Perez Hilton\u2019s family has revealed new details about the blogger\u2019s health before and after his mental health crisis earlier this month.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Hilton\u2019s brother-in-law, Tom (who did not provide a last name), appeared on \u201cThe Perez Hilton Podcast With Chris Booker<\/a>\u201d to talk about the 48-year-old\u2019s self-harming incident that occurred Aug. 4 on a TikTok livestream.<\/p>\n Tom \u2014 who is married to Perez\u2019s sister, Barbara Lavandeira \u2014 shared that the celebrity gossip columnist was now in a \u201clucid\u201d state after receiving treatment for his physical injuries and his care would be \u201ctransitioning into the mental side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s going to be going into a facility that is going to focus on his mental recovery,\u201d he said on the podcast. \u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to see him pop up in a few days.\u201d<\/p>\n On Aug. 4, Miami police responded to calls around 9 p.m. concerning a TikTok livestream where Hilton harmed himself<\/a> repeatedly with a box cutter and knife and expressed suicidal intent. After authorities safely recovered Hilton, he was placed in a 72-hour hold under Florida\u2019s Baker Act, which allows for detention to assess mental health.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was some broken bones,\u201d his brother-in-law said of Hilton\u2019s physical injuries from his self-harming incident. \u201cThere [were] some other things stemming back from his sepsis.\u201d<\/p>\n In March, Hilton was hospitalized in Las Vegas for 21 days due to severe sepsis, he shared a video<\/a>, in which he said God presented himself to him and that he was a changed man. After recovering from the life-threatening illness, Hilton made the decision to relocate his family to Miami in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n His brother-in-law \u2014 who said he had known the blogger for more than 20 years \u2014 did not believe the abrupt move was a red flag, considering past relocations to New York City in 2016<\/a> and to Las Vegas in 2023<\/a>, though he did call it \u201ca little surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe can be a little impulsive at times; that\u2019s part of his personality,\u201d said Tom. \u201c[But] we\u2019ve never had a situation with him as serious as we\u2019ve ever seen medically with that sepsis situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Born Mario Lavandeira, the Cuban American has been a pop culture personality since the mid-2000s, running a popular online entertainment site. Originally from Miami, Hilton has a large familial support system in the area, which was one of the primary reasons for the move earlier this summer, according to his brother-in-law.<\/p>\n \u201cThat part made sense,\u201d said Tom. \u201cThere is that structure of support there [in Miami] and he did just go through that near-fatal health scare.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Tom revealed that Perez was not happy with his decision from the moment he landed in his new city.<\/p>\n \u201cMario, the moving truck isn\u2019t even in Arizona yet,\u201d Tom told Perez. \u201cYou\u2019ve been to the airport and the house and you\u2019ve now come to the decision in your head that this was a bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n Following the mental health crisis, Hilton\u2019s mother, Teresita Lavandeira, filed a petition Aug. 7 for temporary custody of his three minor children, according to the Miami-Dade court case database. <\/p>\n Earlier reporting by The Times stated that Hilton was granted supervised visits with his children<\/a>, but his brother-in-law said he had not had any contact. \u201cThey were not allowed in that section of the facility,\u201d he said, \u201cand eventually we\u2019ll segue them back in.\u201d<\/p>\n To deal with the fallout \u2014 and any misinformation out there \u2014 the family has hired a public relations team, said Tom. \u201cWe were concerned about what bad information was getting out there that [Child Protective Services] may be reading that was just simply not true,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While Perez undergoes treatment, the family is trying to figure out what could have triggered the mental health crisis. <\/p>\n As for whether Perez Hilton will continue being the saucy online personality the world has come to know \u2014 and criticize <\/a>\u2014 Tom seems to have no doubts about that: \u201cHe does what he does because he loves doing it. He got into this because he loves celebrity gossip.\u201d<\/p>\n Time staff writer Emily St. Martin contributed to this report.<\/p>\n