Kim Kardashian Reveals Photo Shoot That Should Have Gotten Her ‘Canceled’
“Who thought that that was a good idea?” the reality star wonders now.
Kim Kardashian said she “probably should have been canceled” for a photo shoot she did in 2010.
The reality star told Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper Wednesday that her suggestive Elle shoot with then-16-year-old Justin Bieber wasn’t “the most appropriate.” Kardashian was 29 years old at the time.
“Nothing ever weird was obviously happening and I just think that was like an odd concept and why none of us thought that that was odd at the time,” she said. “Like, I don’t know who approved this, and I don’t know who thought that this was normal, this narrative.”
In the photos, Bieber and Kardashian frolic flirtatiously on a beach and Kardashian plays a role she likened to Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Kardashian is now mom to four, her oldest just a few years younger than Bieber was at the time: 12-year-old North, 9-year-old Saint, 7-year-old Chicago, and 6-year-old Psalm, all of whom she shares with ex Kanye West.
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Kardashian told Elle at the time for a behind-the-scenes video that accompanied the photo spread that she met teenage Bieber at the White House Correspondents Dinner. “We took a picture together and he twittered it and said, you know, ‘Me and my girlfriend Kim.’ And instantly, I mean it was on CNN, like all over the place, that him and I were dating.” She added, “I don’t get how people would think that that’s serious. Sorry Biebs.”

Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber attend Z100's Jingle Ball 2010 presented by H&M at Madison Square Garden on December 10, 2010 in New York City.
Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Though she’s not particularly proud of the photo shoot, she told Cooper, there were a few things that she felt it made it clear it wasn’t “creepy.”
“His girlfriend was there, his parents were,” she explained. Bieber was dating Selena Gomez at the time. “I mean, it was like, nothing creepy at all. But I look back and I’m like, that’s the one thing that I feel like” could have crossed a line, she went on. Bieber is “a good dear friend of ours,” but “who thought that that was a good idea?” she said.
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She avoided any backlash for the shoot, though the way Bieber was treated as a child star in the public eye has drawn more scrutiny in recent years.
“I’ve never really done anything to be canceled,” Kardashian said. “I stand by everything that I... I’ve never said anything crazy. I’ve never done anything crazy. Maybe just like by association,” she concluded.
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