Kim Kardashian has testified that she doesn’t remember trying to kill the reality show that starred her brother Rob Kardashian and his then-fiancee Blac Chyna.
Chyna is suing the Kardashian family for $100m (£77m), accusing them of defaming her and convincing producers and the E! network to cancel a 2016 Keeping Up With the Kardashians spinoff show called Rob & Chyna.
The court case, including the testimony of Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner, and sister Kylie Jenner, has largely focused on a fight between Chyna and Rob Kardashian on 15 December 2016, which led to the couple’s eventual breakup and the show’s cancellation.
Chyna’s lawyer, Lynne Ciani asked Kardashian whether she saw any injuries on her brother that day and she responded saying: “I just remember in that moment him being super emotional and it’s really all a blur.
“I remember him being really red but I don’t remember anything specific, just him looking puffy and red.”
Kardashian took the stand for an hour on Tuesday in a Los Angeles courtroom and acknowledged demanding Chyna be kept off Keeping Up With the Kardashians after hearing she had abused her brother.
“I will not go into a toxic work environment,” Ms Kardashian said of her refusal to work with Chyna. “On my own show, I have the power to do that.”
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The reality star spent much of her testimony saying “I don’t remember” – but she is the biggest star to testify in the trial so far.
She caused a stir when she walked from the gallery to the witness stand wearing a dark grey pinstriped suit with white trainers.
Kardashian was shown a series of texts from late 2016 and early 2017 by Ms Ciani.
Her name was on the texts but Kardashian said she had no recollection of sending them though she didn’t deny their likely legitimacy.
In one text exchange with a producer from the company Bunim Murray, which produced both shows, Kardashian expressed anger that Chyna might still be filmed on her show.
She acknowledged that “this definitely sounds like something I would say”.
“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 exchange included several demands about Chyna being filmed on “her” show, but Kardashian insisted that this was a quirk of the technology.
“This is clearly voice dictated, as is everything I text that’s so long, and it’s sometimes rendering ‘our’ as ‘her’,” she said.
Kardashians had no power over the show
According to the reality star, the texts showed that she and her family had no power over the show, with one message reading: “No one listens to us, no one respects us”.
However, the family could stop appearing on the show, with Kardashian testifying that she had the right “as a cast member to say we really need a break”.
‘I just don’t remember’
Kardashian was asked several times whether she told her sisters to tell executives about the attack and she said she had no recollection of doing that.
“I know you want my answer to change,” Kardashian said. “You’ve asked the same question like four times, I wish I had a better answer for you, but I just don’t remember.”
Asked if she had told Kylie Jenner to send an email on the issue, Kardashian replied: “I do not control my sisters’ lives, and I do not have conversations with them before they send emails.”
Read more:
Blac Chyna put gun to Rob Kardashian’s head
Blac Chyna describes ‘exciting’ early days with Kardashians
A video deposition of Ryan Seacrest, the American Idol host who co-created Keeping Up With the Kardashians with Kris Jenner, was played for the jury later during the court hearing.
Mr Seacrest said his role as an executive producer on Rob & Chyna included no duties. He said his Kardashians contract automatically gave him the title for any spin-offs, but he did promote the series including on his radio show.
Asked of his first impression of Chyna, he said “she was bold and memorable”.
“Do bold and memorable people make good television?” Ms Ciani asked him in the video.
He replied: “Sometimes yes and sometimes no. In the episode that I saw, I must have thought yes.”
“Why?” Ms Ciani asked. Mr Seacrest replied: “Because I went on to promote it.”