Kim Kardashian's hugely successful career in the spotlight was launched shortly after her sex tape with singer Ray J was leaked in 2007.
The 41-year-old began starring alongside her family in reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians shortly after the tape was released.
Vivid Entertainment, who released the tape, claimed in a press release at the time that they purchased the tape from a "third party" for $1 million.
Much has been said about who leaked the tape over the years – with Canadian journalist Ian Halperin claiming a source told him in his 2016 book: "It was Kris who engineered the deal behind the scenes and was responsible for the tape seeing the light of day."
The Kardashians denied the claims at the time.
Kim and 41-year-old Ray J's sex tape has come back into public discussion after mum-of-four Kim discovered the game her son Saint was playing, Roblox, claimed to have a second sex tape on their new Disney + reality show Kardashians.
The episode then saw Kim's ex-husband Kanye West manage to retrieve the tape from One Wish singer Ray J in scenes filmed last year.
In the scene, Kim gets emotional as she gathers her family in one room and tells them: "So Kanye flew home last night, and he came back this morning. I want to show you guys what he got me. He got me all of the sex tape back.
"He flew home, and he got the computer it was on and the hard drive. He met with Ray J at the airport, and he got it all back for me."
Just as the sex tape storm appeared to finally be clearing, Ray J hit back and claimed he never possessed the tape as he told the Daily Mail on May this year: "I've sat in the shadows for over 14 years allowing the Kardashians to use my name, to abuse my name, make billions of dollars over a decade-and-a-half talking about a topic I've never really spoken about.
"I've never leaked anything. I have never leaked a sex tape in my life. It has never been a leak. It's always been a deal and a partnership between Kris Jenner and Kim and me and we've always been partners since the beginning of this thing."
Singer Ray J also claimed he contacted the SKIMS founder shortly after the reality show scenes aired and asked her to stop claiming he was the one who leaked the tape.
He also claimed in the interview that the tape was released after an agreement between Kim and momager Kris.
Ray J told the publication: "I've never leaked anything. I have never leaked a sex tape in my life. It has never been a leak. It's always been a deal and a partnership between Kris Jenner and Kim and me and we've always been partners since the beginning of this thing."
Last week, 66-year-old Kris undertook a lie detector test on The Late Late Show With James Corden, where she was quizzed about the sex tape leak.
During the television test Gavin and Stacey star James, 44, asked: "Did you help Kim release her sex tape?"
The audience gasped before Kris responded: "‘It’s okay. No," before the lie detector test polygraph professional signalled Kris was telling the truth.
Following the scenes, Ray J hit back in a 44-minute-long video as he shared a series of DMs exchanged between him and Kim, exchanged after the episode of the new Kardashians show was released and an alleged contract.
In one message, he fumed: "You know what we did! Your mom controlled this whole sex tape deal with Joe Francis and [Vivid CEO] Steve Hirsch – it was her idea to put out the tape with Vivid. All I did was agree.
"Now you want to make it seem like I'm doing it again without your control. All those fake tears. Your fans trusting you to be honest and sincere but it's all fake for the cameras. I was playing my part until you started doing all of this!
"What are you trying to ruin me when you know I was just a player in this! You have to stop believing you own lies! I have to let the world know the real [because] you've taken it too far now. Somebody needs to explain the play you are doing to me ASAP or I will have no choice but to protect my brand and family and expose real."
Kim replied to say she didn't say a "single bad thing" about him as she wrote: "The show filmed in real time the day in hell that I had with my lawyers when your manager threatened to release another tape that doesn't exist - and my son who was five years old at the time seeing an ad with my cry face emoji that said 'Kim's new sex tape' as click bate in Roblox. [sic]
"It was upsetting to have to deal with and I am sure can understand how that feels. My "burn them to the ground" comment was a generalization to anyone threatening to hold this over my head 20 years later. We are both parents now with young kids and careers and I'm sure you want to move on from this just like I do. But your manager is the person who brought this all up out of nowhere and I have a right to share how it affected me.
"Next week's episode airs where Kanye brings me the computer and he says he got back from you, which shows you in a positive light for giving that to him. Thank you for doing that. Just spoke with my team. We will get something out tomorrow morning to clarify that this was a joke and that you would never gave done something like this. Hope this helps and I'm sorry."
Ray J, who's real name is William Ray Norwood Jr, hit back with: "I'm tired of playing that role as the villain. I did it for us in the beginning but now without your support it f***s me over bad,' he wrote.
The Kardashians star replied: "Wow I had no idea that that was supposed to be private. I was filming my normal days and that just happened and I had no clue and I actually thought you and Wack were working together on his it says he's your manager in his bio.
"So this entire time I thought [you were] working together and I was so confused at the statement you put out saying [you had] nothing to do with it. I just think that story above is powerful and [shows] that we are working together for the future of our children and families to get this out of the Internet."
Ray responded: "But are we really trying to do it? Steve won't allow it – so we can pretend to do that but it still probably won't happen. Plus, won't people say, 'Why is Ray J trying to get it off the Internet when I'm the one who put it out in their minds? Doesn't it get extremely confusing?'"
Reality star Kim then wrote: "Because you grew up and have a family and people change their minds. Let my call the team one sec. I just wanted to be clear with you if you wanted it out there that we spoke. I don't want to create any drama at home. But the story that we will work together to speak to Vivid to get it pulled off the air is a bigger story and unity and that there's no more bad blood or drama."
The singer then responded to say he hasn't seen Kim in nearly 15 years and wished they had this conversation in person and asked if they could check-in again after the second episode, showing Kanye retrieving the tape, aired.
In the episode, Kanye tells Kim he would "never let them extort us again", in a comment appearing to take aim at Ray J and his manager, which infuriated the singer, who released song I Hit It First about Kim shortly after she confirmed her romance with Kanye.
Ray J raged in the video: "And I'm like, 'Thank you. That's the thanks I get?' All of a sudden they, like, play a n****. That was, like, some gothic dark s***, dawg."
He added: "I'm just showing you all this because I'm putting this all out for my kids. I'm tired of playing games. I don't give a f***. I'm not that n**** that they say I am. I've never been, dawg. I'm tired of motherf***ers thinking that, 'It's just this bad little thing in the past you did, but it's okay and we'll look the other way'.
"Nah, we ain't looking the other way. F*** that. As long as my name cleared, everybody getting sued because they all motherf***ing putting out fake stories. Look, so I see this s*** and I'm like, "Y'all wanna play games with me? Ok let's play."
The DMs between Ray J and Kim, he claimed, changed from cordial to confrontational as Kim is seen telling the singer in a message: "What are you talking about? I'm not gonna take this s*** from you threatening me. Do whatever the f*** you wanna do."
The singer then hit back saying he never leaked anything – Kim's mum, Kris, did.
He wrote: "And now you wanna try and tear black men down and kill careers with all your lies you and your mom are doing! - do whatever I want to you? No look at what you've done to me.
"Why are you such a liar? I would think you would slow it down after you lied your way to fame. I'm watching you cry about something you put out – and it's not even real tears. How can you cry about something you put out? Joe Francis and [your] mo are the real players in this! You've defamed my name and tried to kill my career but God didn't allow you to. Now you trying to do it again. I'm ashamed of myself for letting you do this to me for so long. You can never deny what you did."
Ray J then went on to show his original sex tape contract, which claimed that they both received $400K.
He said: "There's no way I could use Kim Kardashian's name in this contract if she wasn't a part of it, right?"
The singer added: "I got 12.5%. Kim got 12.5%. She's got the same exact contract as I got so when we go to court, guess what? They gotta pull that up because we gotta see that."
And, on the page which lists what they are selling, Ray J claimed Kim was the one who wrote the list of three tapes in order to speed along the process.
He also claimed he had the note scanned for fingerprints that supposedly matched the fingerprints on the contract.
The singer later claimed in a short video he was going to handle the matter legally as he said: "I was just gonna handle this s**t legally and just hit you in court and get what I deserve from all of y'all being foul and trying to defame me, trying to make me look bad.'"
The star concluded his short reel by saying: "We are going through receipts tonight," before he added: "Everything that I got, Imma let them see."
In the rant, Ray J insisted he was sharing the video in order to clear his name for his children, Melody, four, and two-year-old Epik.
He also claimed the professional behind the lie detector test, John Grogan, was not a polygraph examiner as Ray J said: "John Grogan is a fake. He is not a polygraph examiner. He is quite accurately known as the polygraph parasite. He’s been convicted of twenty-six counts of fraud and had his P.I. license pulled from him, and he simply became a world-known polygraph examiner".
Ray J added: "THIS IS THE DUDE KRIS JENNER HAD TAKEN HER LIE DETECTOR TEST TO MAKE ME LOOK LIKE A LIAR! AND WHATS MORE SAD IS THE NETWORK ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN!!"
In another separate post, he went on: "Nothing can stop the RAIN KIM!! NO NO NO KIM!! NO NO NO KIM!! — ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!— WAIT TILL THEY SEE YOUR HANDWRITING AND FINGERPRINTS ON MY CANTRACT!! and WAIT UNTIL THEY SEE YOUR CONTRACT YOU SIGNED THE SAME DAY AS ME!"
He concluded his rant with: "YOU THOUGHT KIM AND KRIS STORIES WAS TRUE SO YOU RAN THE STORY!! FACTS ARE ITS COMPLETELY FALSE - I CANT WAIT TO SHOW YOU THE TRUTH!!"
In a later video, Ray J fumed over Kim and Kris allegedly spreading "false narratives" and he "can't even defend himself".
And, towards the end of the video, Ray J showed alleged DMs between himself and Kanye, who legally changed his name to Ye. In one of the messages it was claimed that Kanye was asking for the sex tapes and contracts.
