Kim Kardashian keeps low profile after Paris heist
Before Sunday’s mid-season premiere of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, members of the reality TV family did what they always do: tweeted teasers and messages promoting the show.
Khloe is thinking about breast augmentation! Rob isn’t coming to the party planned for him! Mom Kris calls daughter Kim a “traitor!”
But as the E! series about the Kardashian clan returns with new episodes, the central persona remains absent on social media.
Kim Kardashian, who has made documenting her most personal moments the bedrock of her career, has been silent since a robbery earlier this month in Paris.
Thieves broke into a mansion, held her at gunpoint and stole more than US$10 million in jewelry. The suspects remain at large. The seriousness of the crime and how deeply it has apparently affected Kim contrasts with the pseudo-drama put on display by the E! show.
After the robbery, filming of new episodes was put on hiatus.
Some family members have resumed “limited filming ” while “full production has yet to resume,” a network spokesperson said late last week.
Kim has figured out how to make a lot of money by giving up her privacy.
“I totally attribute my career to social media,” she said in a 60 Minutes interview, taped before the robbery, that also aired Sunday night.
She said “there are pitfalls — lack of privacy, and that’s not for everyone. For me, I can handle it.”
There haven’t been updates on Kim Kardashian’s subscription-based website and app for weeks; her assistant Stephanie Sheppard posted last week.
Sheppard wrote the reality star “is taking some much-needed time off,” and the site and app would be updated with content from her “closest friends, fam and yours truly.”
“Thanks so much for your support for my girl,” Sheppard wrote. Soon, new Kimojis appeared on the app.
Indeed, her famous family members have slowly continued ramping up their social-media presences, and promoting their various products and appearances.
The most we’ve seen of Kim is the video her husband Kanye West posted in honour of her birthday Friday. It features old home-video footage of Kim with her siblings and her late father, Robert.
Something so sweet and sentimental would normally elicit a public response from Kim, who tends to show the world her appreciation of such displays of affection from her husband. This time, her family posted those updates.
It appears these surrogates will continue trying to satisfy fans while the reality star continues her retreat from the public eye.
But when your career is made in the spotlight, how long can you stay out of it?