The royal family of reality television have put their small-screen adventures on hold for a live drama being played out in Los Angeles Superior Courthouse, where model Blac Chyna is suing the Kardashians for $100 million.
What Happened: According to a Variety report, Chyna was engaged to Rob Kardashian and the pair have a five-year-old daughter. Chyna and Kardashian starred in the 2016 E! reality television program “Rob & Chyna” as a spinoff to the cable network’s long-running “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” but the couple split when the show was in production for a second season – the footage that was shot never aired.
In 2017, Chyna filed her lawsuit that claimed her ex-fiancé was abusive, and his famous family was responsible for both canceling their series and wrecking her career – since “Rob & Chyna” was aborted, she has only done a few one-shot guest appearances on television shows and had her own “The Real Blac Chyna” 13-episode series on the under-the-radar Zeus Network streaming service in 2019.
What Happens Next: Variety reported that Chyna’s lawsuit encompasses most of the Kardashian family: Rob Kardashian, his mother Kris Jenner and sisters Kim, Khloé and Kourtney Kardashian plus Kendall and Kylie Jenner. The lawsuit accuses them of defamation, assault, battery, domestic violence and interference with potential economic opportunities.
The Kardashian family filed its own lawsuit against Chyna, accusing her of violence against her ex-fiancé – that litigation has yet to come to trial.
Kris Jenner and the three Kardashian sisters were in the courtroom on Monday and Tuesday during the jury selection process and opening statements; Rob Kardashian was not present. The trial is expected to run for 10 days, and all of the celebrities involved in the case are expected to testify. Ryan Seacrest, who was an executive producer on “Rob & Chyna,” is also on the witness list to testify.
The trial has already had its share of reality television-worthy melodrama when Tokyo Toni, Chyna’s mother and co-star on her Zeus Network show, was barred from the trial after she posted a profanity-laced tirade against the Kardashians on Instagram.
E!, which no longer airs any of the Kardashian programs, is a unit of Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA). The family’s current show, “The Kardashians,” is streaming on Hulu, which is majority-owned by the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) with Comcast controlling a minority stake.
Photo: Blac Chyna in her 2019 series "The Real Blac Chyna," courtesy of Zeus Network
