The word ‘Kardashian’ is synonymous with ‘scandal’ because they’ve been embroiled in so fkn many of them. But one that I’ll never get over is that time a Khloé Kardashian bikini pic was accidentally shared to Instagram and the whole fam fought tooth and nail to have it scrubbed from the internet.
Back in April 2021, a photo of Khloé hanging poolside in a bikini surfaced on social media before being swiftly deleted.
Page Six reported at the time that the image was completely unedited, while an insider claimed “some edits” had been done to the pic, but not to the level that a Kardashian would usually edit a pic before posting.
From there, the Kar-Jenner clan reportedly went into “overdrive” to ensure that the pic was removed from the internet.
Kim Kardashian began DMing Instagram pages that had shared the pic, asking them to take it down ‘cos it “had been doctored” and was taken in “the worst lighting.” Have a peek at the second slide here.
She even got her lawyers involved, having them send a heap of legal threats to folks who reshared the pic.
The chief marketing officer for KKW Brands released a statement on the pic via Page Six, which was strange given that it’s Kim’s makeup brand?
“The colour edited photo was taken of Khloé during a private family gathering and posted to social media without permission by mistake by an assistant,” Tracy Romulus, chief marketing officer for KKW Brands, said in a statement.
“Khloé looks beautiful but it is within the right of the copyright owner to not want an image not intended to be published taken down.”
Another source told Page Six that the photo was taken of Khloé Kardashian while she was midway through a conversation over the weekend and doesn’t reflect how she typically looks (???).
The insider also said it’s “not uncommon for teams to request that accounts delete photos that are re-shared illegally”.
At the time, there were two theories as to how the pic got out there. One theory alleged that the Kardashians’ grandmother, MJ (Kris Jenner’s mother) posted the pic “without permission” on her private account, before it was scooped up by the masses.
Another theory was that an assistant shared it.
Everything about the whole thing was gross, from Khloé Kardashian and her family going on a mad campaign to have a photo that shows her authentic self removed (she looked GORGEOUS, btw), to people claiming ownership over the photo and not respecting her wish to have it removed.
Khloé later shared a pic from the same day the banished photo was taken, which appeared to have been edited to her liking.
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After the whole thing turned into a fiasco, Khloé pulled the bizarre move of going live on Instagram.
In the live video, Khloé lifted her sweater to show off her chest, pulled her pants down to show off her bikini, then Kim popped her face in front of the camera and it ended.
Khloé later broke her silence with a statement on Instagram about the whole shebang.
“Yes I did a live to show you all this isn’t photoshopped,” she captioned the gallery.
In the lengthy statement, which you can find here, she wrote: “This is me and my body unretouched and unfiltered. The photo that was posted this week is beautiful. But as someone who has struggled with body image her whole life, when someone takes a photo of you that isn’t flattering in bad lighting or doesn’t capture your body the way it is after working so hard to get it to this point – and then shares it to the world – you should have every right to ask for it to not be shared.”
She went on to say that the fact that she’s a reality star shouldn’t be a pass for people to mock her OR claim ownership of a photo that she wants removed from the internet.
She concluded by telling fans to “just do you and make sure your heart is happy.”
The biggest takeaway from this is that the Kardashians’ obsession with manipulating their pics is sending a dangerous message to their fans.
I sincerely hope that they become more comfortable with sharing natural shots so they don’t contribute to poor body image standards among their impressionable followers.
