Kim Kardashian Makes Rare Comments on Paris Robbery Nearly 7 Years Later
Content warning: This story discusses robbery at gunpoint and fear of rape.
Kim Kardashian is feeling a glimmer of hope after her Paris robbery.
The Kardashians star—who was robbed at gunpoint in her Paris hotel room in 2016—offered rare insight into how the scary incident has changed her during the June 22 episode.
Last fall, designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana gave Kim a stunning cross necklace (which they noted was not Swarovski) as a thank you present after she served as creative director of their Dolce & Gabbana Spring-Summer 2023 show.
"This is beautiful. You guys!" she told them backstage, as seen in the Hulu episode. "This is like the nicest piece of jewelry I own. Because I lost it all."
Kim, 42, explained in a confessional, "After I was robbed in Paris, I haven't bought jewelry. I haven't really been about wearing jewelry, because when it was taken from me, it was such a—I didn't know I was ready for that experience and what that meant, but I was. I was ready to, like, give it up."
She further shared why the fashion show was the right time to turn a new page after nearly $10 million worth of jewelry was taken from her.
"This symbolized to me more than just getting a diamond cross necklace," the SKIMS founder continued. "This like brought a piece of my glamour back to me, and that's why it's so special that I got it back from a really meaningful experience."
The piece—which she wore at the fashion show along with a sparkling black evening gown from the label—also had an extra layer of meaning to her that tied back to her younger days. Kim added in a confessional, "The first thing I ever bought when I got a check was a cross diamond necklace."
And, as she quipped to the designer duo, the gift can never be topped. "You ruined it," she teased, "for the next boyfriend who is ever going to try to buy me something."
In the early hours of Oct. 3, 2016, five men handcuffed the concierge of Kim's hotel and forced him to open the door to her room, according to the French Interior Ministry. The men bound her up and put her into the bathtub while they stole jewelry from her room, a source told E! News at the time.
"He grabbed me and I was wearing a robe and I wasn't wearing anything under it," Kim recalled during a sit-down with David Letterman in 2020. "He grabbed me and pulled me towards him but I wasn't wearing anything underneath. So I was like, 'OK, this is the time I'm going to get raped. Just deal, it's gonna happen. Just prepare yourself.' So I did... But then he tied me up with handcuffs and zip ties and duct tape."
She recalled the fear she felt during a conversation with the concierge in that moment. "I'm like, 'What is happening? Are we gonna die? Just tell them I have children. I have babies. I have a husband. I have a family,'" she remembered. "Like, I have to get home. Tell them, 'Take anything.'"
Two French judges later charged 12 people in relation to Kim's Paris robbery, with charges including robbery with a weapon committed in an organized gang; kidnapping and forcible confinement; and criminal association, a judicial source told E! News in November 2021.
Kim—who shares four kids with ex Kanye West—has said that she "almost lost" herself in the year following the crime, explaining on The Alec Baldwin Show in 2018, "I was never depressed, but I wasn't motivated to get up and work like I used to. It shook me."
However, the reality star also shared that she has learned to feel "grateful" for the experience in a way. "There was a lot of me that measured who I was by how much I had. I thought, 'Oh, I'm worth so much,'" she noted. "That needed to change in me."
For more true crime updates on your need-to-know cases, head to Oxygen.com.