The biggest scandals the Kardashians have addressed on their reality show
Some of the biggest showbiz scandals have played out on Keeping Up With The Kardashians. With the show now over, we look back at the juiciest.
Keeping Up With The Kardashians has finally come to an end today after 14 years on screens – having played host to some of the most jaw-dropping showbiz scandals ever.
The popular show has aired 280 episodes – the equivalent of nine consecutive days of viewing – and helped to launch a business empire for America’s most famous family.
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Kim Kardashian West revealed the show was ending so the family could have “a break” and “a minute to regroup” after filming non-stop for nearly one-and-a-half decades.
During that time, the clan’s dirty laundry has been aired on the global stage – with no scandal too personal to be kept from the cameras.
Whether it was infidelity, drugs or revenge porn, the family have been at the centre of some huge dramas.
Here we look back at their biggest scandals.
Sex tape shame
Now that Kim Kardashian West is one of the biggest stars in the world, it can be easy to forget her unlikely entry onto the global stage.
On March 21, 2007, an X-rated film of Kim and her ex-boyfriend, the rapper Ray J, in the throes of passion was leaked to the porn company Vivid Entertainment.
The sex tape was filmed five years earlier during a trip to the luxury Esperanza resort in Cabo, Mexico, to mark Kim’s 23rd birthday.
Vivid said they paid a “third party” $1 million ($A1.3m) for the film and in an advert wrote: “Hardcore and candid! The tape they tried to hide!”
Kim sued the porn giants in a bid to prevent the release of the 41-minute blue flick, which was titled Kim Kardashian, Superstar.
It was reported that she received $5 million ($A6.5m) from Vivid – a figure her lawyer described as a “greatly inflated” sum.
One decade on from the film’s release, the New York Post reported it had been watched 150 million times and that Vivid had rebranded March ‘Kim K Sex Tape Month’.
In recent years, Kim spoke out about the tape’s release during an interview with Love magazine, saying: “If I do have one regret in life that’s it.”
Drugs caused ‘everything bad to happen’
Kim admitted using the illegal drug ecstasy twice during her wild partying days during one episode of KUWTK.
She revealed “everything bad would happen” whenever she used ecstasy – also known as MDMA.
This included her sex tape with Ray J and one of her three marriages, allegedly to Damon Thomas.
Sister Kendall was shocked by the admission and said: “I didn’t know, like, you got high.”
Kourtney’s ex Scott Disick couldn’t believe Kim was intoxicated in the sex tape and quizzed her about it.
Kim confirmed it was true and replied: “Absolutely! Everyone knows it! Like my jaw was shaking the whole time.”
Was Kim guilty of ‘blackface’ when she made her skin darker?
Kim also came under fire from angry Twitter users, who claimed her skin looked darker in a photo shoot for 7 Hollywood magazine, in 2019.
One Twitter user fumed “not cool or cute” while another accused her of donning “blackface” and “wearing it like an accessory”.
The reality star told The New York Times that she “would obviously never want to offend anyone”.
Kim said she was “really tan” when the snaps were taken and added: “It might be that the contrast was off.”
She claimed to have shown the images to “many people” – including “many people in the business” – and “no one mentioned” any problems.
Braid storm over ‘racist’ hairstyle
Kim has been accused of cultural appropriation at least three times in recent years – after rebranding historic hairstyles.
The first came in 2016 when she became obsessed with a look the family renamed “boxer braids”.
But the hairstyle, which Kim was accused of taking the credit for, was actually cornrows.
In 2018, she courted controversy again after renaming another hairstyle the “Bo Derek”.
Culture experts told Allure they were actually Fulani braids and had been worn by black women for “years, decades, centuries, even millennia”.
Six months later, Kim sparked outrage again when she donned braids for the MTV Movie & TV Awards.
Twitter users fumed over the style being considered “cool” on Kim but “unkempt” or “unprofessional” on black women.
During an interview with Bustle, Kim defended herself and claimed she “didn’t see the backlash” over her donning braids in the past.
“I did that look because North said she wanted braids and asked if I would do them with her,” she added.
Kylie ‘kopykat’ claims
Named America’s “youngest self-made billionaire” in 2019 by Forbes, Kylie Jenner made much of her money from Kylie Cosmetics – but the company has also been the subject of controversy.
Kylie was accused of copying designs from the makeup artist Vlada Haggerty twice in both 2015 and also one year later.
Vlada sued the star after sharing side-by-side shots of their lip kit advertisements to highlight their similarities.
By 2017, she posted on Instagram to say that the issue had been resolved.
Kylie has also been accused of stealing make-up looks and hairstyles from her friend Heather Sanders, Rob’s ex Blac Chyna, model Jordyn Woods and others.
In a 2016 episode of KUWTK, Khloe Kardashian vented at her sister when she borrowed her outfit and “stole” her style.
She sarcastically said: “It’s OK, Kylie, it’s OK! Steal my blonde hair, steal my bathing suit! Everyone thinks I’m copying you, but it’s OK!”
Easy Tyga
Kylie was 14 years old when she first met future boyfriend Tyga, 21, when he performed at sister Kendall’s 16th birthday party.
Three years later, the 17-year-old was reported to be dating the rapper, which caused a stir due to their seven-year age difference.
Their relationship caused a furore because the age of consent in California is 18.
For a long time, the couple insisted they were not dating despite regularly sharing pictures of one another on social media.
In 2015, their relationship was confirmed after Kanye West told Power 105’s Breakfast Club: “I think Tyga got in early. I think he was smart.”
After multiple on-off moments, Kylie and Tyga called it quits in 2017 and now she’s reportedly rekindling her romance with Travis Scott.
Kourtney’s teen revenge porn
At 42, Kourtney is the eldest of the Kardashian-Jenner brood and rose to fame in KUWTK season one, when she was the victim of an unfortunate prank.
Nude photographs of Kourtney when she was 17 were lost after Kim put them in her purse in a bid to scare her sister.
However, “someone stole” Kim’s bag and 10 years later, in 2016, they tried to sell the photographs.
Because Kourtney was underage when the photographs were taken, the FBI got involved and fortunately they didn’t surface online.
Kim admitted that was her “toughest moment” and recalled “crying” and being “so upset” because she feared the images would be leaked.
She revealed what happened during the 10th Anniversary special of KUWTK in 2017.
She said: “If I’m hurting myself, I can handle it … If I hurt someone else, then that’s when I can’t handle it.
“I thought Kourtney would never speak to me again.”
Ad that ‘mocked’ Black Lives Matter
Kendall, 25, was heavily criticised online after appearing in a Pepsi advert that some felt was a mockery of the Black Lives Matter movement.
In the clip, Kendall was seen among a group of protesters before walking up to a police officer and handing him a can of the fizzy drink.
Online people kicked off branding the advert “tone deaf” and thought it was inappropriate to suggest police brutality could be ended with Pepsi.
The company apologised for the advert, which first aired in 2017, and Kendall admitted it was a mistake.
She said: “Obviously, if I knew that this was going to be the outcome, I would have never done something like this.”
Fyre Fest fraud
That same year Kendall was one of many celebrities to promote the supposed ultra-high-end music event Fyre Festival, in the Bahamas.
The party was set to be attended by models, feature performances from huge stars and give visitors the A-lister treatment.
With tickets costing between $500 ($A645) and $12,000 ($A15,400), festival-goers had high expectations for the event – spurred on by Instagram promotions from the likes of Kendall.
But instead of enjoying luxury meals on a private island, surrounded by bikini-clad models – the scenes were more representative of something from The Hunger Games.
Attendees had to sleep under tents sent by the United Nations and FEMA – an emergency relief agency – and tuck into prepackaged sandwiches.
Alongside other celebrities, Kendall was sued for failing to disclose she was paid $US275,000 ($A354,700) for posting about the event and was accused of misleading her Instagram followers.
Kendall, who agreed to pay $US90,000 ($A1.1m) in compensation, told The New York Times that she had “faith in” Fyre Festival but had been misled.
Four day drug binge and feared overdose
Khloe, 36, was married to basketball star Lamar Odom for seven years from 2009 and their relationship was certainly rocky.
One year before their divorce, her estranged husband nearly died from a drug overdose during a four-day binge.
Khloé was told Lamar had hours to live after he was found unconscious in a brothel, in Nevada, and rushed to hospital.
He was in a coma for four days and later revealed he suffered 12 strokes and six heart attacks while unconscious.
Tristan cheated while Khloe was pregnant
After her difficult marriage ended, it seemed Khloé had found happiness with basketballer Tristan Thompson.
However, rumours emerged that the sportsman cheated on Khloé – most shockingly, while she was pregnant with their daughter True, now 3.
Footage allegedly shows Tristan kissing two women in 2017 and one year later more came out.
The clip, taken a few days before Khloé gave birth, showed him kissing another woman and heading into a hotel.
In 2019, the couple split-up again after he allegedly cheated on Khloé with close friend Jordyn Woods.
A source told People that Kim was “really upset” and “livid” over the claims because Jordyn was a close family friend from the age of 13.
Khloé and Tristan rekindled their romance last year, but the relationship was rocked once more after a model claimed he was the father of her son.
The NBA star took a DNA test, which revealed he was not the father of Kimberly Alexander’s child, and now she has urged him to take a second one.
‘Face transplant’
Last year, Khloé was accused of having plastic surgery or doctoring photographs on Photoshop after she posted a series of “unrecognisable” snaps of herself on Instagram.
When a fan asked why she “looked so different in all” of her photographs, she fired back: “From my weekly face transplant clearly.”
Rob’s ‘revenge porn’
Brother Rob Kardashian, 34, had a rollercoaster relationship with Blac Chyna – the ex-girlfriend of Tyga, who dated Rob’s sister Kylie.
They first got together in 2016 before breaking-up and then making-up multiple times and having their daughter Dream together later that year.
Rob and Blac’s on-off romance continued until he posted naked photographs of her online.
He also shared a video of her kissing another man, who he claimed she slept with.
Both parties alleged the other was abusive during their relationship – both of them deny the claims.
Kim weighed-in on the scandal in 2019, condemning Rob’s actions and revealed he was in the middle of a “revenge porn lawsuit”.
She told The Cut: “I don’t know the right thing to say without making him feel like the biggest piece of sh*t.”
This article originally appeared on The Sun and is reproduced here with permission
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