Kim Kardashian adorned herself with an extravagant diamond necklace and earrings as she got ready to testify at the trial of a group accused of holding her at gunpoint and robbing her in her Paris hotel room in 2016.
The influencer, 44, was joined by her mother Kris Jenner as she made her way into the courtroom on Tuesday afternoon.
Kardashian, clad in a black blazer, skirt, and sunglasses, waved to the crowd and media before taking a moment to chat briefly with her mother.
This occasion marks the first time Kardashian will face the alleged ‘grandpa gang’ of robbers in Paris, who are charged with stealing jewelry worth millions of dollars from her.
Jeweller Zack Stone predicted that the mother-of-four was wearing millions of dollars worth of gems for her court appearance, but noted the price would be less if they were lab-grown diamonds.
He told MailOnline: ‘If her earrings are real, they could be worth an impressive $50,000.
‘Though it was her necklace that has truly stolen the spotlight – dazzling on arrival, it appears to feature a series of graduated pear cut and marquise cut stones arranged in a symmetrical pattern. It likely carries a jaw-dropping price tag of around $3.5 million.’
Kardashian was also sporting a diamond anklet that had been given to her by daughter North.
Stone continued: ‘Kim’s anklet looks like it could be the sentimental piece she received from North for Mother’s Day, featuring the birthstones of her four children.
‘Set with round-cut diamonds, it’s delicately accented with a single pearl, a pear-cut garnet, a pear-cut zircon, and an emerald-cut emerald. I’d estimate its value at around $8,000.’
He concluded: It’s pretty much impossible to tell if Kim’s jewellery is real or not – lab-grown diamonds look just like natural ones these days.
‘The only way to really know is with special equipment that can spot tiny differences in how the stones were formed.’
Kardashian jetted into the French capital on Monday, sharing a picture of her view from the plane that she captioned simply with a French flag.
While it is not known what the SKIMS founder got up to the night before her day in court, her mother Jenner took to Instagram to reveal she had spent the evening at dinner with partner Corey Gamble and Michael Coste.
The suspects in the trial are accused of tying up billionaire Kardashian with zip ties and duct tape before making off with jewels, including a $4 million engagement ring given to her by her then-husband rapper Kanye West (now known as Ye), according to investigators.
Kardashian told David Letterman about the heist in a 2020 interview, fighting back tears as she recalled her fears of being raped that night.
‘They kept on saying “the ring, the ring”,’ Kardashian said.
‘I kept looking at the concierge,’ she continued, referring to the concierge of the exclusive hotel who had been forced at gunpoint to lead the gang to her apartment.
‘I was like, “Are we gonna die? Just tell them I have children, I have babies… I have to get home”.’
Yunice Abbas, 71, who is among the 10 suspects standing trial, many in their late 60s or 70s and dubbed ‘the grandpa gang,’ has told French media that he and others who took part in the robbery did not know who Kardashian was.
‘It’s not her, it’s her diamond we targeted,’ Abbas told C8 TV a few years ago. Abbas has admitted his participation in the robbery – writing a book about his role.
In interviews with French media, he said he was sorry for what he did and wanted to apologise to Kardashian.
There is no possibility of a guilty plea in such cases and Abbas is standing trial despite admitting to playing a role in the robbery.
Frank Berton, a lawyer representing 68-year-old Aomar Ait Khedache, nicknamed ‘Omar the Old,’ said last month he hoped the fact that Kardashian is a global star won’t affect the trial.
Khedache is accused of being the gang’s ringleader, which he denies.
‘This trial attracts international attention because of who the plaintiff, the victim, is,’ Berton said.
‘What we hope is that it won’t change anything in the way the facts are judged,’ he said. (Writing by Ingrid Melander, reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Michael Perry)
