Kim Kardashian is letting fans in on her side of the story while navigating the recent Balenciaga backlash.
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During her recent appearance on the Angie Martinez IRL podcast, the reality star opened up about her response to all of the backlash against Balenciaga’s controversial holiday campaign, which featured kids holding teddy bears dressed in bondage. While Kim Kardashian wasn’t involved in the campaign, she did become the face of Balenciaga in February, which is why everyone wanted to know her response to all the public scrutiny.
“With the Balenciaga thing… everyone was like, ‘Why aren’t you speaking out? Why aren’t you speaking out?’ And I’m like, ‘Wait. I’m not in this campaign,’” Kardashian told Martinez. “‘I don’t know what’s happening. Let me take a minute to like research this.’”
She continued, “And then as soon as I saw what everyone was seeing on the internet and the reality of the situation, I completely spoke out and gave my thoughts.”
The 42-year-old did post a long statement denouncing the campaign on social media and said that she would reevaluate her relationship with the brand, but it did come more than a week after the campaign was released. While talking to Martinez, she noted that her response still wasn’t enough for some people, and she continued to face hate online.
“But because I didn’t say, ‘F*** you, Balenciaga. That’s it,’ people got mad at that,” the SKIMS founder explained. “So they’re mad if I don’t speak out. They’re mad if I do speak out, and if I don’t cancel.”
Kim also said it was tough having to deal with that situation knowing that “no matter what you can’t win.”
“You don’t want to be a part of the narrative, but you’re brought in,” Kardashian explained. “But then I have to take responsibility and say, ‘Okay, people look at me as the face of this, so let me speak out.’ I just always want to do the right thing.”
Check out Kim Kardashian’s full conversation with Angie Martinez down below:
