“Surrogacy was a difficult decision to make,” she explained during the second season of Paris in Love.
Hilton said she would have liked to experience pregnancy, including feeling her child grow and kick. However, the intense public attention surrounding her life led the couple to choose a surrogate, even though Phoenix is biologically theirs.
She has also connected that decision to trauma she experienced as a teenager at Utah’s Provo Canyon School.
Speaking with Glamour UK, Hilton said that the experience left her frightened of medical environments, needles, intravenous lines and childbirth.
“I want a family so bad, it’s just the physical part of doing it,” she said.
Hilton went to extraordinary lengths to keep Phoenix’s arrival private. She wore a disguise when entering the hospital and did not initially inform her relatives or closest friends.
Not even Hilton’s mother, sisters or best friend knew about Phoenix until he was more than a week old.
“I’ve given my whole life to everyone for so long,” she said. “It’s just been really important to me to keep this a secret.”
For Hilton, those private days with Reum and their newborn represented one of the first major experiences she could keep entirely within her immediate family.
Phoenix’s name had been selected approximately 10 years before his birth.
Hilton explained that the phoenix symbolizes rising from the ashes and reflects her hope that her son will understand how hardship and success repeatedly appear throughout life.
His middle name, Barron, honors her late grandfather, Barron Hilton, whom she described as her mentor.
As Phoenix grew, Hilton noticed how closely he resembled her. Reum said seeing the child’s eyes gave him chills because they reminded him so strongly of his wife’s.
Hilton agreed, saying her son’s baby photographs looked exactly like her own.
London’s arrival became a Thanksgiving surprise
Less than a year after Phoenix was born, Hilton and Reum welcomed their daughter, London, through a surrogate in November 2023.
Once again, Hilton kept the baby’s arrival hidden from her extended family.
She announced London publicly on Thanksgiving by posting a photograph of a pink outfit bearing her daughter’s name.
“Thankful for my baby girl,” she wrote.
Hilton and Reum revealed the news to relatives shortly before Thanksgiving dinner. Reum gathered everyone in the living room and told them he had a surprise.
The family believed a magician or another performer was about to appear.
Instead, Hilton entered carrying London in a pink blanket.
“Everybody is sitting there like, ‘What?!’ ” she recalled during an appearance on Live with Kelly and Mark.
London’s name combines Hilton’s favorite city with a tribute to her grandmother, Marilyn.
Hilton had publicly discussed the name before her daughter was born, explaining that she also liked the way Paris and London sounded together.
After welcoming her second child, Hilton said having both a son and daughter made her life feel complete.
She initially protected London’s privacy by waiting until the baby was five months old before showing her face publicly.
In April 2024, Hilton introduced her daughter through family photographs shared exclusively with People.
“Phoenix and London are everything to me,” she said. “I feel like the luckiest woman in the world to be married to the love of my life and have our beautiful family.”
Motherhood becomes the center of Hilton’s world
Hilton regularly shares affectionate family moments as her children grow.
In June 2026, she posted footage of Phoenix and London playing inside the luxury “Doggy Mansion” playhouse in her backyard.
She explained that the structure had originally been built for her pets before her children were born.
“My puppies were my first babies, so that’s why it’s called the ‘Doggy Mansion,’ ” she told them.
Hilton has described Phoenix as her best friend and said his smile brightens every morning.
When cruel online comments targeted the size of his head in 2023, she defended him publicly, saying he was perfectly healthy and “just has a large brain.”
She called the comments unacceptable and said they had deeply hurt her.
“If I don’t post my baby, people assume I’m not a great mother, and if I do post him, there are some people who are cruel and hateful,” Hilton said.
She emphasized that she is a proud working mother and that her healthy, happy children remind her every day of what truly matters.
Hilton has also celebrated Phoenix’s early milestones, including his first words and his ability to travel comfortably by plane.
With Phoenix and London now growing up together, Hilton has continued documenting their sibling bond and everyday adventures.
The woman whose life was once almost entirely public has remained protective of her children while allowing selected family moments to be shared.
For Hilton, marriage and motherhood have created the family life she spent years hoping to build.
“We make the absolute best team,” she said, “and my life finally feels complete.”
