Perez Hilton’s heartbreaking first three words from his hospital bed

When Perez Hilton was finally able to speak from his hospital bed, there were three words he wanted to say to his distraught mother.

‘I need help.’

That is according to an insider who has known the family for nearly 20 years, and has now recounted the moments leading up to Hilton’s distressing mental health crisis on Tuesday that the celebrity blogger himself is still trying to process.

‘He’s really suffering. He’s a man in a lot of pain. I think right now he’s focused on the physical, but it’s all tied together. No one deserves the torment he’s going through,’ the source said, adding that Hilton is now stable and alert.

‘He was able to articulate himself [to his mother in hospital] but I don’t think he’s quite self-aware enough yet [to understand exactly what happened].

‘He’s still in a dark place as I understand it. Just very very sad.’

The 48-year-old, born Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr, was hospitalized on Tuesday evening after a TikTok livestream showed him seemingly covered in blood, holding a large knife and appearing to harm himself in his Miami home. 

But just hours earlier, the friend said nothing had suggested what was to come. 

Perez Hilton was ‘acting normal’ the morning of his apparent mental health crisis

The celebrity blogger, who has three kids, was working on getting scoops and talking about future projects before seemingly suffering a psycH๏τic break hours later

‘He was acting normal. That’s the thing. He was getting excited about future projects. It had been a good day up to then.’

Hilton woke up in his Miami home and did as he had done for decades: discussed work with colleagues and texted sources while chasing pop culture scoops, according to the longtime friend.

But things took a terrifying turn that evening. 

Deputies from the Miami Dade Sheriff’s Department were dispatched to Hilton’s home and performed ‘de-escalation measures’ after receiving multiple calls from viewers reporting the distressing TikTok livestream. 

According to audio from the 911 dispatch, officers were responding to an apparent ‘suicide attempt’ at Hilton’s address and were reportedly at the home for hours before Hilton was transported to a hospital to receive medical attention.

In a statement released today, Hilton’s family revealed that shortly before he went live on TikTok, his children, niece and sister were inside the home. 

‘When it became clear that Perez was experiencing a severe mental health crisis and harming himself, they immediately fled to protect the children from witnessing any further trauma,’ the statement said.

‘Our highest priority right now is helping the children begin to heal from what they experienced. An important part of that process is allowing them to safely return home and begin rebuilding a sense of security and normalcy.’

Hilton has three children: son Mario, 13, and daughters Mia, 11, and Mayte, eight, who were born via surrogate. He raises them with the support of his mother, Teresita Lavandeira, according to the family friend. 

The source said Hilton and his mother had a longstanding arrangement under which she would take the children out whenever he needed a break. 

‘She was the one who met the cops there and told them’ about what was going on inside Hilton’s home, the source added.

At the hospital, Hilton’s first words to his mother were, ‘I need help,’ a source revealed

Hilton suffered a serious health scare when he was hospitalized for sepsis and other medical issues in March 

EXCLUSIVE Sad truth behind Perez Hilton’s distressing decline before horror TikTok knife incident

Meanwhile, friends are still struggling to understand what may have triggered Tuesday’s crisis. 

‘There was nothing specific that happened that anyone knows of. He hasn’t been particularly depressed,’ the family friend said.

‘Nothing bad has happened – he was actually looking forward to new opportunities and new projects. The numbers on his website had been low, but they had been going up, not down.

‘So there wasn’t like a big event. We think it’s the stress from the move. He can get very overwhelmed sometimes. Everyone knows that. But never to this extent.’

Hilton had also just moved from Las Vegas to Miami earlier this summer to focus on his family after being hospitalized with sepsis in March. He told the Daily Mail in April that he had spent 21 days in the Southern Hills Hospital & Medical Center in Las Vegas, undergoing two surgeries as well as treatment for multiple subsequent health conditions.

The medical scare, he said, made him a born-again Christian, but also left him facing financial pressures, later launching a line of religious-themed clothing to help pay his bills.

‘I thought that was a little strange,’ a second source who became close to Hilton in Las Vegas said about the sudden pivot to religion.

‘But again I just thought, “OK, this is a man who almost lost his life.”‘

Looking back now, the source wonders whether if it reflected a broader struggle, and said that Hilton had confided that he found the move to Florida difficult.

‘He did let me know he was already missing Vegas and he hoped he’d be back,’ the source said, noting that Hilton had admitted he felt ‘overwhelmed.’

‘He did tell me that he was stressed out but, at the time, I thought it was because of the move. I didn’t know that it was because of anything else.’

They added: ‘Whether it’s…the stress of having three children and looming bills and the inability to work while you’re navigating medical issues and just normal-life stressors – plus, I don’t know what his doctors were telling him about his condition – I think all of that contributed to this.’

He became a born-again Christian after the health scare in March

A longtime industry friend also suggested Hilton hadn’t wanted to leave Las Vegas, and that he’d done it for his family. 

‘Those close to him started to get the feeling that he didn’t want to go to Miami and only did it for his family,’ the friend said, adding that ‘not many people have stayed in contact with him since he left Las Vegas.’ 

According to the source, Hilton had also been struggling with the realization that his career wasn’t what it used to be. 

‘Seeing everyone on TikTok do what he did years ago isn’t easy,’ they said. ‘He should’ve just been living a chill life in Vegas, but that’s hard when you’ve been in the spotlight for so many years.’ 

The Daily Mail previously reported that Hilton was low on money and had been struggling to find work, and that reality show pitches to production companies had not survived past initial stages.

While Hilton was said to have recently signed a deal with a TV production company to host a show about cyberbullying, a source said that Hilton had not been paid and that bosses were still trying to make a role for him.

Meanwhile, Hilton’s mother has been left devastated, according to the longtime family friend. 

‘She has been crying a lot. She’s frantic. Even now. She’s devastated,’ the longtime family friend said. ‘She’s keeping the kids, she’s let DCF [Department of Children and Families] know that she’s willing to have them as long as needed.’

Our second source said that Hilton’s role as a father has always been central to his life. 

‘Being a good dad is part of his idenтιтy,’ they said.

‘When he first moved to Las Vegas, he was looking into schools for the kids and he incorporated them into everything he did. He’s an amazing father and he always had his mom supporting him because three [kids] is a lot.’

The longtime family friend also told the Daily Mail that Hilton has made arrangements naming his mother as guardian of the children should anything happen to him. 

‘She’s actually the one that is supposed to raise the kids if anything ever happened to Mario, typical stuff parents put in their wills. So she will take care of them.’

Despite what critics may think about Hilton’s controversial antics as a celebrity gossip blogger, the insider concluded: ‘No one deserves this.’