Kim Kardashian West feared she would die during 2016 Paris robbery

19 October 2020

Kim Kardashian West thought she would die during her Paris robbery ordeal in 2016.

Kim Kardashian West

The 39-year-old reality star was restrained and held at gunpoint during a robbery which saw thieves steal over $10 million in jewellery whilst staying in a hotel in Paris, France, four years ago.

And now, Kim has recalled the horrific ordeal during an appearance on David Letterman’s Netflix series, ‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman’, where she admitted to feeling “immediate panic” when she heard footsteps “stomping up the stairs” to her hotel room.

Once inside the room, the intruders “grabbed” Kim - who was only wearing a bathrobe at the time - and the ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ star admitted she thought she would be sexually assaulted.

She said: "I was like, ‘OK, this is the time I’m gonna get raped. Like deal, this is gonna happen, just prepare yourself.'

"So, I did and then - I don’t know why I’m crying, I’ve talked about this before - and then he tied me up with handcuffs and zipties and then duct tape and duct-taped my mouth and my eyes.”

Robbers then pointed a gun at her, and Kim began to fear for her life.

At the time of the ordeal, Kim’s sister Kourtney Kardashian was out in Paris with the only bodyguard they had with them, and the SKIMS founder was terrified her older sister could come back to the hotel to find her dead.

She explained: “I kept on thinking about Kourtney, I kept on thinking, like, she’s gonna come home and I’m gonna be dead in the room and she’s gonna be traumatised for the rest of her life.”

Following the robbery, Kim said she was left “really paranoid” for about a year, and her home was kitted out with “half a dozen” security guards.

But Kim’s life eventually started to return to normal, especially after the arrest of the robbers, when Kim discovered they had been following her for two years prior to the Paris attack.

She told David Letterman: "I didn't know that they had someone at the elevators, someone at the front, someone that moved the camera, someone that broke the door, someone in the getaway car.

"There was a whole team of people that had planned this."