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Kim Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, have faced a setback in their legal battle with Ray J, as they have lost their attempt to keep the details of a settlement they reached with him confidential.
The reality TV stars filed a defamation lawsuit against Ray J last October, following his accusations of a prolonged campaign against them, claiming they were under federal investigation for racketeering. In response, Ray J filed a countersuit, alleging that Kim and Kris violated a settlement agreement from 2023 regarding the infamous sex tape featuring Kim.
Ray J claimed he was compensated $6 million to remain silent about the tape, arguing that Kim and her mother breached the agreement by discussing it in their reality show.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, a judge from the Los Angeles Superior Court has denied Kim and Kris’ request to seal specific documents, including the terms of the 2023 settlement, stating that they did not provide sufficient evidence to prove that disclosing the settlement details would cause them harm.
In their defense, Kim and Kris’ lawyers argued, “The agreement resolved highly sensitive matters that the parties explicitly agreed to keep confidential to protect their families from public disclosure and to respect these sensitive matters.”
Ray J opposed the sealing of the documents, and the judge supported his position, requiring Kim and Kris to submit unredacted versions of the agreement.
The singer's legal team previously labeled the allegations in the Kardashians' lawsuit as a "public relations charade" filled with "malicious falsehoods," asserting that the case was "not about defamation" but rather about "publicity, power, and punishment."
Ray J claimed that Kim and Kris had initiated legal action to satisfy their "insatiable appetite for attention" and to promote their media and marketing ventures.
In addition to seeking the dismissal of the lawsuit, Ray J is pursuing $1 million in damages, along with interest, legal fees, and other "just and proper" relief, claiming damage to his business and breaches of the alleged agreement.
He asserted that he and Kim consensually recorded their sex tape in 2003, and discussions about its public release began in 2006, with Kim insisting her mother oversee the process. Ray J stated that all three parties signed agreements with Vivid Entertainment, which released the tape in 2007, but alleged that Kim and Kris conspired to file a false lawsuit claiming Kim did not consent to the distribution to generate buzz before its release.
Ray J insisted that the allegations against Vivid were false and accused Kim and Kris of leaking a fabricated $5 million settlement to TMZ. He also claimed that they created a new fake controversy surrounding the sex tape to promote their Hulu series, The Kardashians, in 2022.
He mentioned that he confronted Kim via Instagram about her comments on the show, and the legal documents revealed that Kim allegedly urged him to participate in another false narrative about working with Vivid to remove the tape from the internet, which he refused, leading to his lawsuit against Kris and Kim.
The pair reached a settlement in April 2023, where they and their production company purportedly agreed to pay Ray J $6 million and promised that no further mention of the sex tape would be made on The Kardashians. Any further disparagement would entitle Ray J to $1 million in liquidated damages.
However, Ray J claimed the agreement was breached during the third season of the show, with discussions about the tape surfacing just a month after the settlement was finalized.
In their defamation lawsuit, Kim and Kris targeted remarks made by Ray J on TMZ and Twitch, but he contended that he was unaware his comment on Twitch was being live-streamed and that his statements to the news outlet were merely casual remarks. He maintained that if his comments constituted a breach, they were not significant and should be "excused" by the alleged material breaches by Kim and Kris.
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