Kim Kardashian’s Bid to Keep Sex Tape Settlement Private Denied by Judge

A bid by Kim Kardashian and her mother, Kris Jenner, to seal portions of a 2023 settlement agreement with Ray J has been denied, according to a court document filed on March 30 and obtained by Rolling Stone.

The reality TV stars had filed a motion earlier this month arguing that publicly disclosing portions of the deal “would cause substantial harm to the Kardashians’ privacy interests and undermine the strong public policy interest in favor of settlement agreement.”

In his ruling, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven A. Ellis ruled that Kardashian and Jenner had failed to present any evidence that the deal and its terms being made public would cause them harm, stating that their claims are “too vague, speculative, amorphous, and unsupported to support the requested sealing order.”

Judge Ellis rejected Kardashian and Jenners motions to seal, with the exception of a bank account number being partially redacted.

Representatives for Kardashian, Jenner, and Ray J did not immediately respond Rolling Stone‘s requests for comment Tuesday.

Ray J, whose legal name is William Ray Norwood Jr., and Kardashian dated in the early 2000s and appeared together in a sex tape recorded in 2003 and released in 2007 by Vivid Entertainment. The tape’s release came shortly before the premiere of Keeping Up With the Kardashians on E! in 2007. Vivid Entertainment has long said it obtained the video legally from a third party.

In October 2025, Kardashian and Jenner sued Norwood for defamation, accusing him of having “fabricated” claims that the women should be the subjects of a federal racketeering investigation because he sought to harass and disparage the pair while simultaneously “reviving his own fading notoriety.”

The following month, according to People, Norwood countersued the mother and daughter, alleging they breached a $6 million settlement over his and Kardashian’s sex tape by discussing the tape again on their Hulu series The Kardashians.

Most recently, Kardashian addressed Norwood’s claim that she and her mother conspired to release her infamous sex tape. “His claim that I had a plan with my mother and others to release a sex tape, defraud the public, and file a ‘fake’ lawsuit against the porn company that released it to ‘create buzz’ is a lie,” Kardashian wrote in a sworn declaration filed in March. “My family and I are not part of a criminal enterprise; we have not conducted racketeering activity, nor have we profited from racketeering activities as the defendant claims.”