Paris Hilton has defended Britney Spears and said the singer’s comments about her in court were misinterpreted.
In her bombshell testimony last month, Spears said she “didn’t believe” socialite Hilton’s allegations of abuse at boarding school as a teenager.
The comments were made in the context of Spears fearing she would be doubted when making accusations about her conservatorship.
Hilton, 40, said it was clear to her that Spears, 39, was not calling her a liar.
“I know that she didn’t mean it in that way,” she said on her This Is Paris podcast.
“She meant when she saw it, she couldn’t even believe it. What she said was, people hear that, ‘It’s Britney Spears, it’s Paris Hilton. They have these perfect lives. Who is gonna believe? I didn’t even believe Paris, who’s gonna believe me?’”
Hilton added: “I think it was just a misunderstanding on the media’s part”.
Hilton described Spears’s June 23 testimony as “hard to hear,” adding “it broke my heart”.
Alongside a clip of the podcast, Hilton said she will “always support and love Britney”.
She wrote on Instagram: “She is so kind and sweet, and she deserves her freedom. I’ve been saying #FreeBritney for a long time, and I will keep saying it until she is free.
“We all need to use our voices to protect victims of abuse. She is so incredibly brave and an inspiration for speaking her truth. I know personally how hard it is to come forward to tell your story, and so I hope Britney knows that she is so loved and supported by the world right now.”
Spears has called for her conservatorship – a complex legal arrangement she was placed under in 2008 following a series of mental breakdowns – to be terminated.
Hilton is one of the celebrity backers of the #FreeBritney movement, alongside A-list stars such as Cher, Miley Cyrus and Mariah Carey.