Kim Kardashian will take the stand in person at an upcoming trial over a 2016 heist in Paris that saw her robbed at gunpoint.
The trial is scheduled to start on April 28 and conclude by May 23. Kardashian herself is reportedly set to appear on May 13. A group of 10 suspects dubbed the “grandpa robbers” will stand trial on charges of armed robbery, membership of a criminal gang and kidnapping.
The Skims mogul was robbed at gunpoint in October 2016 while staying at the No Address Hotel during Paris Fashion Week. Two masked men gained access to Kardashian’s room, where they allegedly tied her up and held her hostage as they stole more than $10 million in jewelry. Among the stolen items was Kardashian’s $4 million engagement ring from then husband Kanye West.
“We can confirm that Ms. Kardashian will be testifying in person at the upcoming French criminal trial involving the 2016 incident in which she was bound and robbed at gunpoint by a number of masked assailants,” Kardashian’s lawyer Michael Rhodes said in a statement in April.
Kardashian, according to her lawyer, has “tremendous appreciation and admiration for the French judicial system” and “wishes for the trial to proceed in an orderly fashion in accordance with French law and with respect for all parties to the case.”
What happened in 2016?
On Sept. 28 of that year, Kardashian landed in Paris by private jet with her assistant, Stephanie Shepherd, and her bodyguard, Pascal Duvier, to attend Paris Fashion Week. The hotel at which the reality star planned on staying for the next six days was quickly made public knowledge, as photographers followed Kardashian’s vehicle from the airport to the Hôtel de Pourtalès, also known as the No Address Hotel.
In the early hours of Oct. 3, 2016, Kardashian returned to her hotel with sister Kourtney Kardashian and stylist Simone Harouche after attending a private dinner. Kourtney and Kardashian’s assistant, Shepherd, changed clothes, as they had planned on going out that night. Kardashian, however, chose not to join them, instead staying in. Kardashian had told her bodyguard to join Kourtney and their half-sister, Kendall Jenner, while they were out clubbing.
Kim Kardashian’s engagement ring from then husband Kanye West, photographed in August 2016. (JB Lacroix/WireImage)
While alone that night, Kardashian heard a noise at her hotel room’s door, which prompted her to call Duvier at 2:56 a.m. As she looked through the door, Kardashian said she saw two men holding police paraphernalia and had a handcuffed hotel receptionist with them. The masked men allegedly forced the receptionist to open Kardashian’s door with a key from the front desk. After gaining entry to her room, Kardashian said, the men pulled her out of bed.
“He grabbed me and I was wearing a robe and I wasn’t wearing anything under it,” Kardashian recalled to David Letterman in a 2020 interview. “He grabbed me and pulled me toward 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.”
Kardashian said the men then held her at gunpoint before locking her in the bathroom and robbing her of more than $10 million in jewelry. They were in the hotel building for 49 minutes, per Vanity Fair, before leaving the premises on their bicycles with the stolen jewelry.
“I just kept thinking about Kourtney,” Kardashian told Letterman. “I kept on thinking she’s gonna come home and I’m gonna be dead in the room, and she’s gonna be traumatized for the rest of her life if she sees me.”
After managing to untie herself, Kardashian exited the bathroom and ran to the balcony, where she reportedly screamed for help.
How has the incident changed Kardashian’s use of social media?
In the hours leading up to the robbery, Kardashian, who has long shared her personal life on social media, was actively posting on Snapchat.
“I was Snapchatting that I was home and that everyone was going out,” she further detailed on Keeping Up With the Kardashians in 2017. “So I think they knew Pascal was out with Kourtney and I was there by myself.”
Following the robbery, Kardashian has since revealed that she no longer posts on social media in real-time.
“I learned from a bad experience I had when I was robbed that people really knew my every move,” she said at the New York Times’ DealBook conference in 2019. “They knew what I had, they knew where I was, what I was doing, and that to me really changed the things that I post.”
Kardashian now waits until after she’s left a location before posting about it online.
“I still want people to feel like they’re on that journey with me,” she explained. “But I might video something, then post it 30 minutes later when I’ve left the location, for more privacy.”
Latest developments ahead of the trial
A view of Hôtel de Pourtalès on Rue Tronchet. (Marc Piasecki/Getty Images)
The group of 10 men that’ll go on trial has been nicknamed the “grandpa robbers,” as they are all primarily in their 60s and 70s. Among the suspects arrested in France in the months following the robbery is Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, also known as “Old Omar,” who had admitted to participating in the heist but denies claims that he was the operation’s ringleader. Additional alleged robbers have been identified as Yunice Abbas, 71, who fled the scene on a bicycle, and Didier Dubreucq, 69, who has denied accusations that he was one of the robbers to enter Kardashian’s room.
While 12 people were originally charged for the 2016 heist, only 10 will stand trial. One suspect has died while another, Pierre Bouianere, 80, is unable to participate due to health issues and will instead be tried separately.