Hungry Hilton tucks into freedom

Celebrity ex-jailbird Paris Hilton tucked into the cosy comforts of home after her release from a Los Angeles jail, say family members.

Celebrity ex-jailbird Paris Hilton tucked into the cosy comforts of home after weeks in a cell, hiding in a swish Bel Air mansion from the media pack at her door, family members said Wednesday.

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"She didn't talk much about her jail experience. She more or less just kept saying how grateful she was to be home, how excited she was to ... have real food," Hilton's aunt Kim Richards said Wednesday on Fox News.

"She is thrilled to be home. She wants lots of hugs. And she was eating a big breakfast when I walked in this morning."

The celebrity heiress left jail beaming on Tuesday after serving just three weeks of a 45-day sentence for a probation violation. She passed a scrum of cameras and cheering fans and was swept away in a car with her parents.

The last time she had been seen in public, on June 8, she was weeping and wailing as she was dragged back to jail after a judge overruled a sheriff's decision to free her under house arrest for medical reasons after just three days.

Media reported this week that the sheriff who initially freed Hilton said she had been suffering from a psychological condition. Sheriff Lee Baca told a board of county officials that she had a condition linked to depression and anxiety and implied that her life was at risk, the celebrity journal US Magazine said.

It added that the sheriff's department believed the judge who put her back in jail had dismissed the medical claims. A steady stream of visitors arrived at the family house throughout Tuesday, media reports said, including one woman delivering full-length, 20-inch, blonde hair extensions, according to the Entertainment Tonight television show.

Her manager Jason Moore told the channel his client would take several weeks' rest after media interviews before resuming an "incredible work schedule" later this year. Hilton was jailed for violating probation over a conviction for alcohol-related reckless driving, drawing frenzied media attention.

She had been handed 36 months' probation after driving her Mercedes with an alcohol level equal to the legal limit, but was then twice caught driving on her suspended license. Her short-lived release from jail after a few days behind bars saw accusations of "celebrity justice" leveled at the Los Angeles sheriff's office.

However a study of similar cases conducted by The Los Angeles Times indicated she was being treated unusually severely, receiving a much longer jail sentence than normal.

During her time behind bars Hilton said in a telephone interview with a television journalist that the sentence was a message from God to change her party-loving lifestyle and become a positive role model for women. "I have become much more spiritual. God has given me this new chance," she said.

Hilton, heiress to the hotel empire of the same name, is mainly known for being rich and famous, and shot to international fame thanks largely to a sex tape of her and an ex-boyfriend which appeared on the Internet. She has also released a music album and appeared in films and has brands of clothing, handbags and perfume bearing her name.