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Photos: New Papa Perez Hilton Tamed By Fatherhood
Apparently fatherhood has had a calming effect on the already toned down less-bullying ways of gossip blogger Perez Hilton.
Hilton, born Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr., revealed out of the blue late February he was the proud new pop of a little boy. Now the celeb scandal hound once known for drawing crude penises on photos of famous people he bestowed with cheeky nicknames is opening up about his decision to become a single father.
On his blog, Hilton has announced the little man is "Perez Jr" (or, more accurately, Mario Armando Lavandeira III), but gets much deeper in a profile in the L.A. Times.
Perez Jr. is "a preemie who was born to a secret surrogate four weeks early," the story reveals, and goes on to elaborate:
Though he's never hidden his desire to have children, only [Hilton's] mother, sister, lawyer and business manager knew that he'd found an egg donor and a surrogate last year to carry his biological child. He doesn't know the name of the egg donor, and he won't divulge the name or location of the surrogate.
Hilton learned the surrogate was in labor as the blogger was heading into the Staples Center to see Pink perform; instead he flew out to the hospital where his son was born.
No longer giving out mean-spirited nicknames, Hilton's home is apparently a palace of zen and spirituality (and now diapers and formula). Hilton had already toned things down a couple of years back after he got called out as a bully, but it seems now he's positively nice. He's about to turn 35, and seems happy with his media empire's turn towards the (mostly) nice, and about being a dad.
Hilton seems fine with being a solo parent to Perez Jr., and that the timing was right: "I knew it was going to happen this way because boyfriends and husbands may come and go, but kids are forever. I didn't want to keep waiting."
Previously: Perez Hilton Is a Dad! Announces Birth of Baby Boy on Blog
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