Few photos scream 2006 more than the infamous one of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears crammed into Paris' car outside the Beverly Hills Hotel. While the pic certainly made the women appear like a tightknit squad, Paris revealed that was hardly the case during a PodPost episode of her iHeartRadio podcast This Is Paris.
"That was a night that Britney and I went out, and we were at the Beverly Hills Hotel, at our friend's party, and we decided to leave to go home," Paris explained to her co-host Hunter March. "We were walking to the car and all of as suddenly got swarmed by a tons of paparazzi. Just as we got to the car, that's when Lindsay came up. It was kind of awkward because we were having some drama."
The Simple Life alum continued, "As we were getting into the car, a paparazzi screamed at me, 'Is it true that you hit Lindsay?' And at that moment I see Lindsay walking towards us, and I said 'Why don't you just ask her?' And Lindsay said... 'No, Paris would never hit me, I've known her since I was 15.' It was basically just, not admitting what she did. It was quite awkward to be asked that question, and it was just weird how that whole thing happened."
At the time, a video had circulated of the Mean Girls star claiming that Paris had hit and spilled a drink on her at friend's house.
Paris added, "All of a sudden, I look over, and she's in my car. We weren't getting along, but I was polite."
The DJ shared that the next morning, "these photos and videos went everywhere."
"We saw it on the cover of the NY Post, all these different magazines," Paris said. "They had literally no idea it was just me and Britney out, at the Beverly Hills Hotel, just going home."
As most people still associate the pic with a night of young Hollywood debauchery, however, the meme endures. Paris explained that she was recently walking in West Hollywood and saw the image printed on a sun shade on a car windshield. And the heiress herself recreated the pic in 2019—albeit with a few hilarious tweaks!
One thing that didn't last? Paris and Lindsay's complicated friendship.
"Back in the day [Lindsay and I] were actually close friends, and then she did some things to really hurt me and betrayed my trust, and caused a lot of drama," said the mogul. "So we weren't friends anymore, and it was kind of like this on and off friendship. But when I think about it now, we were just so young, immature. It was like high school drama, especially in the L.A. scene, and to live it out in public with the media constantly trying to stir things up and make things worse than they were.
She added, "Back then, the media really enjoyed having girls feud with each other."