Kim Kardashian has filed a lawsuit against gossip website mediatakeout.com, for claiming that she lied about being robbed at gunpoint on Oct. 3 in Paris, France. Masked criminals stole omore than $5 million in jewelry from the reality star after tying her up in the hotel room in which she was staying.
Kardashian and her lawyers have come out swinging in the wake of the recent robbery that occurred in France. When the details of the story first broke, many in the media and the public questioned the full veracity of Kardashian's claims due to several suspicious circumstances surrounding the theft.
The fact that a huge star such as Kardashian had no security at the time raised red flags, as did the fact that there was absolutely no security video footage of the robbery itself or the events preceding it, and only one other witness.
The claim that the robbers were dressed as cops also drew parallels to the recent Olympics debacle in Rio, Brazil, where U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte admittedly lied about being robbed by fake policemen after a drunken night on the town.
Kardashian and her attorneys, however, feel that mediatakeout.com took the speculation too far in a series of articles it published, and are now suing the website and its owner Fred Mwangaguhunga for libel per se.
"[The website] published the Articles under patently false and misleading headlines stating, in no uncertain terms, that Kardashian 'staged' a robbery and committed a 'federal crime' by engaging in insurance fraud. The Articles themselves are fraught with unsupported allegations and fail to identify or cite to any credible sources to back up the wild claims asserted therein," the lawsuit states.
As a celebrity, Kardashian has a much bigger hurdle to jump when making defamation and libel claims. They generally need to show that the story or stories in question were recklessly published with "actual malice," meaning that they knew the content was false.
Many of the titles of the articles cited in the lawsuit indicate that the website covered its bases by using words like "may" and "if" attached to claims that the robbery may have been staged. The website cites "French authorities" as sources. However, the lawsuit claims that there were in fact no such sources in existence.
Kardashian emerged from the ordeal physically unharmed but apparently traumatized, and has since returned to her home in Los Angeles where a veritable army of security has been enlisted to protect her.
Her E! reality series Keeping Up With The Kardashians has halted production indefinitely while she recovers. The show is still expected to return to the air for the second half of its 12th season, however, on Oct. 23, as previously scheduled.
