Kim Kardashian Thought She ‘Was Going to Die’ During Robbery

Kim Kardashian said she “absolutely” thought she “was going to die” in her testimony against the crew of men, and one woman, accused of attacking her and stealing $9 million worth of jewelry from her hotel room in 2016, according to NBC News. The ten-person crew, now dubbed the “Grandpa Robbers” by the French media because of their age, are on trial for charges including armed robbery in an organized gang, kidnapping, and, for some, complicity, per the New York Times. In her emotional May 13 testimony, which began at 8 a.m. ET at the Palais de Justice in Paris, Kardashian recalled how she was in bed when robbers broke into her room, at Hôtel de Pourtalès, dressed as policemen with the hotel’s concierge handcuffed. She claimed they pushed her onto the bed and taped her hands and mouth. “He grabs my legs and pulls me. I’m naked and my everything is exposed,” she said, per NBC News. “I was sure that I was going to be raped.” She also told the judge “I absolutely thought I was going to die.”

“I have babies, and I need to get home to my babies,” she recalled telling the robbers. She also prayed for her sister Kourtney, fearing the eldest Kardashian sister would return to the room and find “that I would be dead on the bed, shot dead, and that she’d have this memory forever.” 

Kardashian recalled managing to take her hand tape off after being left in the bathroom, then hopping to her childhood friend Simone Harouche’s room the floor below, where Harouche helped cut off the zip ties. The two then hid in bushes to call Kris Jenner, who was present in the courtroom, according to the Daily Mail, and the police. Kardashian noted that she “didn’t know who to trust” when the police showed up, because the robbers were also dressed as police.

She additionally addressed her own theory, shared on a 2017 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, that robbers learned that she was alone in the hotel through her Snapchat Story. She later realized that she was mistaken, saying she “went back and watched the Snapchat and that was not the same night of this. It was the night before.”

Though this is the first time Kardashian has spoken in court, the trial began on April 28 and is scheduled through May 22, with a verdict expected on May 23. The robbery took place on October 3, 2016, and made international news. Looking back, Kardashian told the court that she thinks “it was well-planned out.” She claimed that the French magistrate told her the suspects considered robbing her on a previous visit to Paris but stopped the plan because her then-husband Ye was with her. Court recessed at 10 a.m. ET and returned at 10:30, with the chief judge still leading questioning, at which point Kardashian addressed rumors that she’d faked the robbery. “It was really hard for me when people said I’d made it up for my TV show; I wasn’t filming my TV show,” she said. “It was really hurtful, that was something that really stung deeply.”

Following her initial testimony, the judge read Kardashian a statement by one of the defendants, Aomar Ait Khedache, who is deaf and mute. He asked for forgiveness, writing “I’m obviously emotional about it, this experience changed my life and it changed my family’s life.” 

“I do appreciate the letter. I forgive you for what has taken place,” Kardashian responded. “But it doesn’t change the emotion and the feelings and the trauma and the fact that my life has forever changed.”