Kim Kardashian rose to fame after the release of a sex tape, entitled Kim K Superstar, starring Kim and then-boyfriend, Ray J. In 2007, Kardashian filed a suit against Vivid Entertainment for distributing the video and was awarded a $5 million settlement, but the tape was still released. Now, Ian Halperin—author of Kardashian Dynasty—is alleging that Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner, deliberately leaked the tape.
Halperin spoke to one source who claims, “A mutual friend of Kim and Paris [Hilton] had advised her that if she wanted to achieve fame, a sex tape would be the way to go. Kim had discussed the idea of producing a tape with her family beforehand.”
A friend of Kardashian also reportedly told the author, “It was Kris who engineered the deal behind the scenes and was responsible for the tape seeing the light of day.” However, there is no evidence to back the rumor that Jenner is solely responsible.
To gather more information about how sex tapes are made public, Halperin met with a Vivid spokesperson under the pretense that he was looking to sell a celebrity sex tape (creepy, right?). The company’s representative told him that for a tape to be released, both parties need to sign off. This suggests that both Ray J and Kardashian agreed for the tape to be distributed.
When Halperin specifically asked how Kardashian’s tape was released, the representative claimed a third party brought the tape to Vivid, who then “got in touch with the Kardashian family.”
“Vivid would not have announced plans to distribute Kim’s tape,” Halperin concludes, “without a clear indication from the family that they would give the go-ahead once they had come to terms on a price.”
However, Kardashian’s rep refutes the claim, saying, “All the assertions are false.”
The surfacing of this rumor is ironic considering Kardashian wrote a blog post just last month in which she discussed the public’s weird preoccupation with the tape so long after its release. “It always seems to come back around to my sex tape, ” she wrote. “Yes, a sex tape that was made 13 years ago. 13 YEARS AGO. Literally that lonnng ago. And people still want to talk about it?!?!”
“Let’s move on, already. I have.”