Kim Kardashian breaks down in tears as she says she thought she would die during Paris jewel heist
As a masked man pulled Kim Kardashian toward him in a Paris hotel room, she said a silent prayer.
She was wearing only a bathrobe. Her hands were zip-tied and her mouth was taped.
“I was certain that was the moment that he was going to rape me,” she told a court in Paris on Tuesday. “I absolutely did think I was going to die.”
When she first heard footsteps thundering up the stairs that night, Ms Kardashian said she thought it was her sister Kourtney and a friend returning from a night out. “Hello? Hello? Who is it?” she called. Moments later, her door flew open.
She begged the robbers: “I have babies,” she said. One replied that she would be all right if she stayed quiet.
The last time Ms Kardashian saw the men that police say robbed her, she was bound at gunpoint and locked in a marble bathroom while masked assailants stole more than $6 million in jewellery. On Tuesday, nearly a decade later, she faced them again from the witness stand.
Her tearful testimony marked the emotional climax of a trial that has gripped France and reignited global debates about the cost of fame and what it means to live – and nearly die – in public.
At the time of the robbery, Ms Kardashian was one of the most recognised women on the planet – a fashion icon, reality star, and business mogul. She had mastered a new kind of celebrity: one broadcast in real time, post by post, to millions of followers.
But in the early hours of October 3, 2016, that visibility became a weapon against her.
The robbery marked a turning point for Ms Kardashian, and for how the world understood vulnerability in the digital age.
Dressed in black, Ms Kardashian on Tuesday stood across from her mother, Kris Jenner, in the heavily secured courtroom. Her voice trembled as she thanked French authorities for “allowing me to share my truth”.
She described how the attackers arrived at her hotel disguised as police officers, dragging the concierge upstairs in handcuffs. “I thought it was some sort of terrorist attack,” she said.
They tied her hands, dragged her toward the bathtub and pointed a gun at her temple. One gestured at her diamond ring. “He said, ‘Ring! Ring!’ and he pointed to his hand,” she recalled.
Ms Kardashian broke down in tears as she gave evidence.
