That statement is false. Hillary's Sherpa guide, Tinsang Norgay(?) was the fist to summit. Hillary always acknowledged this.
No, Hillary confirmed that he reached the summit first.
In his 1999 book "View from the Summit," Hillary finally broke his long public silence about whether it was he or Tenzing who was the first man to step atop Everest. "We drew closer together as Tenzing brought in the slack on the rope. I continued cutting a line of steps upwards." "Next moment, I had moved onto a flattish exposed area of snow with nothing by space in every direction," Hillary wrote. "Tenzing quickly joined me and we looked round in wonder. To our immense satisfaction we realized with had reached the top of the world." Before Tenzing's death in 1986, Hillary consistently refused to confirm he was first, saying he and the Sherpa had climbed as a team to the top. It was a measure of his personal modesty and of his commitment to his colleagues.
Thanks for the correction. I have not read Hillary's book. I received my information in the early 1980s from a guy who was an acquaintance of both Hillary & Norgay.