Paris Hilton has been secretly recorded in the back of a New York City taxi making derogatory remarks about gay people.
The taxi driver recorded the hotel heiress having a conversation with a friend about a new mobile phone app that lets gay people meet up for random sexual encounters.
"Gay guys are the horniest people in the world," Hilton is heard saying in the September 7 conversation.
"They're disgusting. Dude, most of them probably have AIDS ... I would be so scared if I was a gay guy. You'll like, die of AIDS."
Entertainment news website Radar Online published a recording of the audio.
A representative for Hilton told Radar she did not mean to make derogatory comments about "all gays".
"Paris Hilton’s comments were to express that it is dangerous for anyone to have unprotected sex that could lead to a life threatening disease," the representative said in a statement.
"The conversation became heated after a close gay friend told her in a cab ride a story about a gay man who has AIDS and is knowingly having unprotected sex.
"He also discussed a website that encourages random sex by gay men with strangers. As she was being shown the website her comments were in reference to those people promoting themselves on the site.
"The cab driver who recorded this, only provided a portion of the conversation. It was not her intent to make any derogatory comments about all gays.
"Paris Hilton is a huge supporter of the gay community and would never purposefully make any negative statements about anyone's sexual orientation."
