‘I feel terrible’: Kathy Hilton apologises to Mariska Hargitay for PCA speech incident

Hilton said she would ‘never do anything to be rude intentionally’ and that she had reached out to Hargitay to apologise in person

Hilto said that she “would never do anything to be rude intentionally” (NBC)

Kathy Hilton has apologised for applying lipstick during actor Mariska Hargitay’s speech at the 2022 People’s Choice Awards.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star said she feels “terrible” over the now-viral moment where she reached into her bag and applied lipstick while Hargitay accepted her award.

“I adore and I respect Mariska very much,” Hilton, 63, told Extra on Friday (9 December).

“I already reached out to her, DMed her, I want to get her address, I feel terrible.”

Hilton added that she “would never do anything to be rude intentionally” and that it was the first time “being back on the stage with some of the girls,” in reference to her reality TV co-stars.

Hilton, who is mother to socialite Paris Hilton, also offered an explanation for the mishap.

“I actually thought I was going to sneeze,” she said, “and you don’t want to hear me sneeze. It’s the loudest sneeze that you’ve ever heard in your life.

“I was looking for a tissue, and I didn’t have a tissue or a hanky, so I got a little nervous, and I just put some lipstick on.

“But it was during her speech, so I thought… the camera’s not going to be on me. I didn’t think that I was in that shot,” she concluded.

Hargitay delivered a heartfelt speech when accepting the award for drama TV star of the year for her role in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

“I love this award so much because of the two words in it,” she said. “The word, of course, the first word is ‘people.’ And that’s people from all origins and all ethnicities and all creeds, and all genders and all identity that make this whole glorious mix of all of us.

“The second word, and that’s even more important, is ‘choice.’ So I just want to celebrate our ability in all of us, the willingness in all of us to choose kindness, and compassion and courage and to choose to listen and to learn and to build a bridge between our differences and our divides.”