Almost a decade after she was robbed at gunpoint and had millions of dollars worth of her jewellery stolen, Kim Kardashian has shared her recollections of the infamous heist in a French court.
The reality star appeared in the Palais de Justice in Paris on Tuesday to give evidence in the trial of 10 people accused of robbing her in October 2016.
The suspects – nine men and one woman aged from 35 to 78 – are on trial until 23 May. Eight deny any involvement.
At about midnight on Sunday 3 October 2016, during Paris Fashion Week, Kim Kardashian returned to her hotel room alone, her sister Kourtney having gone to a club accompanied by their shared bodyguard.
Kim Kardashian became emotional when an apology letter was read out by one of the defendants (Photo: ZZIIGG/Reuters)A few hours later, two men dressed as police officers entered Kardashian’s room at the luxury Hôtel de Pourtalès, taped her mouth, bound her hands and feet, and stole about $10m (£7.5m) worth of jewellery – including a $4m ring given to Kardashian by her then husband, Kanye West. The jewels have never been found. Police believe they were broken up and sold on.
It was the biggest robbery of an individual in France for more than two decades. A massive manhunt was launched and three months after, 17 people were arrested, and 12 later charged. The trial was delayed by a number of factors including the complexity of the investigation, Covid-19 disruptions and French judicial system procedures.
Here are five things we learned about that night during Kardashian’s testimony.
When the men first entered the room – dressed as policemen but with the night receptionist in cuffs in tow – Kardashian thought they were terrorists.
“I was still in such shock, because honestly a lot of terrorist attacks were going on in the world,” she told the court.
“I didn’t get what was happening and I didn’t get it was about my jewellery, even though they specifically asked for my ring.”
She said the robbers kept asking for the “ring” – a reference to the $4m one given to her by West – before one of them spotted it on the bedside table.
The reality TV star believed she was going to die
One of the men held a gun to her back as they led her down the hallway to look for more jewels, Kardashian said. She said she had thought, “should I run for it?” and that was “the moment I realised I should just do whatever they say”.
She was thrown on the bed and her hands bound with zip ties. Kardashian said she asked the receptionist to “please translate to them that I have babies, I have to make it home”.
Kardashian described how she had been wearing just a robe, which fell open when she was grabbed, and she believed she was going to be raped. Instead, her legs were bound and a gun held up to her.
Kardashian was accompanied by her mother, Kris Jenner, to testify in the trial (Photo: Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters)“At that point I was sure that’s when they were going to shoot me,” she said. “So I said a prayer for my family and my mom and my sister and best friend.” She said she thought about them entering the room and finding her dead and “hoped they would have an OK life after that”.
“I absolutely did think I was going to die,” she told the judge.
After the robbers left, Kardashian said she waited a few minutes and then broke the wrist ties against the tap and went downstairs to find her stylist who helped her get the remaining ties off.
Giving testimony earlier in the day, Simone Harouche told the court that she was woken by Kardashian’s screams above her and heard her friend repeatedly saying, “I have babies and I need to live”.
Describing how she “hopped” into her room, Harouche said Kardashian was “beside herself”. “I’ve never seen her like that before. She was screaming, ‘We need to get out, what do we do if they come back? We need to jump from the first floor, we need to get out.'”
Kardashian said she was scared the robbers would return, “maybe to kill us so there were no witnesses”.
Her security has been ramped up since the robbery
Asked why her bodyguard Pascal Duvier was not with her on the night of the robbery, Kardashian explained that the family shared him and “at that time that was all the security we would travel with”.
“We assumed hotels were safe and secure,” she said. “Every time we travelled they [the bodyguards] would stay in a different hotel and when we were in ours they’d travel back to theirs.”
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Their security has been significantly heightened since, and Harouche described the robbery as the end of Kardashian’s feeling of freedom.
Kardashian said the heist “changed everything for us”. “We never thought we were not safe before this.”
She said she developed a “phobia of going out”, fearing people would know her home was empty and that she “can’t sleep at night if I know there’s not multiple security” guards.
Security now drive her cars and sleep outside the hotel door, she said. She doesn’t post on social media in real time and takes off her jewellery before she gets home and sends it to a safe deposit.
“I try to be just strong and protective and I have a lot of security around my house – even if it’s excessive or ridiculous to other people, that’s what I need to feel safe and sleep and I’m OK with that.”
She was surprised by the age of the ‘grandpa robbers’
The 10 standing trial – three aged between 68 and 71-years-old – have been dubbed the “grandpa robbers” by French media.
Kardashian said she was surprised at the age of her suspected robbers during her testimony. “I thought they were younger,” she said. She later said the “grandpa robber” moniker was frustrating to hear “as that is not what it felt like”.
Twelve men were due to appear in court, but one died in March and another has been excused from proceedings due to advanced dementia.
Two of the men – Yunice Abbas, 71, and Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, have admitted involvement.
Abbas told the court he “regrets” the heist. Khedache wrote a letter of apology but denies being the ringleader.
The judge read out Khedache’s letter, written when he was arrested in 2017, in court. “I want to tell you human to human how I regret my actions and how I was touched to see you cry… I am sorry for the pain I caused you, your husband, your children and those who love you.”
Asked whether she has any response, Kardashian said: “I do appreciate it, I forgive you. But it doesn’t change the emotion, the feelings and the trauma and the way my life has changed.”
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