Kim Kardashian posted a message on her website in an attempt to deflect a chorus of criticism over her appearing to compare her recent troubles to those of a cancer patient.
Kardashian seems to be a lightning rod for attack whenever she opens her mouth. In this case, critics accuse of her of being insensitive to cancer patients by appearing to suggest that her high profile wedding and divorce to basketball player Kris Humphries was as difficult as fighting cancer.
Asked if she felt pressure to get married on camera for “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” Kim told the UK magazine, The Guardian “Not really. We [were] done filming our season at that point, so we decided to film for the wedding. And that was a decision that he and I made together. But I think that, with any decisions in life, like, I spoke to a girl today who had cancer and we were talking about how this is such a hard thing for her, but it taught her a big lesson on who her friends are and so much about life. She’s 18. And I was like, that’s how I feel.”
The nasty headlines ensued, with media outlets asking “Did Kim Kardashian compare her televised wedding to cancer?” There was even an effort to start a boycott of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”
On Friday, Kardashian tried to quell the furor, publishing a statement on her blog saying that something she said was “taken way out of context, as is often the case with quotes pulled from interviews … I told of how I had called a female fan who was battling cancer, and she told me how she had watched the show and seen how I had faced my own struggles, and had been inspired by how I had found the courage to change a situation that was making me unhappy,” the reality star wrote. “She told me how her life had completely changed when she was diagnosed, and a lot of friends had deserted her, which is something I said I could relate to. In no way was I comparing my own experiences to that of a cancer patient. I was merely talking about how there are times in your life, and everyone goes through them, when you find out who loves you enough to stand by you through thick and thin.”
She continued: “Many of you know that my father [O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney Robert Kardashian] passed away from cancer, and my grandma is a cancer survivor. This is a disease that has brought so much pain and heartache to our family and I would never want to offend or upset anyone who was battling cancer, or whose family members were battling or had passed away from cancer. What I said in the interview was misconstrued and I wanted to explain to you all what the context was around my phone call with this girl. Xo.”
In the interview, Kardashian made some other statements that have raised eyebrows, such as comparing her show to Lucille Ball’s.
“When I hear people say [what are you famous for?], I want to say, what are you talking about? I have a hit TV show. We’ve shot more episodes than I Love Lucy! We’ve been on the air longer than The Andy Griffith Show! I mean, these are iconic shows, so it blows my mind when people say that,” she said.
Kardashian also is bothered by the question of, What are her talents?
“What is my talent? Well, a bear can juggle and stand on a ball and he’s talented, but he’s not famous. Do you know what I mean?”
Not really.
