The gossip blogger details how the flu spiraled into a life-threatening infection.

Perez Hilton reveals ‘stupidity’ landed him in hospital for 21 days: ‘I just want to be with my babies’

The gossip blogger details how the flu spiraled into a life-threatening infection.

By Kathleen Perricone

March 23, 2026 6:36 p.m. ET

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Perez Hilton shares update on his health scare. Credit:

Perez Hilton/YouTube

Gossip blogger Perez Hilton is dishing on the “crazy, crazy, crazy saga” of how he ended up in the hospital for 21 days — and he hopes it serves as a cautionary tale.

In an emotional You Tube video, the 48-year-old personality (real name: Mario Lavandeira Jr.) reveals that it all started when he had the flu for a week. Although he took his prescribed medication, he never paired it with food as instructed, which can be hard on the digestive system.

“My stupidity landed me in the hospital for 21 days,” he told his followers, “and it was the worst and best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Unbeknownst to Hilton, he had developed an ulcer, which progressed to a perforation in his stomach, and then sepsis, a condition in which the body responds to extreme infection.

“People die of sepsis,” cried the father of three.

When he couldn’t walk one morning, he was taken by ambulance to a local hospital in Las Vegas.

“The first few days were a lot of pain and constant tests” — X-rays, CT scans, ultrasounds — he explained, “because they couldn’t find location of perforation. So, that was scary. There’s this hole inside of me. Where is it?”

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Laparoscopic surgery revealed “so much infection” around his internal organs, which another procedure attempted to drain.

But the sepsis “kept working,” Hilton continued, “any my body kept falling apart.” His heart “got out of control” and then, he developed another infection while still in the hospital.

By this point, his only nutrients had been though an IV. When he was finally able to eat food again after two weeks, “that was a whole other process, hard on the body and humiliating,” admitted Hilton, as he choked up. Some nights, “I had a lot of accidents.” But there was one nurse, Bella, who he says was “so kind and patient and helpful.”

The last week in the hospital was “hell” working to get better before he could be released: "I was like, I just want to go home. I just want to be with my babies."

Perez Hilton and his mother in the hospital.

Perez Hilton/Instagram

While he’s now finally back home, “I’m not a hundred percent,” Hilton told his followers. He’s still on an IV and multiple medications to treat “the infection that’s still inside of me.” And he vows to follow doctors orders so he doesn’t end up back in the hospital.

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Many positives have come out of this experience, notes Hilton.

Not only will he take better care of his body (and get eight hours of sleep every night), he intends to spend more quality time with his three young children.

"It was grandma who would do dinner with the kids every night. No more. I’m gonna have dinner with my kids and my mom every night from now on,” he said.

Hilton credits his “rockstar” mother and “angel” sister for helping him get through the health scare — but also, the emotional healing they brought him. His mother spent all 21 days in the hospital, and during that time, “we had some of the most powerful healing conversations of my life.”

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Source: “AOL Celebrity”