Today, it’s nearly impossible for celebrities to keep their relationships under wraps. However, back in 2006, the internet wasn’t quite the nosey neighbor that it’s been accepted as today. Sure, people knew that Paris Hilton and Travis Barker had a brief fling in the early aughts. However, we didn’t know until years later that they actually had an unofficial wedding. That’s right—Kourtney Kardashian wasn’t the first woman to marry Barker in a non-legally binding ceremony. Here’s everything we know about Hilton and Barker’s oh-so-2006 “wedding.”
Travis Barker And Paris Hilton Met In Vegas
Once upon a time in a backyard somewhere in LA, Travis Barker took Paris Hilton to be his un-lawfully wedded wife. However, we know now that they were a coupling not meant to last more than a few months. Legend has it that, sometime in 2006, Barker, having just split from his wife Shanna Moakler, met Hilton in a nightclub in Vegas.
According to Barker’s autobiography, Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums, he and Hilton immediately hit it off, partying well into the next morning. “I was a punk-rock kid, and she was my complete opposite,” he wrote. “For a few weeks, we did everything together.”
Of course, theirs wasn’t exactly a fairytale romance. Barker admitted in his book that he was two-timing Hilton with Miss USA Tara Conner. However, that didn’t stop Barker from eventually saying “I do.”
While the press certainly knew about the wild party couple, it wasn’t until Barker’s autobiography came out in 2015 that the world learned about their unofficial wedding ceremony. According to his book, he and Hilton drunkenly said “I do” in Hilton’s own backyard. Apparently, their faux-vows were officiated by Suge Knight of Death Row Records.
Their Romance Wasn’t Meant To Be
According to Barker, he and Hilton had fun together but ultimately weren’t compatible. However, that was made apparent by Barker’s endless musings on being attracted to Hilton’s assistant at the time, the one and only Kim Kardashian.
Of course, fans of the Blink-182 drummer know that Barker, in an ironic twist, is now married to Kourtney Kardashian. In another fitting coincidence, he also took the unofficial wedding route with Kourtney before ultimately tying the knot for real in May of 2022.
Hilton, for her part, never seemed torn up over Barker. She herself recently married venture capitalist Carter Reum in November of 2021. However, despite knowing that this doomed couple wasn’t meant to last, their backyard “wedding” is undoubtedly an early aughts legend we just can’t forget about.