The China Mail - Kim Kardashian: From sex tape to Oval Office via TV and Instagram

For almost two decades, she has been a constant presence in popular culture, an uber-celebrity whose every move commands attention, yet who never seems to be anything other than in complete control.

While lesser stars have been consumed by fame, Kardashian remains at the height of her powers, defying criticism that she is really only famous for being famous.

Kardashian, 44, is expected to testify at a French trial beginning April 28 over a 2016 robbery that cost her millions of dollars worth of jewelry -- and in which she was held at gunpoint.

Six people are charged over the heist, which netted items including a diamond ring gifted by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West.

- Fame -

Born in Los Angeles on October 21, 1980, Kardashian spent her childhood on the periphery of fame.

By 1991, after her parents were divorced, her mother Kris married the 1976 Olympic decathlon winner then known as Bruce Jenner, who has since transitioned to life as Caitlyn.

A few years later, her father Robert was one of the high-flying lawyers who defended American football legend OJ Simpson in his 1995 murder trial.

As a teenage friend of Los Angeles socialites Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton, Kardashian garnered the first inklings of her own fame, being photographed with them at popular nightspots and appearing in their reality show "The Simple Life."

But it was in 2007 that she was catapulted into popular consciousness when an explicit four-year-old home movie she had made with her then-boyfriend Ray J was posted online.

Cynics noted the tape appeared as Kardashian and her family were readying to promote "Keeping up with the Kardashians," a fly-on-the-wall reality TV look at the family's life of wealth, luxury, unbelievable cattiness -- and startling mundanity.

Planted or not, the footage burned Kardashian onto the public's collective retina.

"Keeping up with the Kardashians," which followed the personal and professional trials of sisters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe and their half-sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner, was one of television's longest-running reality shows.

For some, it was must-see entertainment offering an insight into celebrity through the prism of a unique family.

For others, as The Washington Times once wrote, it was vapid chaff that "illustrates our nation's moral, spiritual and cultural decay."

Either way, the show was very, very good for business.

A series of enterprises including KKW Beauty and KKW Fragrance established Kardashian as a serious player in the fashion and lifestyle sector, propelled by the rise of social media, where she regularly posted thirst traps to build her brand.

But it was the apparel label Skims that really brought in the big bucks.

The firm unapologetically celebrates the female form, boasting "technically constructed shapewear that enhances your curves."

A 2023 investment round valued the company at $4 billion, and Forbes estimates Kardashian's personal net worth is now $1.7 billion.

- Marriage to Kanye... and divorce -

Her forays into the fashion and beauty worlds were supercharged by her relationship with West, her third husband.

Their marriage in 2014 -- the year of that "Break the Internet" photoshoot for Paper magazine involving her shapely bare buttocks and lots of champagne -- was a "historic blizzard of celebrity," according to The New York Times.

They flew to France for a pre-wedding rehearsal at the Palace of Versailles, where they arrived in a gold-plated carriage before flying on to Italy to tie the knot.

Four children later, the couple's relationship ran into difficulties, as West's behavior became increasingly erratic.

His bizarre, but truncated 2020 bid for the US presidency degenerated into rambling self-confession.

Kardashian appealed for empathy for her husband, who at one time spoke of living with bipolar disorder, but by 2021 was filing for divorce.

Kardashian says she has tried to protect the couple's children from the inevitable hurt of their parents' split.

"You want to be sensitive because they're just kids, and it's hard to go through no matter what age," she told GQ in 2023.

"Ultimately what matters is that kids feel loved and heard."

They are certainly seen: Kardashian's 357 million Instagram followers are given regular updates on the children.

Since her split with West, Kardashian had a high-profile romance with comedian Pete Davidson, and was linked to NFL player Odell Beckham Jr.

Amid the parenting, the television shows, the endless red carpets and the multi-billion-dollar business, Kardashian has also found time to launch a legal career.

After embarking on an apprenticeship with a prison reform group, she successfully petitioned US President Donald Trump to pardon a grandmother serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense -- and then visited him at the White House.

In 2021 and on her fourth attempt, she passed California's "baby bar" exam, a seven-hour slog for first-year law students with a pass rate of only around 20 percent.

Her late father, she mused, "would be so proud."

"He would actually be so shocked to know that this is my path now."

G.Tsang--ThChM