As Kim Kardashian’s high-profile Paris robbery trial unfolds, we will be bringing you regular updates in real-time. Scroll for latest.
In 2016, Kim Kardashian made a quick trip to Paris Fashion Week. She sat in the front row at Balmain, Balenciaga, and Givenchy and hit the town with her family and then-husband Kanye West. But during her stay, a group of armed robbers reportedly stormed into her room, tied her up, and stole an estimated $9 million in jewelry. It is thought to have been the biggest robbery of an individual in France in 20 years.
Speaking of the experience during a sit-down interview with David Letterman in 2020, Kardashian described the evening as “seven or eight minutes of torture” as she recalled what had happened in harrowing detail. “They brought in the concierge from downstairs, handcuffed, with a gun up to him. They were yelling at me in French, and I just sat up,” she said. “He grabbed me, and pulled me towards him… I wasn’t wearing anything underneath [my bathrobe].”
Last month, ten suspects, nicknamed the “grandpa robbers” due to their ages which range from 35 to 78, appeared in court on the first day of a month-long trial. Kardashian and her former stylist, Simone Harouche, take the stand today, May 13.
Per a statement from Kardashian’s legal team, “Ms. Kardashian is reserving her testimony for the court and jury and does not wish to elaborate further at this time. She has great respect and admiration for the French justice system and has been treated with great respect by the French authorities. She wishes the trial to proceed in an orderly fashion, in accordance with French law and with respect for all parties to the case.”
What happened during Kim Kardashian’s Paris robbery?
In the early hours of the morning on October 3, 2016, a group of armed men allegedly broke into Kardashian’s luxury suite in Hotel de Pourtalès, in the Madeleine neighborhood of Paris. At 3 a.m., they reportedly burst into the front entrance of the hotel dressed as police. They handcuffed the front desk receptionist, Abderrahmane Ouatiki, and forced him to take them to Kardashian’s room, according to reports.
Kardashian heard the commotion and tried to get help, calling out for her sister Kourtney and her stylist, Simone. Her security guard, Pascal Duvier, had gone with her sister to a club. “I knew someone was there to get me,” she recalled to David Letterman later. “You just feel it.”
The men allegedly pushed her onto the bed and demanded her engagement ring. “They kept on saying: the ring, the ring! And I was so startled that it didn’t compute for a minute,” she said.
They took the ring, worth $4 million, along with other jewelry and €1,000 in cash.
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