Paris Hilton: I Like Being Single

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/14/2006 at 12:00 PM EDT

Paris Hilton's been singing the praises of being single this week.

On Monday's Late Show with David Letterman, Hilton said she was content being single for another five years – until she's 30.

"How about mid-30's?" suggested Letterman.

Continuing on this theme, on Tuesday Hilton announced on Live With Regis and Kelly that she's "single for the first time" in her life – and loving it.

"I always have a boyfriend all the time, so I've never really got to know me and, like, have time for myself because I spend all my energy on the boyfriend," said Hilton, who is promoting her E! series The Simple Life - 'Til Death Do Us Part, in which she costars with ex-pal Nicole Richie.

Hilton, who ended her engagement to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis last year ("We're still friends," she told Letterman), recently broke up with Stavros Niarchos, another Greek shipping heir – though that relationship, too, doesn't appear to be completely over.

The two went browsing together for DVDs last Saturday at a Tower Records in Hollywood and, generally kept close company over the weekend: Niarchos (recently linked to Lindsay Lohan) also attended a birthday party the hotel heiress (recently linked to NFL player Matt Leinart) threw for pal Caroline D'Amore at her Hollywood home, PEOPLE reports in its new issue.

"I'm a very strong woman. I don't need a man. I can be on my own," Hilton told Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa.

As for her rivalry with her former best pal Richie, Hilton said she hopes she and her costar will patch things up.

"I've known her 20 years," Hilton said. "I look at baby pictures. It makes me sad that she's, you know – we're going through something right now and we'll make up one day."