Kim Kardashian testified in court Tuesday she had no memory of making any attempt to kill the reality show that starred her brother Rob Kardashian and his then-fiancée Blac Chyna. She did, however, acknowledge demanding that Chyna (real name: Angela Renée White) be kept off of Keeping Up With the Kardashians after hearing White had abused her brother.
“I will not go into a toxic work environment,” Kardashian, 41, said of her refusal to work with White. “On my own show, I have the power to do that.”
Kardashian took the stand for an hour in a Los Angeles courtroom in a civil trial in which White alleges that Kardashian and three other members of her family defamed her and convinced producers and the E! network to cancel the spinoff show, Rob & Chyna. White is suing for US$100 million in damages.
Her testimony was mostly unremarkable — she spent much of it saying “I don’t remember” — but as the biggest star by far to testify in a trial full of stars, she caused a stir when she walked from the gallery to the witness stand wearing a dark grey pinstriped suit with white sneakers.
White’s lawyer Lynne Ciani showed Kardashian a series of text messages from late 2016 and early 2017 with Kardashian’s name attached.
In every case, Kardashian said she had no memory of sending them, though she didn’t deny their likely legitimacy.
“I don’t remember text messages that I sent this morning,” Kardashian said.
In response to viewing one text exchange, a long conversation with a producer from production company Bunim Murray, which produced both shows, Kardashian acknowledged “this definitely sounds like something I would say.”
In it, she expressed anger that White might still be filmed for Keeping Up With the Kardashians, on which White occasionally appeared, along with her own show.
“I think we all need to take a break from filming at this point until we figure out what’s going on. She is not going to be on our show,” the text read. “So if you guys are going to film with Rob and Chyna, and then you are going to lose the Kardashians and Jenners.”
The text exchange includes several seemingly damning demands surrounding White being filmed for “her” show, but Kardashian insisted that was a quirk of technology.
“This is clearly voice dictated, as is everything I text that’s so long, and it’s sometimes rendering ‘our’ as ‘her,’” Kardashian testified. “I would never refer to her show as ‘her’ show. I would say ‘Rob’s show’ since it’s a spin-off of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
She added that the recipient, Amanda Weinstein, did not work on Rob & Chyna.
Kim Kardashian said the text exchange showed that she and her family had no power over what the producers and the network ultimately decided about the shows.
“No one listens to us, no one respects us,” one text message reads.
Much of the trial, including the testimony of Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner, and sister Kylie Jenner, has focused on a fight between White and Rob Kardashian on Dec. 15, 2016, which led to the couple’s eventual breakup and their show’s cancellation.
On Friday, Kris Jenner became emotional while recalling the argument she heard about between her son Rob Kardashian, 35, and his then-girlfriend White.
Jenner, 66, testified she believed White attempted to murder her son. At the time, she said she was told that Whtie pointed a gun at Rob Kardashian’s head, tried to strangle him with a phone cord, and hit him with a metal pole while intoxicated.
“It was complete chaos. It was scary,” Jenner said.
Last week, White, 33, also testified in court. Much of White’s testimony dealt with the fight, and the celebration of the show’s renewal the night before. White testified she was joking with her fiancé when she wrapped a phone cord around his neck and grabbed his unloaded gun off a nightstand.
“You’re saying to the jury that you stood behind him with a phone cord and wrapped it around his neck, and that was a joke?” asked attorney Michael Rhodes.
“Yes,” answered White, who generally remained composed under heated questioning.
He later asked, “Grabbing a gun is funny?”
“It was a joke,” she said.
“To you,” Rhodes replied.
“To him too,” Chyna said.
When asked by the defence attorney, “What on Earth possesses you to grab a gun?” she replied, “He was already messing with it. That’s why I grabbed it. I was being funny while he was on FaceTime with his friends.”
Neither slept that night, White testified.
Earlier, White also testified, “I smashed a gingerbread house, because I was really upset. Then I damaged a TV.”
White’s lawsuit alleges the cancellation of Rob & Chyna came from Kris Jenner telling the people with power over the show that White had physically abused her son, and enlisting her daughters to do the same.
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