Blac Chyna’s lawyer grills Kim Kardashian on the stand
Kim Kardashian found herself in a tense face-off with Blac Chyna’s attorney Tuesday as she took the stand in the model’s case against the Kardashian-Jenners.
The Skims founder was forced to face questioning from the plaintiff’s lawyer, Lynne Ciani, regarding text messages she sent to Bunim-Murray producers in the wake of Chyna’s heated fight with ex Rob Kardashian in December 2016.
In one message from February 2017, the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” alum wrote that she needed a small break from filming “until you guys figure out what you’re going to do.”
“Chyna will not be on our show. And it’s actually putting my brother in bad position because he ends up crying all day saying the only reason she [Chyna] showed up was because she was filming,” Kim wrote.
When asked whether the message was sent in an attempt to kill a potential second season of E!’s “Rob & Chyna,” Kim insisted it only referred to her wishes to temporarily step away from the cameras.
“I can’t control the content of what they film, but this is our show — why would we film with her?” she asked on the stand. “I really don’t know what they were filming [for ‘Rob & Chyna’] beyond when the fight happened. Clearly something happened.”
The following month, Kim sent a text telling a producer that Chyna, 33, “can have no false hope that she’s on our show” before asking, “Is she getting paid?”
According to Kim, she was attempting to be transparent and set realistic expectations for who would be appearing on “KUWTK,” insisting that it had nothing to do with Chyna’s show with Rob.
“Clearly, if I’m asking if [Chyna is] getting paid, I have no knowledge if she was getting paid on our show,” Kim told Ciani from the stand, to which the lawyer pushed back, “You were informing producers if Chyna was on ‘KUWTK,’ you weren’t going to film anymore?”
“They could film what they want. … We don’t have the power, as you have been insinuating,” Kim, 41, fiercely shot back. “I was just expressing that I will be taking a break from filming to assess how I’m feeling. I will not go into work in a toxic environment. I can only control what I can do, which is to take a break.”
When asked about the rowdy fight between her brother and Chyna, Kim recalled Rob, 35, being “so upset.”
“I remember only just trying to be supportive of my brother. I remember him being super emotional. It’s all such a blur,” she added.
Mother Kris Jenner previously shared how “traumatized” she was over Rob and Chyna’s fight while on the stand last week, noting that the incident occurred only weeks after Kim was tied up and robbed in Paris.
Khloé Kardashian, 37, also took the stand on Tuesday and was questioned about an email she wrote to executive producer Jeff Olde, which read, “We are even considering not moving forward with our show if theirs continues. That’s how strongly we feel this is damaging to our family.”
When Ciani asked Khloe if she had the right to control Chyna’s talent agreement, Khloé replied, “We had no control of that.”
“We feel strongly about a lot of things, but it doesn’t mean they will listen to us,” Khloé said of the network executives. “They already testified that we had no control over that.”
When asked directly if she was trying to get Season 2 of “Rob & Chyna” canceled, Khloé said, “I wasn’t trying to cancel anything,” and added she was considering not filming “KUWTK” because of “such volatile behavior between my brother and Chyna … What I was considering was not continuing such toxicity.”
Meanwhile, the former President of E! Entertainment, Adam Stotsky, testified that the option for Season 2 of “Rob & Chyna” show was not officially picked up even though there was press releases sent out on Dec. 14, 2016 — the same day as the fight — that the show would be returning.
“We had a practice of announcing shows all the time so fans of the show will remain engaged,” Stotsky said. “Shows also get canceled.” He added that they ultimately decided against picking up Season 2 because it wasn’t the show that was originally pitched to him.
Chyna is suing the reality TV family over claims that they had “Rob & Chyna” canceled after only one season, which she said interfered with her earnings.