How Kim Kardashian became the star she is. Photo / AP
How Kim Kardashian became the star she is. Photo / AP
In 2002 Kim Kardashian was an obscure name but by the end of 2007 she was a household name and now she's one of the biggest stars in the world - all thanks to one infamous sex tape released a full ten years ago this month.
The New York Times' Page Six delved into the history of Kim K and the details of that sex tape, speaking to then star blogger Perez Hilton, former In Touch Weekly editor Kevin Dickson and more to piece it all together.
Hilton and Dickson revealed that Kim was consistently pushing for coverage, trying to make it in Hollywood, with Dickson admitting they even "tried to get her to f*** Nick Lachey so she could be a celebrity girlfriend".
Nick Lachey with former partner Jessica Simpson. Photo / Supplied
"She would literally bake him a basket of muffins and try to get him to come to her house and he wouldn't go and so they went to dinner somewhere in the North Valley and we had paparazzi there. But our paparazzi told all the other paparazzi. It was a mess."
According to Page Six, Kardashian's attorney, Marty Singer insists that Kardashian has never planted stories about herself in the tabloids or tipped off paparazzi about her whereabouts.
Ben Widdicombe - who broke the news of the sex tape in his "Gatecrasher" column in the New York Daily News - noticed Kim in a photo with Paris Hilton and remembered her name because she was so beautiful. The next time he heard it was when someone tried to sell him her Ray J sex tape.
His story was published on January 17, 2007 and once Hirsch began to realise all of Kim's family ties (Bruce Jenner, Robert Kardashian etc) and that "everybody would sort of in some way be connected to her because they knew somebody who was an intimate part of her life... The next step was trying to get a deal done."
On February 21, 2007, an attorney representing Kardashian filed a suit against Vivid Entertainment to prevent its release, but Kim Kardashian, Superstar was released on March 21 and Kardashian settled the suit the following month.
Hirsch says: "It was a very difficult time, and ultimately we were able to come to an agreement. It was a very difficult deal to get done. Probably [the hardest deal we've done].
He also addresses rumours that Kim and her mother Kris Jenner planned the release to get famous, "but the facts are the facts. A lot of nonsense has been reported over the years ... I don't know who started that. [People don't want] the truth to get in the way of a good story... I had no contact with [Kim's mother Kris Jenner]."
By August, Keeping Up with the Kardashians got the green light from E! and now, Kim Kardashian and her family are one of the most influential in the world.
Perez Hilton says: "I don't believe that excuse the sex tape 'made her.'"
Kim had a famous friend in Paris Hilton, her stepdad was Bruce Jenner, her father a very connected lawyer, and her mother best friends with Shirley Azoff - wife of "one of the most powerful men in music" Irving Azoff.
"They just knew all the right people. If it wasn't in 2007, eventually Kim and the Kardashians would have gotten their own reality show, somewhere, somehow. Because they wanted it, they were hungry for it and they knew how to get it. They had the connections."
