Kim Kardashian says she’s been “victimized” again – this time by a gossip website that reported she lied about getting robbed at gunpoint in Paris and filed a bogus insurance claim for millions of dollars’ worth of jewelry.
In a Manhattan federal court lawsuit filed Tuesday, Kardashian, 35, says MediaTakeOut.com published allegedly libelous articles under “misleading headlines” that she was a “liar and thief” for “staging” the Oct. 3 robbery.
“After having been the victim of a horrific and traumatic armed robbery in France, Kim Kardashian returned to the United States only to again be victimized, but this time by an online gossip tabloid,” the suit says.
The eight-page complaint describes the horrific chain of events that occurred inide Kardashian’s rented apartment at the exclusive Hotel de Pourtalès.
“Kardashian was assaulted and robbed by two masked men, who placed a gun to her head, duct-taped her hands, legs and mouth, and then left her lying helplessly on the bathroom floor of her rented apartment while the thieves absconded with millions of dollars in jewelry,” the suit says.
The mom-of-two told French police that robbers acted like hesitant amateurs — they argued in French over how to pull off the heist and donned “police uniforms” that looked like they came from a Halloween store, TMZ reported.
Within hours of the robbery, Media Take Out posted its first story under the headline “New Evidence Suggests … Kim Kardashian ‘STAGED’ The Robbery … Just Like RYAN LOCHTE!! (Here Are The FACTS) #KimRobbery,” court papers say.
The story claimed Kardashian faked the theft in order to “increase the ratings of her family’s television shows” – but identified its sources as “people on social media, who are digesting the facts that have been disclosed,” the suit says.
Media Take Out, which dubs itself the “most visited urban website in the world,” posted other stories along the same thread in the following days.
One of them included an Oct. 6 post claiming Kardashian filed a $5.6 million insurance claim — and that “if she faked the robbery … she just committed a FEDERAL CRIME,” according to the suit.
The stories — which the suit blasts as “blatant and defamatory lies” — appear to have been down from the site.
Media Take Out has allegedly refused to take down the stories and ignored Kardashian’s demands to publish a retraction and apology, according to the suit.
She is suing the site and its owner Fred Mwangaguhunga for unspecified damages, saying the stories were “calculated to cause [her] maximum harm.”
“Obviously we can’t comment on any legal matters,” Mwangaghunga said.
Defamation expert Nicholas Carroll thinks Media Take Out doesn’t stand a chance defensively if Kardashian’s version of events turns out to be true.
“It all rests on the Paris police,” he told The Post. “They’re going to bring home the bacon for one of the two but not both. If I were Media Take Out’s attorney and her claims are true, I wouldn’t know what card to play in court against her lawsuit.”
Other celebs who’ve filed defamation suits have been successful in the past. Tom Cruise reached an undisclosed settlement with Bauer Publishing, In Touch and Life & Style magazines for accusing him of “abandoning” his daughter amid his divorce from Katie Holmes.
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