Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie Address Past Feud As They Reunite for New Series

In a joint interview with W Magazine, the pair discussed what they loved most about the show and that time in their lives, as well as the feud that nearly ended the series — and their friendship.

“There was not necessarily a Will Smith and Aunt Viv sit-down. I know for people who followed The Simple Life, that was a very big part of it. There was a whole season where we didn’t shoot together,” Richie explained when asked whether they’ll revisit the feud. “But our lives are so braided together outside of that. Our relationship has spanned almost 40 years. So for us, I think that was more of a little blip.”

“The media during that time was very into creating feuds between people and exaggerating and inventing stories to sell tabloids,” Hilton added. “The world was definitely making a way bigger deal of it than it actually was. Nicole and I have been best friends since we were 2 years old. She’s like my sister.”

The Simple Life largely was a pretty big hit in the early 2000s reality TV boom and while some might assume that Richie and Hilton are embarrassed by some of the shenanigans they featured on the series, it’s never mentioned amongst their list of regrets.

“The more time I have away from it, the more I love that I did it. What a fun thing to do in your 20s. We could really only have done it then. If you cut to now, with social media and smartphones, that concept really couldn’t happen in a truly organic way,” Richie said. “Season 1, I blindly got on a plane with my best friend, and neither of us knew where we were going. Even when I talk about it now, I have a smile on my face.”

“The show was the first of its kind and was a huge success,” Hilton maintained before noting the impact the show continues to have today. “It inspired so many others to try and imitate it. It’s such an important show in pop culture history.”

For Richie and Hilton, who each grew up as the children of Hollywood hot shots, working for the very first time taught them some important lessons that they took with them in building their now larger-than-life brands.

“We did every type of job that you can think of, from working at fast-food restaurants to being zookeepers. I ­definitely learned how hard people work, and it taught me I could do it all,” Hilton reflected. “It also taught me about building a brand and being an influencer even before there was a name for it.”

“It was very clear in season 1 what the point of the show was. We were pretty hip to it by our second week there. We did five seasons about not having a job, but by season 2 we were producing The Simple Life right along with the executive producers,” Richie added. “We were putting together storylines. That was my first experience with creating a television show, and it all started with The Simple Life.”

Richie and Hilton teased their nostalgic new series, Paris & Nicole: The Encore, to fans earlier this year, giving them a reunion that many have been calling for since The Simple Life was taken off the air in 2007. As for what they’re most excited about when it comes to filming this new show, Richie said “to laugh” and to re-live some of that joy they felt when filming the OG series back in the early aughts.

“If you’d asked me two months ago, I would have said I’m so excited to shoot it. Rarely do I get to take a month and just shoot a show with my friend,” Richie shared. “I knew that we were going to laugh the whole time, and that’s always an incentive for me. I’m hoping that people watch it and find the same joy in it that I did.”

“Nicole and I together is magic. We have this dynamic that’s so real, and there’s just so much history behind it,” Hilton added before teasing the opera that will be featured on the series, based on the song the pair made up when they were just kids, “Sanasa.”

The term has become somewhat of a slogan for the show, and a rallying cry for fans, prompting Richie and Hilton to take that goofy moment to the next level.

“For the opera, we invited hundreds of fans from around the world to come and watch. It was special to hear what an impact Nicole and I had on them,” the “Stars are Blind” singer added.

As for whether they’d reunite again when the show hits its 50th anniversary, the pair both said they’re in.

“I’ll be 72 going on 73? Absolutely. Yes. I would do a reunion special in the nursing home, and we would turn up,” Richie quipped, with Hilton adding, “We’ll definitely not be in a nursing home, but I know that we would have so much fun doing it.

While there’s no official release date yet for Paris & Nicole: The Encore, the series is set to stream on Peacock.