Update: The Kardashians are upping their defense in the on-going legal drama with Blac Chyna. According to People, the family is now trying to get a judge to entirely dismiss Chyna's lawsuit in which she claimed that Kim Kardashian West, Kris Jenner, and ex Rob Kardashian had used their power to ultimately cause E! to cancel her reality show Rob & Chyna.
In court documents obtained by People, the Kardashians' lawyers stated that the reason the show was not renewed was because Chyna had been granted a restraining order against her ex-fiancé that specifically forbade him from seeing or contacting her at all. Because of this, they argued that "no trier of fact could possibly find that it was reasonably probable that a second season of Rob & Chyna would have been picked up and filmed."
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People reports that both Kardashian West and Jenner are also scheduled to appear at a Los Angeles court in January in an effort to have the suit dropped.
This story was originally published on Oct. 19, 2017.
The legal battles between and surrounding Blac Chyna and the Kardashian family are a minefield, but the reality star's most recent claim, filed against the entire family, is particularly hard to dissect. On the heels of a lawsuit filed by Rob Kardashian against her (after Chyna was granted a temporary restraining order against him), the single mother is accusing the Kardashian family of defamation and interference with contractual relations, saying they purposefully ruined her reality show Rob & Chyna so she would no longer be a competing "entrepreneur and social media influencer."
Specifically, lawyer Lisa Bloom, who's been representing Chyna since Rob Kardashian posted revenge porn on his social media, says that slut-shaming and predatory behavior are to blame for the show's cancellation.
"The Kardashians are a hugely successful reality star family...and God bless them for it, more power to them," Bloom told Refinery29. "They’ve created this niche and they’re brilliant entrepreneurs, but they have extraordinary power at [E!], because they have this very successful show and several spinoffs, and the allegations are they used that power to crush Chyna."
Bloom cites instances on their show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, in which the family "spoke very openly about wanting to kill the show and that it should be killed because Chyna had left [Rob]."
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And, despite the fact that she says the network was already promoting season 2 with a focus on co-parenting and the conflict between Chyna and Rob, Chyna's rep was later told "the show was killed because the Kardashians didn't want it."
In general, Bloom and Chyna claim that the Kardashians worked to discredit her by mentioning her past as a stripper, and when Bloom wrote this case, she wanted the slut-shaming to be "front and center" to highlight this injustice.
"It's offensive and damaging," she said, and it's unfair towards Chyna, who wasn't born into wealth or with any clout of her own. She had to work her way up to land this reality show which, were it given a chance to continue, could act as a springboard for business opportunities.
"The Kardashians know better than anyone how economically valuable it is to have a reality show," Bloom concludes. "I think they should have left [Chyna] alone."
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