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Paris Hilton told Larry King that being strip searched in jail "was the most humiliating experience of my life". (AP Images)

Paris Hilton is a changed heiress.

So she repeatedly claimed on "Larry King Live" Wednesday night in her first interview since her release from jail a day earlier. Hilton spent 23 days in a California lock-up for driving with a suspended license.

Hilton read from notes she took in jail. In one instance, she said she was embarking on "a new beginning". She also said God has a plan and that she is starting realize it. Her time in jail was filled with hours of contemplation about the state of her life, she said.

"Don't serve the time, let the time serve you," the 26-year-old Hilton said.

Not quite Nelson Mandela, but hey, she didn't say life behind bars was "hot", except when she described dinner in prison. "Slop" and mystery meat that didn't change from day to day is what the heir to the Hilton family fortune said she ate.

A number of Paris Hilton betting odds were available from the Bodog Sportsbook's
celebrity odds section for Hilton's interview on CNN. She arrived in a white lace dress and out-of-style mondo sunglasses. Anyone who guessed that she would discuss her mental health with King got a payday of -500 on the moneyline (meaning a winning wager of $500 would yield a $100 profit). Those who correctly predicted she would invoke the lord, got a -900 payout.

On "Paula Zahn Now", King said he believed Hilton was in denial because she claimed she hasn't used drugs regularly other than for her medical conditions, like attention-deficit disorder, and claimed she got a raw deal from judge Michael T. Sauer. Hilton said she only had one drink before getting behind the wheel of her car on the night she was stopped by police. She was not found guilty of drinking and driving, although she said she will never drink again. According to Hilton, her lawyers told her the violation of probation and the suspended license charge would lead to community service, not a 3.5-week prison term in the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynnwood, Calif.

She said she was trying to find meaning in the episode. "God does make everything happen for a reason. It gave me a timeout in life," she said, adding she thought a lot of how to spend her days going forward.

As for what it was like inside the prison, she said being strip searched was "the most humiliating experience of her life". She sounded almost virginal when she said having to disrobe in front of someone she didn't know was awful. As well, she said, "I was treated like any other inmate. No better, no worse." The cell was 8×12 feet, she said, describing it as: "A small room with a metal bunkbed. A toilet next to the bed connected to a sink and a little metal desk."

She said she was out of the cell for one hour a day and during that time she talked to her family. During the visitation time on weekends, she said fans tried to get in to see her. "A lot of people pretended to know me to get in," she said, making prison sound like a Vegas night club.

Among her regrets, she said, was missing special occasions with her family. "This was the first Father's Day when I couldn't give my dad a hug," she said. "That was really hard on me."

She said she suffered from claustrophobia, which led to her odd release partway through the sentence. She was promptly returned a day later.

On Sept. 7, Hilton failed a sobriety test after police saw her weaving down a street in
her Mercedes-Benz. Hilton, who said she was hungry and on the way to get a hamburger, pleaded no contest to alcohol-related reckless driving and was sentenced to probation for three years.

In the months that followed she was stopped twice by officers who discovered her driving with a suspended license. The second stop landed her in court and then in jail.

"I consider you an icon and I really respect you," Hilton told King at the outset of the
one-hour interview when asked why she was doing the interview. She said she's been through a lot and said it was a "pretty traumatic experience that she's learned from" and wanted to share what happened to her. She said her release was "one of the happiest days of my life".

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