The nearly two-decade-old mystery surrounding Kim Kardashian’s infamous sex tape is headed for a courtroom showdown. Ray J is preparing to call the one man who might finally settle the debate: Steve Hirsch, the founder of Vivid Entertainment, the company that distributed the tape back in 2007. The singer’s legal team plans to put Hirsch on the witness stand to testify about who really signed off on releasing “Kim Kardashian, Superstar” to the world.
At the heart of the legal battle over the 2007 sex tape lies a simple question with a complicated answer: Did Kim and her mother orchestrate the release, or was it a violation of their privacy? Kim and Kris have maintained for years that the tape was leaked against Kim’s will. But Ray J’s countersuit tells a different story.
According to court documents filed by Ray J, he and Kim consensually filmed themselves in Cabo back in 2003. Then in 2006, the former couple discussed publicly releasing the footage. Ray J claims Kim “insisted” that Kris “be in charge of the tape’s release and commercial exploitation”. The lawsuit alleges Kris actually watched the tape before the trio “collectively” decided to leak it.
Hirsch ran Vivid Entertainment when the company acquired and distributed the tape. His testimony could confirm or contradict Ray J’s version of events. Ray J’s attorney Howard King made clear: if Kim or Kris continue denying their involvement under oath, King’s team is prepared to call Hirsch himself.
There’s one catch. In old interviews, Hirsch has previously stated that Kris had no role in selling the tape. He no longer owns Vivid, but his firsthand knowledge of the deal makes him a potentially devastating witness for whichever side his testimony supports.
This week, both Kim and Kris filed sworn declarations with the court flatly denying Ray J’s accusations. Kim called his claims “a lie” and said the suggestion that she “had a plan with my mother and others to release a sex tape, defraud the public and file a ‘fake’ lawsuit against the porn company that released it to ‘create buzz’ is a lie”.
Kris went further, describing the accusations as “deeply offensive and harmful” and something that has “haunted me for decades”. She said, “In no world would I ever be involved in any way, shape or form of peddling tapes of my daughter like this”.
Ray J’s legal team responded aggressively. Attorney Howard King warned that Kim’s sworn statements “are demonstrably false and could subject her to criminal perjury prosecution”. He specifically noted that if Kim hopes to one day become a lawyer, “making sworn statements that aren’t true could seriously backfire”.
Ray J himself addressed the situation publicly, saying the mother-daughter duo “completely lied about everything”. “The fact of the matter is, if you lie like that under oath, don’t you go to jail? Don’t you get fined?” he asked.
This battle over the tape is actually a countermove in a larger legal war. In October 2025, Kim and Kris sued Ray J for defamation after he claimed they were under federal investigation for racketeering . “If you told me the Kardashians were being charged for racketeering, I might believe it,” Ray J said in a TMZ special. He later warned in a livestream that “the feds are coming” for Kris and Kim.
Ray J countersued in November 2025, alleging Kim and Kris violated a settlement agreement stemming from a previous $6 million payout. That agreement supposedly barred anyone from publicly discussing the tape on the family’s Hulu show.
Both sides have asked a judge to throw out the other’s claims. But if the case proceeds to trial, Steve Hirsch could become the star witness who finally reveals what really happened in those negotiations nearly two decades ago. Ray J insists he’s fighting to clear his name, so his children won’t “grow up thinking their dad did something like revenge porn or hurt someone on purpose”.
Kim’s lawyer Alex Sprio dismissed Ray J’s countersuit as a “disjointed rambling distraction” and predicted, “Ray J will lose this frivolous case, too”. For now, the world waits to hear what the porn boss has to say.
