Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton's mother has filed a petition in Miami family court for temporary custody of his three children, a legal move that came just days after Hilton was hospitalized following a self-harm incident broadcast live on TikTok.
Teresita Lavandeira submitted the petition on August 7, three days after the incident at Hilton's Florida home, where the 48-year-old media personality appeared to cut himself with a knife during a livestream. His children, Mario, 13, Mia, 11, and Mayte, 8, were inside the home in the minutes before the crisis unfolded, along with Hilton's 42-year-old sister Barbara and a niece, the Daily Mail reported, citing court records it had reviewed.
Hilton's team said the children "remain safe and are being cared for by immediate family." But the custody filing signals that the family moved quickly through the courts to formalize that arrangement, an acknowledgment, at minimum, that Hilton's condition left him unable to care for his kids.
A statement shared on Hilton's website said his family "immediately fled" to protect the children from "witnessing any further trauma" once it became clear Hilton was having "a severe mental health crisis and harming himself." Fans watching the TikTok livestream called 911. Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office deputies arrived at Hilton's Florida residence not long after 7 p.m. that Tuesday evening.
Surveillance footage captured audio of a deputy outside the home: "Mario, it's the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office, please step out of the house." Hilton's legal name is Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr.
He was taken to a Miami hospital, where he remains committed under Florida's Baker Act, the state's mental health law that allows law enforcement, judges, or medical professionals to involuntarily hold individuals for up to 72 hours if they pose a risk of harming themselves or others. His team later revealed that his commitment has extended well beyond that initial window.
TikTok took down the livestream video and suspended Hilton's account after the incident.
Over the weekend following the incident, Hilton's team disclosed that he had sustained "significant blood loss" as well as unspecified "additional injuries." They said he would "require surgery in the coming days" to treat those injuries. His "condition remains serious but stable," the team said, adding that his "treatment and recovery" would be a "long process."
Communication with Hilton has been tightly restricted. His team said it "has been extremely limited and confined to immediate family, medical providers, and others directly involved in his care." On the Friday after the incident, he was able to spend time with his mother and sister.
The family released a statement expressing gratitude for public support:
"The events of the past several days have been nearly unbearable for our family. 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."
The court filing's current status, whether a judge has granted Teresita Lavandeira temporary custody, was not disclosed in available records. Nor is it clear whether any other parent or guardian is involved in the custody matter. Hilton has raised his three children as a single father.
The self-harm incident did not arrive without warning signs. Months earlier, Hilton was hospitalized for 21 days after developing sepsis. He said on Fox News Media's Hang Out with Sean Hannity podcast, in an appearance recorded July 14, that the crisis began when he took flu medication, Aleve and Tylenol, on an empty stomach for a week, which caused an ulcer and a perforation.
"I was in the hospital for 21 days, so I thought I was gonna die. Especially because the first few days they couldn't find where the perforation was and then I had all of these other issues. My body just started breaking down."
He described a cascade of complications: fluid in his lungs, atrial fibrillation, and other cardiac issues. "Everything that could go wrong, went wrong," he told Hannity. Weeks after that hospitalization, he experienced pain in one of his legs. An ultrasound revealed deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot.
On Instagram, Hilton said he was "so thankful to God that we caught this early because if that blood clot had gone to my lungs or my heart, it could have been real bad." He later shared that he was able to "finally walk again" using a walker.
The physical toll of those months raises questions about what role prolonged illness and recovery may have played in the events of that Tuesday evening. Those questions remain unanswered. Hilton's team has offered no stated motive for the self-harm incident.
Hilton built his fame on exposing and mocking the personal struggles of celebrities. He launched his gossip blog in 2004 under the name PageSixSixSix.com, later rebranding it as PerezHilton.com. The site became one of the most-read celebrity outlets of the mid-2000s, known for its aggressive and often cruel coverage.
Among the figures Hilton targeted most relentlessly was Britney Spears during her 2007 breakdown. In 2008, he released a shirt design referencing both Spears and the late actor Heath Ledger. Years later, in a 2021 appearance on Good Morning Britain, Hilton expressed regret. "I regret a lot or most of what I said about Britney," he said, adding, "Thankfully, hopefully, many of us get older and wiser." Others who bore the brunt of his coverage have been less forgiving, though some have wished him well during this crisis.
The dispatch audio from that evening and the court records that followed paint a picture of a family scrambling to protect three young children from the consequences of their father's breakdown, and then moving through the legal system to secure their care while he remains unable to provide it.
Whatever happens next in that Miami courtroom, three kids, ages 8, 11, and 13, are the ones living with the fallout. They deserve adults who put their stability first, and a system that holds.
