Kim Kardashian gave harrowing testimony in a Paris courtroom on Tuesday, reliving the night in 2016 when she was robbed at gunpoint in her hotel room during Paris Fashion Week, as per Al Jazeera.
The testimony marks a pivotal moment in the trial of 10 suspects accused of carrying out the $6 million heist.
Kardashian recounted being tied up, threatened with weapons, and locked in a marble bathroom by masked men dressed as police officers. The group, dubbed “les papys braqueurs” (“the grandpa robbers”) by French media due to their age—many in their 60s and 70s—are accused of participating in an elaborate jewelry theft that shocked the fashion and entertainment world.
“We were leaving the next morning, so I was just packing up,” Kardashian told the court. “It was around three in the morning. I heard stomping up the stairs when I was in bed.” Thinking it was her sister Kourtney returning, Kardashian said she was stunned when armed intruders burst into the room instead.
The men demanded her jewelry, including a $4 million engagement ring given to her by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West (now legally known as Ye).
“I heard one of the men say, ‘Ring! Ring!’ in English, with an accent, pointing,” she testified.
Wearing only a bathrobe, Kardashian said she was thrown onto the bed and feared for her life.
“I absolutely did think I was going to die,” she said. “I was certain that was the moment he was going to rape me.” Instead, the attackers zip-tied her wrists and ankles, taped her mouth shut, and warned her to remain quiet if she wanted to stay alive.
“I have babies. I just have to make it home,” said Kardashian, who is the mother of four.
She was eventually locked in the hotel bathroom while the robbers fled. Though not physically beaten, she described the ordeal as deeply traumatic.
“I was grabbed and dragged into the other room and thrown onto the floor, but wasn’t hit, no,” she said.
Kardashian was able to loosen her restraints using the bathroom sink and made her way to her stylist, Simone Harouche, who had hidden in a bathroom one floor below and called for help.
“She just was screaming and kept saying, ‘We need to get out of here. We need help. What are we going to do if they come back?’” Harouche told the court.
Security and Social Media Under Scrutiny
The robbery led to sweeping changes in celebrity security protocols, particularly regarding social media. Kardashian’s frequent online posts displaying luxury items and locations came under criticism, with some arguing she had inadvertently made herself a target.
The late designer Karl Lagerfeld controversially remarked, “You cannot display your wealth and then be surprised that some people want to share it with you.” That sentiment was condemned by many as victim-blaming.
Harouche pushed back against the narrative in court: “Just because a woman wears jewellery, that doesn’t make her a target. That’s like saying that because a woman wears a short skirt that she deserves to be raped.”
Kardashian said she had a bodyguard at a separate hotel at the time and believed the Paris location was safe. She now travels with five to six guards and said the incident led to a subsequent robbery attempt at her Los Angeles home.
“I started to get this phobia of going out,” she said. “This experience really changed everything for us.”
Trial Details and Apology from Alleged Ringleader
The trial includes 10 defendants—nine men and one woman. Five face charges of armed robbery and kidnapping, crimes that carry the possibility of life imprisonment. Others are charged with being accomplices or possessing illegal firearms.
Prosecutors identify the group’s alleged leader as Aomar Ait Khedache, 69, nicknamed “Omar the Old.” A letter of apology he wrote to Kardashian was read in court.
“I do appreciate the letter, for sure. I forgive you,” she responded. “But it doesn’t change the feelings and the trauma and the fact that my life was forever changed.”
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