Kim Kardashian has opened up about her photoshoot with Justin Bieber when he was 16 years old.
Back in 2010, a beachside photoshoot with Kim Kardashian and a teenage Justin Bieber raised more than a few eyebrows.
At the time, Kardashian was 29 years old and Bieber just 16 when the two were paired for an Elle Magazine shoot inspired by the 1967 film The Graduate, a movie that follows a young man seduced by an older married woman.
The imagery for the shoot mirrored this provocative dynamic: hand-holding, longing stares, and flirtatious beach antics that implied something much more than friendship.
Kim Kardashian Addresses Photoshoot
Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast, she opened up about the infamous shoot and didn’t hold back.
“I think I’m gonna get canceled if I say it. Like, I don’t know who approved this, and I don’t know who thought that this was normal, this narrative. But I did a photo shoot with Justin Bieber, and he was 16 years old. And I don’t know how old I was,” she said.
In her conversation with host Alex Cooper, the SKIMS founder reflected on just how strange the entire setup was.
“Nothing ever weird was obviously happening, and like, I just think that was like an odd concept and why none of us thought that that was odd at the time. But now we look back and I’m like, that would have not been the most appropriate thing.”
Adding to the surrealism, Kardashian noted that Bieber’s then-girlfriend, Selena Gomez, was on set, along with his parents.
“His girlfriend was there, his parents were. 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, you know, he’s like a good dear friend of ours and the whole family, but like, who thought that that was a good idea?”
She reiterated just how on-the-nose the theme was: “It was a story of what’s that story with the teacher and the student, the graduate. The graduate. I just feel like nothing ever weird was obviously happening and it was just an odd concept and why none of us thought that that was odd at the time.”
The comments were a rare moment of retrospection from Kardashian, who rarely revisits controversies from her past. “But now we look back and I’m like ‘that would have not been the most appropriate thing,’” she repeated.
Fans debate Kardashian’s accountability
Her remarks sparked debate online, with fans divided over whether she should’ve taken more ownership of the shoot at the time - or now.
One Reddit user said: “Blaming it on whatever arbitrary person approved it rather than her who was in the actual shoot.”
Another user was even more critical: “‘Idk who approved this and who thought this was normal’ bro what? Take some accountability, you’re literally the one in the photoshoot with him??”
But not everyone was quick to throw stones. One person defended Kardashian, posting: “She’s going to shoots every week and she doesn’t control the subject matter. She just follows the directors instructions and goes about her day. Studio execs are the creepy people.”
What do you think?