the real story behind kim kardashian sex tape

in 2002, Kim Kardashian — then an obscure heir of the late lawyer Robert Kardashian and the personal stylist to singer Brandy Norwood — was in a serious, loving relationship with Norwood’s younger brother, Willie “Ray J” Norwood, also a singer.

In October of that year, when Kardashian was 22 and Ray J was 21, the couple went on a trip to the luxury Esperanza resort in Cabo, Mexico, to celebrate Kardashian’s 23rd birthday. They took a handheld camcorder with them and filmed themselves goofing around for the camera, and also having sex. On later occasions, they filmed themselves in bed again.

By 2006, Kardashian was beginning to make a small number of appearances in the media as the best friend and seemingly constant companion of Paris Hilton, the Hilton hotel heiress who had found phenomenal global fame as the star of both Fox’s The Simple Life and 1 Night in Paris, a 2004 sex tape that she had filmed with ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon.

Paris and then-unknown Kim visit Bondi back in 2006. Photo: AAP Image/Tracey NearmySource:AAP

In 2007, ten years ago this month, the tapes that Kardashian and Ray J had made were released to the public by porn company Vivid Entertainment as Kim Kardashian, Superstar, a 41-minute movie.

Kardashian had initially sued to prevent it from being released, but ultimately settled the suit.

It is no exaggeration to say that in the ten years since, Kardashian has transformed pop culture.

This is the story of that movie, beginning in the months leading up to its release.

Perez Hilton, a blogger who revolutionised celebrity news in the early 2000s:“Kim was a young, ambitious thing and she was determined to make it in Hollywood, because she didn’t graduate college, she wouldn’t necessarily have real job. She did the closet thing [Kardashian had started a business organising celebrities’ closets and sharing the proceeds from any clothes they sold on eBay] and what not, but she clearly wanted more.”

Kevin Dickson, a former editor at In Touch Weekly: “I had become friends with Kim, and she would give me stories [about herself] every week and we would promise her coverage and then the editors would back out. So it was really hard to get her coverage. Then she got on The Simple Life. That was one of the conditions [we gave her for us to be able to write about her in the magazine]: You have to be on TV. She was on for literally less than 90 seconds. But that was enough for us to start putting her in In Touch.”