After letting the media do most of the talking while she was in - and then out of, and then back in - jail, Paris Hilton gave her first interview since the ordeal on CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’ last night. She opened up about the “traumatic” experience, telling the host that she’s learned from her mistakes - but still believes she got a raw deal.

Paris on her first taste of freedom: “It was one of the happiest days of my life. Like, it’s hard to even describe. It was so exciting even just being in the fresh air and looking up at the sky and the stars and being outside. And then it was just pandemonium. And then as soon as I saw my mom, I just ran to her to go give her a hug. So that was really exciting for me.”

Paris on her cell: “Basically it’s a small room with a metal bunk bed, a toilet right next to the bed connected to the sink and a little metal desk. So it’s a very small area.”

Paris on food in jail: “Lunch is basically a bologna sandwich, which is they just give this bologna which — as I — they call it mystery meat. It’s pretty scary. And two pieces of bread and some mayonnaise with some orange juice…Dinner was usually the same. Just, it was hot, at least. The only hot meal, but it was like, again, like this mystery kind of — they call it jail slop. So it wasn’t that tasty.”

Paris on whether she learned a lesson while in jail: “It definitely — it was a very traumatic experience, but I feel like God does make everything happen for a reason. And it gave me, you know, a time-out in life just to really find out what is important and what I want to do, figuring out who I am. And I’m — even though it was really hard, I took that time just so I’d get to know myself.”

Paris on whether she thinks she got a raw deal: “Yes, I do. But I don’t know, even though I hated it, I’m glad it happened, in a way, because it’s — it’s really changed my life forever. And I feel stronger than ever. And I don’t know, I just feel like… KING: So bad turned to good?”

Paris on her mysterious medical condition: “Well, I’ve suffered from claustrophobia my entire life. And when I first got in that cell, I was having severe panic attacks, anxiety attacks. My claustrophobia was kicking in. I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t eating. It was — the doctors talked to the sheriff and he could see that it would be better if I just did it on house arrest. Plus, I had already served more than — most people on that kind of infraction will only serve 10 percent of their stay. And I had already done more than that. So he just thought it would be better for everyone for me just to be at home.”

Paris on why she showed up at the MTV Awards hours before going to jail: “Actually, I was playing a trick on everyone. Because outside my house, outside the Lynwood facility, there were paparazzi, I heard, from all around the world. So I thought if I went to the MTV Awards, snuck out during — during the show, I could get there unnoticed. And that’s what we did. No one even saw me going in.”

Paris on what she would change about herself: “Something I, you know, when I get nervous or shy, my voice gets really high. I’ve been doing that ever since I was a little girl. And that’s something that I don’t like that I do. I like when I talk in my normal voice. But sometimes I go down and that’s something I’m trying to change about myself.”

Paris on whether she’s ever taken drugs: “No.”

Paris on BFF Nicole Richie’s potential jail time: “I hope not. But she’s not…You know, she just — everyone makes mistakes. And she just — I wish her the best. She’s like my sister. I love her so much. So I don’t want anything bad to happen to her.”

Paris on Britney Spears: “She’s a sweet girl. She’s a good mom. She loves her children and again, I think the media just likes to….I’ve seen her with her kids. She loves her kids. And I think it’s hard for anyone when you’re in the spotlight so much. It’s very overwhelming at such, like, a young age.”

Paris on Lindsay Lohan: “I wish the best for her.”

Paris on getting strip searched: “The most humiliating experience of my life. I never had to do that, you know, doing that in front of someone you don’t even know. It’s pretty embarrassing….It’s pretty gross, you know, taking your clothes off in front of someone and having to do that, yes.”

Paris on her favourite passage in the Bible: “[Long pause] I don’t have a favorite, but..”

The highlight of the night came when a forcefully trite Anderson Cooper took over following the interview, and in what was a clear and pathetic attempt to appease the millions of angry CNN viewers peeved over having to watch a full hour of the heiress-turned-felon, began berating her incessantly. “I have got to tell you, if part of being a celebrity is creating a mystique about somebody, she’s destroying it every time she opens that lip-glossed mouth of hers,” lamented the perfectly quaffed anchor through his very own highly glossed smackers.