Law&Crime Sidebar - Ray J Hints at Suing Kardashians Over Claims About 2007 Sex Tape

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

15 years after the release of his sex tape with Kim Kardashian, Ray J said he wants to sue the Kardashians over the claim that he alone leaked the tape in 2007. Entertainment lawyer Mitra Ahouraian joins Law&Crime's Angenette Levy to discuss the possible litigation and who may have been behind the leak.GUESTS:Mitra Ahouraian: https://twitter.com/MitraEsqLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael Deininger & Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. And as a black man, as a father, I'm saying? Like, that's trying to instill the right things into my kids. And there's just lie about me being something that I'm not. And it has something to do with disrespect the women. Ray J denies leaking his sex tape with Kim Kardashian back in 2007. Now he wants to sue the Kardashians, he says, to clear his name.

I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and welcome to Law and Crime Sidebar Podcast about 15 years ago. You may recall, it was a really big deal. A lot of people were going online to watch it. And there's been a lot of speculation and controversy over the years about who leaked it. Ray J seems to suggest it was actually the Cardi. Kardashians who leaked it and that this controversy about it was revived because the second season of one of their new shows is coming out on Hulu. Ray J, for his part, denies leaking the tape. How much have you made off the tape?

I don't even know. It's still making money now to this day. Yeah, it is. It's been lucrative for both of y'all, though. Put it like this. If what they're saying I did, it's true. Now, why didn't you never sue me? me.

True. I've never been sued. I've never had a complaint. Yeah. I've never been any of that, right? They would have threw me under the bus. And joining me to talk about this is entertainment lawyer Mitra Ahorian. Mitra, welcome back to Sidebar.

Thanks for coming on. My pleasure. Happy to be here. What do you make of all of this? I mean, I've read this so many times over the years that Kim Kardashian's mother, Chris Jenner, a lot of people, it's all speculation. We don't know for sure. But the speculation is that she may have leaked this to kind of boost her daughter's profile and to help the family out as they were launching their reality TV careers. What do you make of that?

Yeah, well, you know, I mean, the haters have always said that, you know, the momager is the one who exploited her daughter and made her famous from this sex tape. And basically what we're hearing now is Ray J confirming that, admitting to his part in it, you know, which is a bold move, but also saying that Kim knew about it, you know, she always had the tapes. I never had the tapes. I kind of threw the idea out there, but she had these, she had the tapes and she went to her mom and her mom orchestrated it and made it happen. And they both signed a contract. He claims to have copies of those contracts and got it out there. And so for this whole denial of the fact that this even happened, which is kind of interesting all these years later bringing it up. I mean, you know,

I guess looking for drama and content for the Hulu show with sort of this recycled narrative. It's really interesting that it's coming out now. And, you know, Ray J has, has, you know, a sister, a mom. He's very concerned about how this looks, you know, about the possibility of him being the one completely orchestrating it. I got from this that he's saying, I say these things and there's crickets over there. They say nothing. To me, I was getting more. from him that he's just like, I didn't do anything wrong. To go as far as filing a lawsuit about this, I mean, what would be the grounds for the suit, basically that the other people are saying, I did it when I didn't and it was their thing? Or what would you sue over? I mean, we're looking at

another celebrity defamation lawsuit, which one of the things, the conversations we were sort of having around the Johnny Depp, Amber heard lawsuit not to continue to harp on that one. But one of the conversations was really there aren't a lot of celebrity lawsuits for defamation because the standard is so high for a celebrity to establish defamation. There has to have been actual malice. Whereas for, you know, an average person, they don't have to show that. They only have to show that the statement perhaps wasn't true and damage to their reputation. But in this case, he's saying that he can prove that it was a lie, that they knew it was a lie. And that's really the bar. So for him to really take any sort of legal action, again, takes a certain level of confidence in being able to

establish that they knew it wasn't true when they said it. But if he had any hand in it at all, let's say he says, I floated the idea out there, what have you, but they had the tapes and they're the ones that actually put it out there. If he had any part in it at all, he doesn't really have a case, does he? I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if I agree with that because it's not, the statement is not that he didn't have a hand in it, right? So the statement is not, that's not what he's saying here. He's saying that, sure, I had a hand in it, but you guys did too. And you can't put the whole thing on me when you had a hand in it as well. And I think that's really the claim. And I think that that's a valid claim. It doesn't need to be the case that he had no part in it. I guess I just don't understand. You're out in Hollywood. So explain to me how a mom, a mother thinks it's a good idea to leak her daughter's sex tape. I mean, is that just, that just seems like something that's on another. realm to me. I mean, I can't imagine my mom doing something like that. Explain to me what the deal is, like the what goes into that thinking, that mindset. Yeah, certainly, you know, certainly strange things

happen in Hollywood and certainly the prospect of fame makes people do a lot of crazy things. This is certainly something that's been criticized in Hollywood and outside of Hollywood. This is not something that, you know, we in the entertainment community sort of endorse. Absolutely not. This has been the thing that has created a lot of hate around the Kardashian family that, oh, you know, your mom put up this sex tape. How could she do that? And she's, you know, sort of orchestrating your fame and all her daughter's fame and all of that.

But all of it really comes down to this one sex tape that Kim Kardashian got famous from a sex tape that her mom orchestrated the release of. And that is really the thing that people have issue with when it comes to the Kardashians. That's really the seed that's been planted where a lot of the hate comes from towards the Kardashian family. One of the things that struck me in this interview that Ray J did with Charlemagne the God was that he's saying this tape is still making money. He's still making money off of it apparently. That's what I gathered from his comments. Kim Kardashian is still making money off of it.

It's floating around out there. Somehow I guess you get views on it and it makes money. Once this stuff is out there, it's out there forever. there's no getting rid of it. Yeah. And I think, you know, it's important to note that. That's an important point that you made is that they made money off of this, right? So according to him, they had these contracts and, you know, and they were set to gain from the release of this tape. And there is obviously some sort of ongoing royalty if, in fact, they are still making money off of it. So the fact that we have Ray J who had a hand in this, who's saying he had a hand in this, really revealing this information, I think, adds to the credibility of the story. I just can't imagine. It's so bizarre to me. I guess it takes a lot for me to wrap my head around this. The fact that a mom would leak the sex tape, plus you've got this guy and he knew it was being taped. They all knew it was being taped and that there are contracts about this. This is not typical stuff in Hollywood, is it? I mean, I remember when Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, their sex tape was leaked before this. And that was a pretty big deal. I mean, there have been these sex tapes that have been leaked all over the place of different celebrities. Why on earth does anybody ever think that's a good idea? Yeah, you know, with Pam and Tommy, I mean, very different scenario where they were really

devastated by it. This is something that was stolen from their sake and leaked very different from, and they were already, you know, very well known at the time. Kim Kardashian certainly ran in celebrity circles and kind of these socialite circles, but not, you know, clearly not to the level of now. So if that was, you know, if that was a goal, this is not something that you see. People do crazy things for fame, but I don't think that you see, you know, this sort of this level of sexual exploitation from a sex tape being released. And what's even more egregious, I think, if this fact is in fact true, the fact that there was this second tape, the Santa Barbara tape that the mom had her had her and Ray J redo because the first one was maybe not good enough and they could have done better. That ended up not being the tape that was released. Again, according to Ray J, we'll see if all of this stuff.

comes out or not, but there was apparently the second tape that again was orchestrated by Chris Jenner Kardashian. So one thing that's really bothering me about this, too, is the fact that I guess in this new series that the Kardashians have out there on Hulu and Disney Plus, Kim Kardashian's son, he's a little kid, saint, found a link to it on the internet. I mean, come on. And that for a television show that's so exploitative, you know, I mean, it's just like, this is a child. I haven't seen it yet. What happens when he finds? I'm just reading about it. I don't, I don't watch Kardashian shows. Sorry, Mitra. I'm the, I guess I need to do more research, but I don't really watch Kardashian television shows for confession. Sorry guys, but it just seems like

a little much to me. It is much. And I think what's interesting is sort of trying to bring up all of these things that they've been criticized for throughout the years, right? The orchestrating of Kim Kardashian's mom orchestrating. I keep saying orchestrating because this really is like her putting together this career for all of the daughter. So that's coming up. The question of, whoa, you know, your kids are going to eventually see this. These are things that everyone's thinking about, right? A lot of the judgments around them, they're bringing these up as issues in order to address them from their narrative. So I think that's really interesting. You know, obviously we know or, you know, those of us in Hollywood know that these are unscripted, but really they're not reality. They're very

you know, heavily produced and there's stories that want to be told and, and they're very specific. And of course, with something with a family like the Kardashians, they are very involved in the stories that they want to put out through their involvement in a show like this. Well, we'll keep an eye on it. Mitra O'Horrient Entertainment Lawyer out of Los Angeles. Thanks so much for coming on as usual. My pleasure. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast.

It is produced by Sam Goldberg and Michael Dininger, Bobby Zoki, is our YouTube manager. Alyssa Fisher handles our bookings and Kiera Bronson does our social media. You can listen to Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel.

I'm Annionette Levy, and we will see you next time. series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.