Twenty years after socialites Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie spent a month at a family farm in Arkansas for the first season of their reality show, “The Simple Life,” their lives are no longer quite so simple.
The lifelong friends have husbands and kids and businesses and responsibilities … but they still have time for each other.
For their televised reunion, the women joined forces to once again try something they’ve never done before: create an opera out of their “iconic” childhood song, “Sanasa.” Their three-part special, “Paris & Nicole: The Encore,” premieres on Peacock Dec. 12.
“When Nicole and I are together, I just feel like a teenager again,” Hilton says, chatting with TODAY.com in their dressing rooms after speaking with Hoda Kotb in Studio 1A.
“Getting up every day and getting to laugh with your friend and call it work is so fun,” says Richie.
Do they know how to produce an opera? No.
Does their song have more than five notes? Also no.
Do either of these things deter the women? Definitely no.
“‘The Simple Life’ has apparently been having a big moment on Tiktok,” Richie says, noting that her kids — daughter Harlow, 17, and son Sparrow, 15 — have been watching clips of the show with all of their friends. “They were a big part of the reason why I decided to do a reunion,” Richie says, adding that her kids were “all for it.”
Hilton, who has two kids under 2, says that that son Phoenix and daughter London “loved” attending the “Sanasapera.”
“Phoenix learned ‘Sanasa’ so we do it together all the time,” she says.
Phoenix takes music classes with his sister, plus the “Nicole” to London’s “Paris”: Ashley Benson’s daughter, Aspen.
“They’re the same age, and they’re so cute together,” Hilton says. “I’m excited just to see all the lifelong memories that they’re going to have together. And I love that they’re both named after two of my favorite places.”
The moms admit that there are parts of motherhood that are decidedly NOT hot.
For Hilton, it’s the fact that she has to travel for work so often, and for Richie it’s “all the driving around LA.”
How would these moms react if their kids decided to film a reality show one day?
“I think that your 20s are are about taking adventures and trying new things and doing things that you’ve never done before,” says Richie, who says she would be supportive. “I look back on ‘The Simple Life’ and I could never do a show like that now. I’ve got responsibilities and a family and a job. So I think you’ve got to take chances.”
Hilton, who notes that Richie is “lucky” because her kids are “so sweet” and “don’t get in trouble,” says that she would be supportive of letting her own kids do anything that makes them happy — even if that means starring in a reality show.
