It's been 18 years now since Kim Kardashian directly addressed her infamous sex tape with her ex Ray J in the first-ever episodes of Keeping Up With The Kardashians back in 2007.
For context, the sex tape in question of Kim and rapper Ray J, 44, who she dated between 2003 to 2006 was leaked a year after their split in 2007.
The tape was reportedly bought by an adult entertainment company who paid $1 million (£796,980.00) for it.
Over the years, Kim has been incredibly open about her experience following the tape's release, and has even joked about it herself in her roast of Tom Brady last year.
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Fans of the hit reality TV series will no doubt remember the stand-out moment when Kim's older sister, Kourtney, asked her why she'd made the sex tape to which the now-44-year-old SKIMS founder gave an incredibly blunt answer.
"Because I was horny and I felt like it." she told Kourtney at the time.
And, flash-forward over a decade, and Kim further explained the reason why she chose to open up about the NSFW tape so early into shooting the pilot series of the show which would go on to make her, and the rest of her family, household names across the globe.
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"I do think that, obviously, as producers, I’m sure they loved it. And loved [us] wanting to talk about the elephant in the room. And I probably wouldn’t have, unless it was for the show," Kim told the Los Angeles Times in 2021.
She went on to elaborate on her choice to address the situation head-on, adding: "Sometimes I feel like, 'OK, I know I should probably deal and get this over with.
"Someone’s gonna ask me, so I might as well just go ahead and do it.'"
Kim continued: "In a way, filming has helped us deal with things, instead of sweeping them under the rug. At the end of the day, I was always open and honest and wanted to share whatever I was going through.
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"I wasn’t gonna hold back."
In 2022, the drama surrounding the sex tape resurfaced within a just few minutes of the first episode of The Kardashians.
The episode saw a mortified Kim finding out that her son, Saint West, who was six at the time, almost discovered the sex tape while innocently playing the game Roblox on a tablet.
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A 'super inappropriate' message popped-up and hinted at 'unreleased footage' from the 2002 tape with a photo of Kim’s crying face meme.
Saint giggled as he shows his mum the crying-meme on his iPad and Kim, who was visibly uncomfortable, took the iPad away from her son and confided in her younger sister, Khloé.
Kim then contacted her attorney and her estranged husband Kanye West for support over the alleged 'unreleased footage' from the sex tape. The Skims founder is adamant that no other footage exists.
"The last thing I want as a mum is for my past to be brought up 20 years later," she says.
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In a teary phone call with the Bound 2 rapper, Kim confesses: "I almost died when Saint thought it was funny."
In a later episode of The Kardashians, Kanye confirmed he flew across the country to retrieve the computer and hard drive on which the tape was saved and to meet with Ray J.
He informed Kim’s mum, Kris Jenner, prior to Kim announcing the news that he had 'just come from the airport'.
"This is my travel in coach vibes. Well, I had to go to L.A. and come back so I just travelled to get something for Kim," he said.
Kris asked: "You went all the way to L.A. to get something for Kim?"
Kim could later be seen telling her family what Kanye did for her.
"So Kanye flew home last night and he came back this morning, and I want to show you what he got me. He got me all of the sex tape back," Kim announced as she opened a suitcase containing the hard drive.
“And he flew home and got the computer it was on and the hard drive and [he met] Ray-J at the airport and got it all back for me.”
In a confessional, Kim added: “I know Kanye did this for me but he also did this for my kids. I want to shield them from as much as I can, and if I have the power to or if Kanye has the power to, like that is the most important thing to me, and I’m just like so emotional because of it. And it just means a lot to me.”
Kanye confirmed he did not exchange money to retrieve the footage.
Topics: Kim Kardashian, Celebrity, Sex and Relationships, The Kardashians, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Reality TV, TV And Film
Rhiannon Ingle