Blac Chyna is in a legal battle with Kris Jenner and her daughters Kim Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian and Kylie Jenner over the cancellation of her reality show “Rob & Chyna” with ex-fiancé Rob Kardashian.
Chyna, a model and former reality star whose legal name is Angela White, is suing the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” stars for $100 million in lost earnings from the end of the 2016 spinoff after one season and the loss of celebrity earning power that resulted from it.
“Kris Jenner set out to have ‘Rob & Chyna’ canceled,” Chyna’s lawyer Lynne Ciani told the jury during opening statements on April 18, as the accused family sat in the front row of the gallery. “And she brought in her three daughters to help accomplish that.”
However, Kardashian lawyer Michael G. Rhodes said the couple’s reality show was canceled by the E! Network not because of any machinations by the Kardashians, but because they broke up.
“There is no ‘Rob & Chyna’ show if there is no Rob and Chyna,” Rhodes said.
In this courtroom artist sketch, Khloe Kardashian, from left, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Kris Jenner sit in court in Los Angeles, Tuesday, April 19, 2022. A jury has been seated in a trial that pits model and former reality television star Blac Chyna against the Kardashian family, who she alleges destroyed her TV career.
Both sides agreed that Rob Kardashian and Chyna got into a terrible argument in 2016 that permanently damaged their relationship. The differing accounts of that feud have taken up much of the almost two-week trial as all four defendants, Rob Kardashian and Kris Jenner’s boyfriend Corey Gamble have taken the stand.
The Los Angeles trial, which began April 18, started jury deliberations Thursday after several days of intense testimony.
Jurors will discuss whether each of the Kardashian defendants either knowingly lied about Chyna abusing Rob Kardashian, or spread the word about it with reckless disregard for the truth. They will also deliberate on whether each family member illegally interfered with Chyna’s “Rob & Chyna” contract with the E! network.
While a verdict is pending, here are all the biggest revelations from the trial (so far):
Blac Chyna, Kardashians trial: Jury begins deliberating, Pete Davidson spotted in court
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Judge tosses part of Blac Chyna case against Kim Kardashian
Judge Gregory Alarcon ruled Friday that Blac Chyna’s attorney Lynne Ciani did not provide any statement during the trial from Kim Kardashian that was defamatory toward Chyna.
The case against Kardashian for interference with a contract remains alive. The jury is deciding on that and both defamation and contract-interference cases against Kris Jenner, Khloé Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.
Jurors went home Friday without reaching a verdict after their first full day of deliberations. Their instructions had to be revised after the Kim Kardashian decision, and attorneys and the judge answered several questions that they submitted. They’re scheduled to resume Monday morning.
After Alarcon read the jury its instructions Thursday, Kardashian attorney Michael G. Rhodes pointed out that there was no potentially defamatory statement in them from Kim Kardashian. Ciani was angered by the assertion, but the frustrated judge rebuked her, saying she had agreed to the jury instructions before the trial began.
Kim Kardashian appears at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 27, 2022. A judge ruled on April 29, 2022, that Blac Chyna’s attorney didn’t provide any statement during the trial from Kardashian that was defamatory toward the former reality-television star.
Rob Kardashian testifies Blac Chyna ‘strangled me,’ ‘put a gun to my head twice’
Rob Kardashian testified April 27 that he feared for his life on a night in 2016 when his then-fiancée Chyna pointed a gun at his head, pulled a phone-charging cable around his neck and repeatedly hit him with a metal rod while under the influence of substances.
“She strangled me, she put a gun to my head twice, she was on cocaine and alcohol,” Kardashian said, his voice rising nearly to a shout in a Los Angeles courtroom as Chyna’s attorney Lynne Ciani sought to cast doubt on the attack and its severity.
Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian
During an emotional and contentious hour on the stand, Rob Kardashian grew angry when Ciani asked him why photos and video from the days that followed didn’t show any marks on him, despite his testimony that she had hit him repeatedly with a 6-foot metal rod.
“Did you have as much as a Band-Aid on you?” the attorney asked.
“I just told you it didn’t leave a mark on my face!” Rob Kardashian said. “And the gun to my head two different times during the night didn’t leave a mark to my temple!”
‘That’s not love to me’: Rob Kardashian testifies Blac Chyna ‘put a gun to my head twice’
Corey Gamble testifies he saw Blac Chyna punch Rob Kardashian
Gamble, a key witness for the Kardashians, testified April 27 that he saw Chyna punch Rob Kardashian and whip him with a phone-charging cord, as Chyna’s lawyer tried to poke holes in his story.
Gamble is the lone third-party eyewitness to describe any assault. He testified earlier that on the morning of Dec. 15, 2016, Jenner got an emergency call from her son, and when she put the phone on speaker, he could hear Chyna screaming obscenities at Rob Kardashian.
After rushing to the couple’s home, Gamble said he saw Chyna holding some sort of metal rod and then throw it down. She rushed toward Rob Kardashian, whipping the phone cord at him and then punching him.
“By the time she got to him, she started hitting him,” Gamble testified. ”I was able to get in the middle of them two. I even got hit two or three times. And I was able to get him away, get them separated. I told him to get his keys and his wallet and get the hell out of there.”
Kim Kardashian testifies she refused to film with Blac Chyna
Kim Kardashian testified April 26 that she had no memory of making any attempt to kill the reality show that starred her brother and Chyna. But she acknowledged demanding that Chyna be kept off of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” after hearing Chyna had abused her brother.
“I will not go into a toxic work environment,” Kardashian said of her refusal to work with Chyna. “On my own show, I have the power to do that.”
Kim Kardashian took the stand Tuesday in Los Angeles court, testifying she doesn’t remember trying to end Blac Chyna’s reality show with her brother Rob Kardashian.
Asked whether and how she had told the shows’ producers or anyone from the E! network about Chyna attacking her brother, she said she doesn’t remember, but she acknowledged that it likely came up in meetings about “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
“Typically it would be every family member saying what they felt and what they were going through, and saying if we had photo shoots or things we wanted to schedule for filming,” she said. “I would want to be honest in my concern for my brother. But I’m not very sure on where or when and how that would have occurred.”
Kylie Jenner warned brother Rob Kardashian about Blac Chyna
Kylie Jenner testified April 25 that she expressed concerns to her brother about his then-girlfriend, because she had heard Chyna had a tendency to abuse drugs and alcohol and become violent.
“I felt it was my duty to express my concerns, but ultimately it was up to him,” Jenner, now 24 and a teenager at the time, said. She said her brother didn’t heed her warnings and continued with the relationship.
Jenner also testified that she knew Chyna, who had befriended her sister Kim Kardashian and spent time around the family, but did not consider a friend before her brother began dating her in January 2016.
Kylie Jenner, left, and Blac Chyna
Blac Chyna says wrapping cord around Rob Kardashian’s neck was done ‘jokingly’
Chyna took the stand on April 20 and described a gleeful celebration she and Rob Kardashian had on Dec. 14, 2016, when they learned “Rob & Chyna” had been greenlit for a second season.
“It was exciting, we were throwing money and having fun, being silly,” Chyna said, adding that she playfully ripped Rob Kardashian’s shirt.
Later, he was playing video games when she wrapped a phone-charging cord around his neck, she said. “I came up behind him, doing that jokingly,” she testified. “I just went like this to get his attention.”
And at one point when he was on FaceTime with a friend, she picked up an unloaded gun that Rob Kardashian kept on his dresser, she said. She said none of the moments were intended to do harm and Rob Kardashian seemed to take them just as she meant them.
More: Blac Chyna testifies wrapping phone-charger cord around Rob Kardashian’s neck was done ‘jokingly’
Kris Jenner says the ‘scary’ incident was ‘not a joke’
Kris Jenner became emotional while recalling the volatile 2016 argument she heard about between her son and Chyna that traumatized him, testifying that she believed Chyna attempted to murder her son.
At the time, she said she was told that Chyna pointed a gun at Rob Kardashian’s head, tried to strangle him with a phone cord and hit him with a metal pole while intoxicated.
“It was complete chaos. It was scary,” said Jenner. She added that Chyna putting a gun to her son’s head was “not a joke.”
“He was a mess,” she recalled of talking to her son the day after the incident. “I could only imagine how he felt. … This was a horrible situation. I was heartbroken.”
Jenner began to shed tears while remembering the spat, which happened months after Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in Paris. She said knowing that both her children had a gun pointed at them within the same year was traumatizing for her.
“While Rob’s situation was going on, Kim had just been dealing with Paris,” she said. “He had a gun put at his head, and she was held at gunpoint and thrown into a bathtub. That’s a lot to take as a mother.”
In her questioning, Chyna’s lawyer asked why Jenner or anyone else did not call the police. Jenner said her security team – former Los Angeles Police Department officers – helped diffuse the intense ordeal.
Jenner claims she wanted to help Chyna. She said arguments between the couple were an “ongoing theme” in their relationship that included alcohol and drugs.
“We didn’t put Chyna on the show and give her this fabulous life to be taken away,” she said. “We created other opportunities. I was hopeful that it would be OK. That’s why I didn’t call (the police).”
Chyna’s lawyer tried to gain clarity about a text message sent from Jenner to “Rob & Chyna” showrunner that read Chyna “beat the (expletive) out of Rob’s face.” She said the phrase was used as a figure of speech.
Jenner compared her reference to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during the Oscars.
“It’s like you’re at an awards show and you get slapped,” she said while drawing some laughter from jurors and some others in the courtroom while her daughters’ facial expressions remained stoic.
Ciani asked about another text she sent to the showrunner that read “We need to ditch this (expletive)” after her son’s altercation with Chyna. Jenner said she was very angry and upset at the time, but she claims she never had any involvement in hampering Chyna’s time on the show.
“It’s not my proudest moment, but it was how I felt at the time,” she said.
Kris Jenner takes the stand: The Kardashians matriarch testifies on Blac Chyna, Rob Kardashian relationship
Blac Chyna claims Rob Kardashian’s jealousy led to the couple’s split
Rob Kardashian was prone to bouts of jealousy, Chyna claimed during her testimony. His doubts about being the father of their newborn daughter, Dream, led to a paternity test that was filmed for the show.
She said that on the morning of Dec. 15, 2016, he grabbed her phone, shut himself in a closet and searched for signs of communication with other men.
Chyna said she couldn’t handle the accusations and unfair scrutiny anymore.
“In the past there had been a cycle of him taking my phone and posting things from it, and I was really getting sick of it,” she said.
She then smashed the gingerbread house and TV, but when pressed by the defense, she denied going beyond damaging property or resorting to hitting Rob.
Blac Chyna’s lawyer’s opening statement: Kris Jenner falsely accused Chyna of abuse to end her show
Contributing: Naledi Ushe, USA TODAY, and Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blac Chyna, Kardashians trial: Revelations in ‘Rob & Chyna’ feud
You can view the original article HERE.
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