This Blind Item Helped Launch Kim Kardashian’s Career 10 Years Ago

This year alone, their seemingly never-ending drama included, but wasn’t limited to, divorces, feuds, nude selfies, health issues, a horrific robbery and a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.

That’t a lot to pack in one year, especially when it was only a decade ago that a blind item arguably helped launch Kim Kardashian’s entire career. Yes, Kim Kardashian is so much more than a sex tape, but have you ever wondered where the seedlings for the rumor that started it all began?

Ten years ago this Christmas Day, AOL Black Voices writer Jawn Murray ran a blind item about an R&B singer who was shopping an X-rated home video he had made with his ex-girlfriend to adult entertainment companies. The item is, of course, referring to the tape that Kardashian made with ex-boyfriend Ray J, which helped catapult her into the spotlight. 

Can’t Say Names…

With those kind of hints it didn’t take long for gossip sites to correctly guess the identities of the parties involved, since Kardashian had recently begun dating Nick Cannon.

As far as blind items go, it was a good one, but not perfect and it didn’t quite get everything right. When The Huffington Post spoke to the author of the item this year, he said he since realized what he wrote was “probably 75 percent accurate.” Murray, who is now a pop culture commentator and editor of AlwaysAlist.com, explained that the notion the tape’s release was motivated by revenge is inaccurate.

Regardless of who was actually involved in releasing the tape, it remains true that this little blind item had a hand in helping launch what would ultimately become an empire. It started a guessing game that was officially put to rest a few weeks later when TMZ confirmed the existence of the tape.