What Is Kathy Hilton's Net Worth?
Kathy Hilton is an American actress, fashion designer, and philanthropist who has a net worth of $350 million. That is a combined net worth with her husband since 1979, Rick Hilton. Rick and Kathy Hilton are probably best known for being the parents of Paris Hilton and Nicky Hilton.
Early Life
Kathy Hilton was born Kathleen Elizabeth Avanzino on March 13, 1959, in New York City. She is the daughter of Kathleen Mary and Laurance K. Avanzino. Her paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and Kathy also has Irish and Scottish ancestry. After Hilton's parents divorced, her mother married Kenneth E. Richards, who already had three grown children from a previous marriage. Her mother then had Kathy's half-sisters, actresses Kim and Kyle Richards. Hilton also has five paternal half-siblings from her father's remarriage. Kathy attended a private high school in Los Angeles, where she became best friends with Michael Jackson, and the two remained very close friends until his 2009 death.
Kathy's career began when she was a child before she had even met her future husband, Hilton Hotels heir Richard Hilton. At age 9, she began working as an actress, appearing in television shows like "Bewitched," "The Rockford Files," "Nanny and the Professor," "Happy Days," and "Family Affair." She also had film appearances in "The Dark" and "On the Air Live with Captain Midnight." At 15, she met Richard Hilton, around the same time that she "retired" from acting. The two married five years later in 1979. In the '80s and early '90s, Hilton owned her own novelty gift and antique store called The Staircase on Sunset Plaza in Los Angeles.
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Since marrying into the Hilton family, Kathy has dabbled in a return to her show business roots. In 2002, she began working as a host on the home-shopping network QVC, and three years later, she hosted the reality television program "I Want to Be a Hilton" on NBC. Two years later, she began selling skincare products on rival home-shopping network HSN. In 2008, she made a cameo appearance on the soap opera "The Young and the Restless" as herself. In 2011, Kathy appeared on "The World According to Paris." Hilton's half-sisters, Kim and Kyle Richards, are both cast members on the hit Bravo reality series "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." In 2012, Kathy commented that she refused to watch her sisters on the show because they caused her to fall apart and break down in tears. Hilton sporadically appeared on the show during the earlier seasons, and she began making regular appearances on the series during season 11. In June 2023, it was announced that Kathy was leaving "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." Since 2012, she has designed the Kathy Hilton Collection of party dresses, sold in four hundred stores worldwide, including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Nordstrom. In December 2020, Kathy and her daughters, Paris and Nicky, modeled the new Valentino 2021 resort collection in "Vogue" magazine.
(Photo by Paul A. Hebert/Getty Images)
Personal Life
Kathy and her husband, Richard Hilton, live in Bel Air and have four grown children: daughters Paris and Nicky and sons Barron and Conrad. The Hiltons have seven grandchildren in total: three through their daughter Nicky and her husband James Rothschild, two by Paris, and two by Barron. The couple resides in Bel Air, Los Angeles.
Hilton is known for her philanthropic activities. In 2007, she raised money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation by asking celebrities to auction their belongings and donate the proceeds to the foundation. In 2011, with her two daughters, she received an award from the Starlight Children's Foundation at its "A Stellar Night" gala in Los Angeles.
Personal Real Estate
In 1999, Rick and Kathy Hilton paid $3.385 million for a 7-bedroom, 3-acre sprawling property in the Hamptons town of Water Mill, New York. Over the years, they have rented this property over the summer seasons from $300,000 – $400,000. In February 2024, they listed their Hamptons mansion for just under $15 million.
In 2014, they paid $2.5 million for an apartment in New York City's Pierre Hotel. In 2015, they paid $9.2 million for a large mansion in Bel-Air. They tore down the existing mansion. In September 2021, they listed this property for sale for $55 million. They finally accepted $25 million in January 2024. The buyer was Zong Qinghou, one of the richest people in China. Here is a video tour of their former Bel-Air mansion:
