this time, we have not been able to make direct contact with him, despite ongoing efforts to reach him. Our primary concern is Perez his health and well being, as well as the well being of his family and that family. Robes, I didn't know. I didn't know he was single dat I had no idea he.
00:07:29
Speaker 3: Had He has three children via Assaragate. Correct.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: I wasn't necessarily aware of that. Now I am after we started looking into him and what he's been doing lately. I even looked back on his website and he was just on posting videos talking.
00:07:47
Speaker 3: About Ariana Grande.
00:07:48
Speaker 2: And interestingly, it struck me you started this episode talking about.
00:07:54
Speaker 3: Not knowing how to address or not knowing how.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: To necessarily speak correctly on on self harm suicide. These are very delicate, sensitive topics that you don't want to add harm to someone or any group of people who are already suffering. And it was so interesting because Perez Hilton took that tactic and that approach when he was talking about Ariana Grande just earlier this week, talking about how he didn't want to weigh in necessarily or do anything to add to her mental health crisis, Like he was tiptoeing around even what seemed to be a cry for help from her in terms of what her fans were saying about how she looked in her So it's interesting he was tackling an adjacent topic about mental health and about not wanting to overreach or say something offensive, and here we are now talking about him a matter of hours later.
00:08:46
Speaker 1: I mean, you never know what's going on with people. Like you said yesterday, Robes, he looked perfectly normal to his audience, right, same old Perez doing whatever he does. Again, he's not some money I follow and just not aware of. To be honest with I didn't know he was ill doing the website. I have no idea. I just didn't keep up, but aware of him from back in the day for whatever reason, I remember him with Paris Hilton.
00:09:07
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, absolutely, that's exactly the name that I think of when I think about how he kind of started to get into that higher level of fame where he started just yeah, taking down, ripping apart celebrities for what they did, what they said. He would draw on pictures of them, and people caught on and liked his commentary. It was snarky, it was mean oftentimes, but now we're seeing his suffering and it just goes to show. You say this all the time, you don't know what's going on in someone's life. You don't know what's going on in someone's head, and a lot of times when you see people who put out kinds incendiary or sometimes even hurtful or hateful things, it's almost a projection of what they're dealing with internally.
00:09:53
Speaker 3: And perhaps that might be what we saw this week.
00:09:56
Speaker 1: You know, I just I don't know. I don't know if I've ever met him at some red carper to somewhere doing anything. I don't know if I have Robes and I again, I just remember in particular the outing of people. I remember him in the beginning just being vicious and it worked, right. It got him popularity, It got him a following, It got him to what he is now, which is, like you said, Rose, maybe a certain degree going. You got the tmzs of the world. As far as an individual, the og who is able to color celebrity news and has gone to like yeah, that's only a handful, very few. And you know him by name, so Rob it's it's my first or the only thing I know about him is all of that. Today this happens, I don't The first thought is of human being that's hurting Robes and the number of times you roll your eyes sometimes but you get it finally now how I It doesn't matter who it is, And oftentimes it's somebody that's not treating me, well, give him a break. Folks are going through it, Robes, and the reason sometimes somebody might be able to treat you so poorly is because they hate what's happening. In their own lives, they hate what's happening to them. I'm not suggesting that's him here, but I'm connecting in just that we should feel nothing but concern and love and hope that he's okay. There are kids involved here, and just to see people robes who are able to go from being that performative and doing that in front of an audience and giving off an impression that everything is fine two hours later being in that type of mental state, that type of crisis.
00:11:48
Speaker 2: And I will say, look, I have seen a lot, you have seen a lot in our careers. I have never quite seen anything like that, especially someone who is willing to do what he was doing in front of a live audience. And I mean it, you see performative, yes, but it didn't seem like he wasn't faking the blood, he wasn't faking the cutting, and he was moaning like I could only watch for I.
00:12:18
Speaker 3: Think less than a minute. I don't know how long it went on.
00:12:21
Speaker 2: I saw people going online and saying I could see seven seconds and that was it. I mean, this was I have a hard time even speaking after seeing that because it is so disturbing and I hate that any of it's even still out there for anybody to look at or to witness, because you are watching a human being on ravel on live.
00:12:44
Speaker 3: Streaming services, and it's just awful.
00:12:48
Speaker 1: To what point, what is happening in someone's life to get them to that point? What is happening in somebody's life that they have been functioning successfully in front of the world for many, many years, and to get to that point, you wonder, and you worry, Robes about folks. You worry that, like we've we've had some bad times and bad moments, and we went bad directions at times in our careers where we're fighting to be relevant, we're fighting to be a bigger name, we're fighting for that job, we're fighting for a reputation, and then you're trying to keep a family together at home and Robes and I don't know, but my God, to think that this is not in any way connected to what he does for a living, what he's been up to, and I mean not in a negative way. I'm saying, just the stress and the pressures in the limelight, Robes, I just how did he get to this? You said the very the day before the same day was the post.
00:13:49
Speaker 2: I believe it was the day before, but he had that was his last post, but he was That was just the irony for me, him discussing and trying to carefully navigate how he described and talked about what Ariana Grande must be going through and what they might be going through. And he actually, that's what I'm saying, he was a changed person from the last time I've seen or read anything that he posted. Where it was he had no problem saying what he thought, no problem throwing people under the bus, no problem judging or saying what he wanted about somebody.
00:14:20
Speaker 3: He was very careful, he said he was struggling with how.
00:14:22
Speaker 2: To talk about ari He called her ariana Grande, and it seemed very genuine and very sincere, and maybe it was a little bit of an insight into him acknowledging or maybe even understanding, perhaps some of the mental struggles that she was going through, because maybe at that point he had been going through them as well, we just weren't as fully aware.
00:14:44
Speaker 3: But to have it go from that level.
00:14:47
Speaker 2: Of empathy and compassion and trying to describe someone's personal issues and saying he wished her the best and was glad she was taking a step back to then just hours later having a live stream showing a horror movie where he was the perpetrator and the victim all in one.
00:15:06
Speaker 3: And yes, to know.
00:15:08
Speaker 2: That there were children, to know that he's got family members who care about him who were at the I guess nearby on the scene, but not in the home, so they weren't in any sort of real danger.
00:15:18
Speaker 3: But I cannot imagine.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: What leads somebody to that point, to that breaking point, but clearly that was a mental health break, and a lot of people are pointing out the fact that, yes, he was talking about Ariana Grande, but he literally in that live stream looked very similar to the way Ariana Grande looked in her music video that was just released, Pedal, which he was actually talking about in that last vlog or blog, And he actually looked like her, bloodied from head to toe. And people have been putting up side by side images as if was he in some way weird way embodying part of that video.
00:16:02
Speaker 3: I mean, it really does look eerily similar.
00:16:04
Speaker 2: I don't know, obviously, we don't know if there's a connection, but it's certainly been noted.
00:16:11
Speaker 1: You know this is not and again, authorities are there so of anybody suggesting this was performative or it was just to get in some headlines. No, it was. It was for attention, for sure, robes, but it was it was a cry for help. This was this was somebody, please help me, please, And he's getting that help now, and I hope he's surrounded by family robes. But I don't think anyone saw this, and this doesn't didn't look like anyone was glorifying or romanticizing the idea of self harm. Those are two. There are plenty of videos out there and we're getting into now, but this wasn't that. I want to make that clear. That was nothing glorious about this video. If you haven't seen it, and we do not suggest watching it, but no, it's out there. But that was nothing glorious about what we were saying.
00:17:05
Speaker 3: No, he was.
00:17:06
Speaker 2: He actually sounded and looked like he was in pain. He was moaning, he was he was not enjoying this. It didn't seem performative at all. This seemed like something that none of us should have been watching. And to hear the people saying stop, please stop, I mean, it.
00:17:27
Speaker 3: Was just it. It didn't seem real. That's how awful it was.
00:17:33
Speaker 2: You kept thinking the whole time you're watching, like this can't actually have occurred.
00:17:37
Speaker 3: This can't. I can't imagine what it was like watching it in real time.
00:17:41
Speaker 1: And it was taken down. They got word of it at TikTok the live stream was taken down ROA. Was it? Good on? And I will give them credit. But to hear the authorities say they got multiple calls, Yes, all right, folks were concerned enough, they picked up the phone, they call. They just didn't stare at what they were and see it as a form of entertainment. Maybe that some people did called so good on them, thank god. Yes, and those folks are probably strangers to him, fans or something watching. But when they said they got multiple calls of an incident, good on those folks. Like we mentioned here at the top, we are learning about self harm, including the fact that self harm has a different name robes self harm. That is pretty self explanatory when you hear it the clinical name non suicidal self injury disorder. Wow, it's a disorder. They consider it a mental health disorder, non suicidal self injury disorder. They've been paying attention and focusing on this a lot the past several years. Robes and I guess yes, we've seen several instances of AI. Now kids will ask AI for help and how to harm themselves or how to deal with things. But there are plenty of videos out there, oh you mentioned community that are glorifying in some way, and even if you're not celebrating it, it's showing self harm as an option. It's showing I can't deal. It's okay if you can't deal, so this is what I decide to do, and maybe you can do it too. It's not saying it that bluntly, but it's saying that just in them being up.
00:19:32
Speaker 2: It's almost as if, yes, you have a self help group where you feel seen, you feel heard, you feel validated. Other people are saying, I know what that feels like. I've experienced this too, and then to feel like you're not alone. But the idea that what brings you together, what makes you not feel alone, is that you all have a desire to harm yourself to release pain, and that this is something that's worked. I mean, we've heard obviously over the years throughout our careers and just as human beings about this notion. A lot of teenagers will cut themselves to release pain cut themselves because that's the only way they know how to deal with pain, emotional pain and trauma is to feel physical pain.
00:20:16
Speaker 3: It in some way releases the emotional pain.
00:20:19
Speaker 2: If you've got someone who's young and impressionable, and now you've got videos and you see other people who've done it, and you feel like you can be a part of it and maybe it'll help. And now you've got other people who understand you. That's really scary stuff.
00:20:31
Speaker 1: But you just said something important at the top there. It is twofold. Isn't social media great? You can find people out there who maybe are suffering like you or maybe going through it, and you do feel community and maybe you see them working their way through it. That's a positive about social media. That same thing, Robes. On the other side, it's the negative. Same kid looking for community, but you find it over here where people are not just helping you through it because they went through it. You're suffering and staying in the same suffering together and now you're healing the same way together. Now that community, to your point, Robes. They do say it's a good thing and it's a bad thing when people discuss their mental health online because people will take it as a positive and follow you and say, hey, I found somebody just like me and they're working their way out of it. Or I found somebody just like me and they're not doing well, and I'm gonna do what they're doing. Robes. It's twofold. And so to your point here, what the wise? Why do people do? I think you reeled off all of them officially here. I can't remember this the male, I can't remember which one I got it from, but Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, one of them. They do it to punish themselves. They do it to cope, They do it to communicate stress. They to communicate distress, I has to say, to communicate distress is why they do it. The idea that you mentioned, they do it to punish themselves for not being good enough, for failing at something, and you have to that's mental.
00:22:02
Speaker 2: And that's so sad to me that it just breaks my heart because it's this idea of shame that we aren't allowed to make mistakes, that we aren't allowed to fail, that we have to be perfect, that we have to do everything right, and if we don't, we deserve to be shamed and punished.
00:22:19
Speaker 3: And to do it to yourself.
00:22:22
Speaker 2: It's just this, it's the saddest form of self hate that I can imagine, which then can lead unfortunately to suicide. So this could just be correct. This is a gateway potentially to suicide. At least some mental health experts believe that.
00:22:37
Speaker 1: I haven't heard anybody use that word. But that's a good one gateway. That's exactly what they're talking about. This is a precursor. This is what the likelihood people are more likely. Yes, they start kind of this way. It's a cry for help. If you don't give it to them, if you don't pay attention, they're going to graduate to something else, and that next thing is possibly taking their own lives. Yeah, I just I never and I didn't know. This is the big thing they've been doing and trying to get online to get a lot of these videos down the way people self harm themselves. I guess it makes sense. Cutting. We've been talking about ROMs, but they will hit themselves burning, I think I've heard about that before. But also scratching and rubbing. Yeah, they do a lot of arms, wrists, thighs.
00:23:21
Speaker 3: And abdomen because those are hidden.
00:23:23
Speaker 1: Right and you have access to them, doesn't God, the thought of that. But yeah, that's exactly.
00:23:30
Speaker 2: Right, man.
00:23:31
Speaker 3: It's heartbreaking.
00:23:32
Speaker 2: Ah And I just you know, you see what happened with Perez Hilton, And on one hand, you hope we can have real conversations, no warning signs, no parents, friends, loved ones, what to look for in someone who might be struggling mentally. But also you just I worry so much about about younger folks, but just anyone truly getting an idea from this or thinking that's what I want to do, or that's the attention I want, or that's an option for me. I just I hope that more good can come from this than bad, where people can really recognize that the threat of this is real, that it exists, that this is something, that this is an outlet that people do take and have taken, and it's on the people around them who love them to recognize it to help them get the help they need before it turns into some awful public display like we saw from Pereza.
00:24:28
Speaker 1: You know, I even wondered how that is going to have an impact because of the attention it's getting. Right, we would never cover a suicide that was done like this, right, even if it was a I don't know if a very famous person, but we're always careful in media of how you cover robes somebody who does this type of thing. So yeah, if someone heard about him doing it, that's one thing. Does someone else now think, oh, I'll hit my live stream and do it too.
00:24:57
Speaker 3: That's the scary thought.
00:24:58
Speaker 2: And look, it is interesting you point this out because I don't know if everyone. Probably most people don't know, but there are pretty strict rules in place in most media organizations, certainly the ones that I've worked in and you've worked in, where we actually had a hard fast rule you do not cover suicides period. I remember being in the chopper in Washington, DC and someone jumped off the bridge into the Potomac and it was a young producer who wanted to go live. We had a camera boom, traffic was backed up, so you could make the argument that there was an actual news story surrounding the suicide, because obviously they had to shut the bridge down and they had We actually found the body for the police and they came. We were over it and they came to the boat and I remember turning off the camera and saying, we will not cover this because you don't want to obviously create any sort of attention where someone else is going to think, well, I'll go on the bridge tomorrow because then I'll get attention and people will remember me. Whatever it is they go through people's minds, But that's always been and you have to make these decisions on a case by case basis. But generally speaking, no, we don't cover these things for a reason.
00:26:09
Speaker 1: But this is such a now a high profile case of now live stream broadcasts self harm ropes. There are people behind the scenes, been fighting getting videos like this down that are put up. But ro there was a live stream of a famous dude who was doing this to himself and so I don't know how that's going to impact you said, it was heartbreaking to think about folks doing this. The other heartbreaking part Roades, they'd say, eleven to fourteen is when this starts, and that's what I was doing through I didn't. Yeah, I think that young and more. The higher rates and girls.
00:26:47
Speaker 3: That makes total sense.
00:26:48
Speaker 1: A higher rates as well LGBTWOQ plus.
00:26:50
Speaker 2: The self loathing. I'm not who I'm supposed to be. I don't look like what I'm supposed to look like. I don't look like the girls on TikTok or instance or the influencers. I don't have a Kardashian body, whatever it is. Yes, we're always comparing ourselves to other people, and yes, I can understand why young women and the LGBTQ plus community would be at greater risk just because societal societally speaking, if that's a way to phrase it, there is added pressure to look a certain way, to be a certain way, and when you don't fit the mold, you don't know where your value is. You don't know where you fit in, and you're angry at yourself. You're mad at your body for not being what you wish it was.
00:27:34
Speaker 1: Other higher rates certain people. It makes sense when trauma and abuse in their background and robes. They say this stuff goes on for years. They can go on for years, that people do this to themselves. I guess the warning signs are just watching somebody's behavior and robes. Obviously, when what they're wearing, fresh cuts in place, sleeves. If you see that, it just it's so you need to pay attention to it because robes it does. They say it leads to this is there on the to possibly dying by suicide. Stop it now, there's treatment that people going through. They go into therapy for this, and yes, there are even drugs they prescribe for this. You can get help for this thing. But it is a legit disorder. Wellpes, It's not just somebody that's bothered and gets on camp. This is a legit, a legit disorder. That's someone you need more than just a good talking to to get through. You need some professional Yeah.
00:28:26
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting is I think so much of mental health disorders and from depression to whatever, you can't see them, right. You can't see someone's pain. You can hide in plain sight. But this is a physical manifestation of that pain. It's an actual physical symptom that we can notice and take note of and look in terms of what we cover what we don't cover.
00:28:49
Speaker 3: You know, maybe there is harm in not covering this.
00:28:52
Speaker 2: Maybe there is harm in not talking about it out of fear of it being replicated or there being acat.
00:29:00
Speaker 3: We're also doing.
00:29:01
Speaker 2: A disservice because we're not acknowledging what's happening. We're not talking about how to look for the warning signs. We're not talking about the appropriate reaction to people who are in this situation.
00:29:12
Speaker 1: Hope Forrez is going to be okay. I'm sure we will and hopefully we'll hear from. This is one time I'll be looking forward to hearing it from. As always, folks, I just want to hop on and give this update and give some information maybe other folks, just something I haven't been paying attention to. It needs to be on all of our radars. So folks, we appreciate you. As always. I'm TJ. That's Robes. See soon
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. We're always told we need to be careful in how we talk about suicide. I don't know, necessarily though, Robes, how we're supposed to talk about self harm. Welcome everybody on TJ. That's Robes. We're talking about this because of Perez Hilton, celebrity blogger, and what just happened with him. Robes, it had to do with self harm, and I have been learning a lot about this in the past twenty four hours.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, this was an incredibly disturbing situation that a lot of folks didn't realize they were joining when this.
00:00:46
Speaker 3: Happened on Tuesday.
00:00:49
Speaker 2: And you have someone who most people know, this is a household name for most people, Perez Hilton.
00:00:55
Speaker 3: He's been around for decades.
00:00:57
Speaker 2: I think he calls himself the original influencer. He was the guy who started holding celebrities accountable and yes, making fun of them sometimes.
00:01:08
Speaker 1: He's this guy is a part of the story. He's been awful to people. There's no outing people. Absolutely in Hollywood. All that's out the window, and that should be said, because who gives a damn Right now, We're all concerned for him because we saw with our own eyes someone who was in trouble.
00:01:30
Speaker 2: In pain, and he's a human being and regardless of past acts or how he's operated, and I will say he has softened significantly over the years. But for anyone who has been a target of his attacks, certainly they had feelings about him. I would think that that is all suspended and changed when you see the state he was in and the choice he made to put it out there on a live stream. Bottom line, if you haven't seen it, I would suggest you don't look it up because because unfortunately I did watch parts of it that are still online, and there are still versions of it online where you see Perez Hilton covered in his own blood.
00:02:11
Speaker 1: He's cutting himself, he appears to be harming himself. This went on for a little bit, not just one cut, but multiple This was ugly, that was awful, and people didn't know what direction it was going to go. We can say, yes, the incident did happen as of this recording. It happened just overnight, but robes the people were online, people who were watching this, his fans, friends were telling him via the live stream, stop, don't do this, but calls were going in to authorities. We ended up showing up, got the situation under control, I guess, and he went to the hospital. More on that in the second, but Robes did there is a whole community out there of this thing of self harm, which is a precursor to possible suicide. And if nothing else, Robes it made me stop and pay attention to something because there's so much talk about depression, anxiety and finding community online and kids ending up dying by suicide. But Robes, this is something I didn't this part of it. People, This is a regular thing, and thousands and thousands of these videos are out there.
00:03:26
Speaker 3: I'll be honest, I had no idea about that either, but I guess it makes sense.
00:03:30
Speaker 2: There's a community for everything, and even perhaps a community where this is an outlet.
00:03:35
Speaker 3: This is a release.
00:03:36
Speaker 2: And unfortunately, when kids or anyone truly who is suffering doesn't maybe have someone to turn to, needs help, needs attention, needs someone to come in, they see something like this and it sparks an idea and it creates, unfortunately, copycats, and it makes something that might be an isolated event somehow become community event, and that might be intoxicating or something that people want. Because a lot of these videos, these live streams, they are christ for help. They're very public cries for help, and I think that's how we have to look at this. But obviously we need to find a way for these not to occur, because not only are we concerned for the people who are harming themselves, but for the people who might do it later today or tomorrow or the next week because they saw something and it sparked an idea and it made them feel like they were a part of something.
00:04:39
Speaker 1: There is an effort over the past several years, specific effort to go after these types of videos that a lot of the social media companies got together on. We'll mention that in just a moment at least to get you caught up on what this happened in Miami. Robes and yes, he's live streaming on TikTok and this is not And again, some of the things you were saying are one thing, but where we add into this element of the blood, it was terrifying. This wasn't a trickle of blood. This looked like a horror scene. And so when you consider that, we do have the official statement. Now while this was going on, Miami Dade put this initial statement out letting us know what was happening, and it was important to note that there was nobody else in harm, which they were trying to explain. It's why we are not just busting down the door right now, which makes sense.
00:05:31
Speaker 2: And they were trying to make sure he didn't inflict further harm or there was this notion.
00:05:35
Speaker 3: Of people talk suicide by cop. That's sort of a thing.
00:05:39
Speaker 2: They're trying to de escalate, not escalate things, or make him feel more violent towards himself or towards other where they would then have to take action. So yes, they were trying to keep everyone as safe as possible, and they did release this initial statement.
00:05:54
Speaker 3: They said. The Miami Dade Sheriff's.
00:05:55
Speaker 2: Office received multiple calls regarding an individual who was live streaming acts of self harm on social media. Deputies quickly located the individual's residence, where they spoke with family members on scene and confirmed he was alone inside.
00:06:13
Speaker 3: That's important, they say.
00:06:14
Speaker 2: In many incidents involving a person experiencing a mental health crisis or actively harming themselves, deputies prioritize de escalation by creating time, distance and opportunities for communication unless there is an immediate threat to others, slowing the situation and utilizing crisis intervention techniques can reduce the likelihood of suicide by cop encounter and minimize the risk of injury to the individual, deputies and the public.
00:06:45
Speaker 1: They follow up a little while later when there was actually done, just letting folks know the individual will safely recover, transported to the hospital and receiving medical attention. His reps as well put out a statement here erbes I didn't see a follow up for them him to suggest that they had gotten in touch with him, But this was These are his representatives, Robes who even they were desperately trying to get a hold of him and say they could not. Yeah, we are aware of the concerning content circulating online involving our client. At this time, we have not been able to make direct contact with him, despite ongoing efforts to reach him. Our primary concern is Perez his health and well being, as well as the well being of his family and that family. Robes, I didn't know. I didn't know he was single dat I had no idea he.
00:07:29
Speaker 3: Had He has three children via Assaragate. Correct.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: I wasn't necessarily aware of that. Now I am after we started looking into him and what he's been doing lately. I even looked back on his website and he was just on posting videos talking.
00:07:47
Speaker 3: About Ariana Grande.
00:07:48
Speaker 2: And interestingly, it struck me you started this episode talking about.
00:07:54
Speaker 3: Not knowing how to address or not knowing how.
00:07:57
Speaker 2: To necessarily speak correctly on on self harm suicide. These are very delicate, sensitive topics that you don't want to add harm to someone or any group of people who are already suffering. And it was so interesting because Perez Hilton took that tactic and that approach when he was talking about Ariana Grande just earlier this week, talking about how he didn't want to weigh in necessarily or do anything to add to her mental health crisis, Like he was tiptoeing around even what seemed to be a cry for help from her in terms of what her fans were saying about how she looked in her So it's interesting he was tackling an adjacent topic about mental health and about not wanting to overreach or say something offensive, and here we are now talking about him a matter of hours later.
00:08:46
Speaker 1: I mean, you never know what's going on with people. Like you said yesterday, Robes, he looked perfectly normal to his audience, right, same old Perez doing whatever he does. Again, he's not some money I follow and just not aware of. To be honest with I didn't know he was ill doing the website. I have no idea. I just didn't keep up, but aware of him from back in the day for whatever reason, I remember him with Paris Hilton.
00:09:07
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, absolutely, that's exactly the name that I think of when I think about how he kind of started to get into that higher level of fame where he started just yeah, taking down, ripping apart celebrities for what they did, what they said. He would draw on pictures of them, and people caught on and liked his commentary. It was snarky, it was mean oftentimes, but now we're seeing his suffering and it just goes to show. You say this all the time, you don't know what's going on in someone's life. You don't know what's going on in someone's head, and a lot of times when you see people who put out kinds incendiary or sometimes even hurtful or hateful things, it's almost a projection of what they're dealing with internally.
00:09:53
Speaker 3: And perhaps that might be what we saw this week.
00:09:56
Speaker 1: You know, I just I don't know. I don't know if I've ever met him at some red carper to somewhere doing anything. I don't know if I have Robes and I again, I just remember in particular the outing of people. I remember him in the beginning just being vicious and it worked, right. It got him popularity, It got him a following, It got him to what he is now, which is, like you said, Rose, maybe a certain degree going. You got the tmzs of the world. As far as an individual, the og who is able to color celebrity news and has gone to like yeah, that's only a handful, very few. And you know him by name, so Rob it's it's my first or the only thing I know about him is all of that. Today this happens, I don't The first thought is of human being that's hurting Robes and the number of times you roll your eyes sometimes but you get it finally now how I It doesn't matter who it is, And oftentimes it's somebody that's not treating me, well, give him a break. Folks are going through it, Robes, and the reason sometimes somebody might be able to treat you so poorly is because they hate what's happening. In their own lives, they hate what's happening to them. I'm not suggesting that's him here, but I'm connecting in just that we should feel nothing but concern and love and hope that he's okay. There are kids involved here, and just to see people robes who are able to go from being that performative and doing that in front of an audience and giving off an impression that everything is fine two hours later being in that type of mental state, that type of crisis.
00:11:48
Speaker 2: And I will say, look, I have seen a lot, you have seen a lot in our careers. I have never quite seen anything like that, especially someone who is willing to do what he was doing in front of a live audience. And I mean it, you see performative, yes, but it didn't seem like he wasn't faking the blood, he wasn't faking the cutting, and he was moaning like I could only watch for I.
00:12:18
Speaker 3: Think less than a minute. I don't know how long it went on.
00:12:21
Speaker 2: I saw people going online and saying I could see seven seconds and that was it. I mean, this was I have a hard time even speaking after seeing that because it is so disturbing and I hate that any of it's even still out there for anybody to look at or to witness, because you are watching a human being on ravel on live.
00:12:44
Speaker 3: Streaming services, and it's just awful.
00:12:48
Speaker 1: To what point, what is happening in someone's life to get them to that point? What is happening in somebody's life that they have been functioning successfully in front of the world for many, many years, and to get to that point, you wonder, and you worry, Robes about folks. You worry that, like we've we've had some bad times and bad moments, and we went bad directions at times in our careers where we're fighting to be relevant, we're fighting to be a bigger name, we're fighting for that job, we're fighting for a reputation, and then you're trying to keep a family together at home and Robes and I don't know, but my God, to think that this is not in any way connected to what he does for a living, what he's been up to, and I mean not in a negative way. I'm saying, just the stress and the pressures in the limelight, Robes, I just how did he get to this? You said the very the day before the same day was the post.
00:13:49
Speaker 2: I believe it was the day before, but he had that was his last post, but he was That was just the irony for me, him discussing and trying to carefully navigate how he described and talked about what Ariana Grande must be going through and what they might be going through. And he actually, that's what I'm saying, he was a changed person from the last time I've seen or read anything that he posted. Where it was he had no problem saying what he thought, no problem throwing people under the bus, no problem judging or saying what he wanted about somebody.
00:14:20
Speaker 3: He was very careful, he said he was struggling with how.
00:14:22
Speaker 2: To talk about ari He called her ariana Grande, and it seemed very genuine and very sincere, and maybe it was a little bit of an insight into him acknowledging or maybe even understanding, perhaps some of the mental struggles that she was going through, because maybe at that point he had been going through them as well, we just weren't as fully aware.
00:14:44
Speaker 3: But to have it go from that level.
00:14:47
Speaker 2: Of empathy and compassion and trying to describe someone's personal issues and saying he wished her the best and was glad she was taking a step back to then just hours later having a live stream showing a horror movie where he was the perpetrator and the victim all in one.
00:15:06
Speaker 3: And yes, to know.
00:15:08
Speaker 2: That there were children, to know that he's got family members who care about him who were at the I guess nearby on the scene, but not in the home, so they weren't in any sort of real danger.
00:15:18
Speaker 3: But I cannot imagine.
00:15:23
Speaker 2: What leads somebody to that point, to that breaking point, but clearly that was a mental health break, and a lot of people are pointing out the fact that, yes, he was talking about Ariana Grande, but he literally in that live stream looked very similar to the way Ariana Grande looked in her music video that was just released, Pedal, which he was actually talking about in that last vlog or blog, And he actually looked like her, bloodied from head to toe. And people have been putting up side by side images as if was he in some way weird way embodying part of that video.
00:16:02
Speaker 3: I mean, it really does look eerily similar.
00:16:04
Speaker 2: I don't know, obviously, we don't know if there's a connection, but it's certainly been noted.
00:16:11
Speaker 1: You know this is not and again, authorities are there so of anybody suggesting this was performative or it was just to get in some headlines. No, it was. It was for attention, for sure, robes, but it was it was a cry for help. This was this was somebody, please help me, please, And he's getting that help now, and I hope he's surrounded by family robes. But I don't think anyone saw this, and this doesn't didn't look like anyone was glorifying or romanticizing the idea of self harm. Those are two. There are plenty of videos out there and we're getting into now, but this wasn't that. I want to make that clear. That was nothing glorious about this video. If you haven't seen it, and we do not suggest watching it, but no, it's out there. But that was nothing glorious about what we were saying.
00:17:05
Speaker 3: No, he was.
00:17:06
Speaker 2: He actually sounded and looked like he was in pain. He was moaning, he was he was not enjoying this. It didn't seem performative at all. This seemed like something that none of us should have been watching. And to hear the people saying stop, please stop, I mean, it.
00:17:27
Speaker 3: Was just it. It didn't seem real. That's how awful it was.
00:17:33
Speaker 2: You kept thinking the whole time you're watching, like this can't actually have occurred.
00:17:37
Speaker 3: This can't. I can't imagine what it was like watching it in real time.
00:17:41
Speaker 1: And it was taken down. They got word of it at TikTok the live stream was taken down ROA. Was it? Good on? And I will give them credit. But to hear the authorities say they got multiple calls, Yes, all right, folks were concerned enough, they picked up the phone, they call. They just didn't stare at what they were and see it as a form of entertainment. Maybe that some people did called so good on them, thank god. Yes, and those folks are probably strangers to him, fans or something watching. But when they said they got multiple calls of an incident, good on those folks. Like we mentioned here at the top, we are learning about self harm, including the fact that self harm has a different name robes self harm. That is pretty self explanatory when you hear it the clinical name non suicidal self injury disorder. Wow, it's a disorder. They consider it a mental health disorder, non suicidal self injury disorder. They've been paying attention and focusing on this a lot the past several years. Robes and I guess yes, we've seen several instances of AI. Now kids will ask AI for help and how to harm themselves or how to deal with things. But there are plenty of videos out there, oh you mentioned community that are glorifying in some way, and even if you're not celebrating it, it's showing self harm as an option. It's showing I can't deal. It's okay if you can't deal, so this is what I decide to do, and maybe you can do it too. It's not saying it that bluntly, but it's saying that just in them being up.
00:19:32
Speaker 2: It's almost as if, yes, you have a self help group where you feel seen, you feel heard, you feel validated. Other people are saying, I know what that feels like. I've experienced this too, and then to feel like you're not alone. But the idea that what brings you together, what makes you not feel alone, is that you all have a desire to harm yourself to release pain, and that this is something that's worked. I mean, we've heard obviously over the years throughout our careers and just as human beings about this notion. A lot of teenagers will cut themselves to release pain cut themselves because that's the only way they know how to deal with pain, emotional pain and trauma is to feel physical pain.
00:20:16
Speaker 3: It in some way releases the emotional pain.
00:20:19
Speaker 2: If you've got someone who's young and impressionable, and now you've got videos and you see other people who've done it, and you feel like you can be a part of it and maybe it'll help. And now you've got other people who understand you. That's really scary stuff.
00:20:31
Speaker 1: But you just said something important at the top there. It is twofold. Isn't social media great? You can find people out there who maybe are suffering like you or maybe going through it, and you do feel community and maybe you see them working their way through it. That's a positive about social media. That same thing, Robes. On the other side, it's the negative. Same kid looking for community, but you find it over here where people are not just helping you through it because they went through it. You're suffering and staying in the same suffering together and now you're healing the same way together. Now that community, to your point, Robes. They do say it's a good thing and it's a bad thing when people discuss their mental health online because people will take it as a positive and follow you and say, hey, I found somebody just like me and they're working their way out of it. Or I found somebody just like me and they're not doing well, and I'm gonna do what they're doing. Robes. It's twofold. And so to your point here, what the wise? Why do people do? I think you reeled off all of them officially here. I can't remember this the male, I can't remember which one I got it from, but Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, one of them. They do it to punish themselves. They do it to cope, They do it to communicate stress. They to communicate distress, I has to say, to communicate distress is why they do it. The idea that you mentioned, they do it to punish themselves for not being good enough, for failing at something, and you have to that's mental.
00:22:02
Speaker 2: And that's so sad to me that it just breaks my heart because it's this idea of shame that we aren't allowed to make mistakes, that we aren't allowed to fail, that we have to be perfect, that we have to do everything right, and if we don't, we deserve to be shamed and punished.
00:22:19
Speaker 3: And to do it to yourself.
00:22:22
Speaker 2: It's just this, it's the saddest form of self hate that I can imagine, which then can lead unfortunately to suicide. So this could just be correct. This is a gateway potentially to suicide. At least some mental health experts believe that.
00:22:37
Speaker 1: I haven't heard anybody use that word. But that's a good one gateway. That's exactly what they're talking about. This is a precursor. This is what the likelihood people are more likely. Yes, they start kind of this way. It's a cry for help. If you don't give it to them, if you don't pay attention, they're going to graduate to something else, and that next thing is possibly taking their own lives. Yeah, I just I never and I didn't know. This is the big thing they've been doing and trying to get online to get a lot of these videos down the way people self harm themselves. I guess it makes sense. Cutting. We've been talking about ROMs, but they will hit themselves burning, I think I've heard about that before. But also scratching and rubbing. Yeah, they do a lot of arms, wrists, thighs.
00:23:21
Speaker 3: And abdomen because those are hidden.
00:23:23
Speaker 1: Right and you have access to them, doesn't God, the thought of that. But yeah, that's exactly.
00:23:30
Speaker 2: Right, man.
00:23:31
Speaker 3: It's heartbreaking.
00:23:32
Speaker 2: Ah And I just you know, you see what happened with Perez Hilton, And on one hand, you hope we can have real conversations, no warning signs, no parents, friends, loved ones, what to look for in someone who might be struggling mentally. But also you just I worry so much about about younger folks, but just anyone truly getting an idea from this or thinking that's what I want to do, or that's the attention I want, or that's an option for me. I just I hope that more good can come from this than bad, where people can really recognize that the threat of this is real, that it exists, that this is something, that this is an outlet that people do take and have taken, and it's on the people around them who love them to recognize it to help them get the help they need before it turns into some awful public display like we saw from Pereza.
00:24:28
Speaker 1: You know, I even wondered how that is going to have an impact because of the attention it's getting. Right, we would never cover a suicide that was done like this, right, even if it was a I don't know if a very famous person, but we're always careful in media of how you cover robes somebody who does this type of thing. So yeah, if someone heard about him doing it, that's one thing. Does someone else now think, oh, I'll hit my live stream and do it too.
00:24:57
Speaker 3: That's the scary thought.
00:24:58
Speaker 2: And look, it is interesting you point this out because I don't know if everyone. Probably most people don't know, but there are pretty strict rules in place in most media organizations, certainly the ones that I've worked in and you've worked in, where we actually had a hard fast rule you do not cover suicides period. I remember being in the chopper in Washington, DC and someone jumped off the bridge into the Potomac and it was a young producer who wanted to go live. We had a camera boom, traffic was backed up, so you could make the argument that there was an actual news story surrounding the suicide, because obviously they had to shut the bridge down and they had We actually found the body for the police and they came. We were over it and they came to the boat and I remember turning off the camera and saying, we will not cover this because you don't want to obviously create any sort of attention where someone else is going to think, well, I'll go on the bridge tomorrow because then I'll get attention and people will remember me. Whatever it is they go through people's minds, But that's always been and you have to make these decisions on a case by case basis. But generally speaking, no, we don't cover these things for a reason.
00:26:09
Speaker 1: But this is such a now a high profile case of now live stream broadcasts self harm ropes. There are people behind the scenes, been fighting getting videos like this down that are put up. But ro there was a live stream of a famous dude who was doing this to himself and so I don't know how that's going to impact you said, it was heartbreaking to think about folks doing this. The other heartbreaking part Roades, they'd say, eleven to fourteen is when this starts, and that's what I was doing through I didn't. Yeah, I think that young and more. The higher rates and girls.
00:26:47
Speaker 3: That makes total sense.
00:26:48
Speaker 1: A higher rates as well LGBTWOQ plus.
00:26:50
Speaker 2: The self loathing. I'm not who I'm supposed to be. I don't look like what I'm supposed to look like. I don't look like the girls on TikTok or instance or the influencers. I don't have a Kardashian body, whatever it is. Yes, we're always comparing ourselves to other people, and yes, I can understand why young women and the LGBTQ plus community would be at greater risk just because societal societally speaking, if that's a way to phrase it, there is added pressure to look a certain way, to be a certain way, and when you don't fit the mold, you don't know where your value is. You don't know where you fit in, and you're angry at yourself. You're mad at your body for not being what you wish it was.
00:27:34
Speaker 1: Other higher rates certain people. It makes sense when trauma and abuse in their background and robes. They say this stuff goes on for years. They can go on for years, that people do this to themselves. I guess the warning signs are just watching somebody's behavior and robes. Obviously, when what they're wearing, fresh cuts in place, sleeves. If you see that, it just it's so you need to pay attention to it because robes it does. They say it leads to this is there on the to possibly dying by suicide. Stop it now, there's treatment that people going through. They go into therapy for this, and yes, there are even drugs they prescribe for this. You can get help for this thing. But it is a legit disorder. Wellpes, It's not just somebody that's bothered and gets on camp. This is a legit, a legit disorder. That's someone you need more than just a good talking to to get through. You need some professional Yeah.
00:28:26
Speaker 2: You know what's interesting is I think so much of mental health disorders and from depression to whatever, you can't see them, right. You can't see someone's pain. You can hide in plain sight. But this is a physical manifestation of that pain. It's an actual physical symptom that we can notice and take note of and look in terms of what we cover what we don't cover.
00:28:49
Speaker 3: You know, maybe there is harm in not covering this.
00:28:52
Speaker 2: Maybe there is harm in not talking about it out of fear of it being replicated or there being acat.
00:29:00
Speaker 3: We're also doing.
00:29:01
Speaker 2: A disservice because we're not acknowledging what's happening. We're not talking about how to look for the warning signs. We're not talking about the appropriate reaction to people who are in this situation.
00:29:12
Speaker 1: Hope Forrez is going to be okay. I'm sure we will and hopefully we'll hear from. This is one time I'll be looking forward to hearing it from. As always, folks, I just want to hop on and give this update and give some information maybe other folks, just something I haven't been paying attention to. It needs to be on all of our radars. So folks, we appreciate you. As always. I'm TJ. That's Robes. See soon