Kendall Jenner Denies Punching a Paparazzo in Paris

"I didn't touch him!" the supermodel and E! reality star writes on her app

By Zach Johnson Mar 21, 2016 3:46 PMTags
Kendall Jenner, Gigi HadidAKM-GSI

Kendall Jenner doesn't pull any punches—nor does she throw them.

Earlier this month, the 20-year-old supermodel was accused of getting into a scuffle outside L'Arc nightclub in Paris. After a paparazzo apparently got too close to both her and Gigi Hadid, multiple reports claimed Kendall tried to punch him. Her bodyguard intervened by holding the girls back and then restraining the photographer. Neither Kendall nor Gigi publicly commented on the alleged incident—until now. Taking to her app Monday, Kendall vowed to "tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth" about what she says really occurred on the night of March 3.

"Even though you know about my anger towards the paparazzi—I didn't touch him!" the star of E!'s Keeping Up With the Kardashians told her fans. "Gigi, security and I were walking out together in a conga-line formation. I was covering my face because I was super sweaty after dancing in the club all night (the last thing on earth I wanted was to have my photo taken at that moment!). All of a sudden, this paparazzi took his camera and started taking pictures right below my face. It was in my personal space, like centimeters from my body. I was so annoyed. All I ask for is just a bubble of space to breathe, and he disrespected that."

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"So, I grabbed his camera and pushed it away across my body, sort of trying to push and pull it out of his hand at the same time. Of course, that side motion with my arm is why all of the pictures look like punches were flying. They totally weren't! I just wanted him and his camera out of my face!" she explained. "Later, I asked that he delete the photos, but he wouldn't. My security, Mason, had to intervene and totally scared him. Mason made him agree to delete them and even forced him to apologize! I wanted to be 100% that the photos were gone for good because the paps can be sneaky. (Sometimes, they will press delete, and when the camera reconfirms if they actually want to delete it, they quickly press 'no' thinking celebrities won't realize it.) He definitely deleted them, which I'm thankful for. Violence is never my thing. I get that they have a job to do, too—but I'd love it if they gave me a break every now and then."

March 3 began on a more positive note, as Kendall opened and closed Balmain's Fall/Winter 2016 fashion show. Her mother, Kris Jenner, and her brother-in-law, Kanye West, supported her from the front row. Kendall and Gig also attended the after-party at Restaurant Lapérouse.

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Kendall has made her feelings about the paparazzi well known. In a previously published post on her app, she wrote, "There are definitely moments when the paparazzi scare me. I'm always more worried about other people's safety, especially when they're driving. For example, if the paps run a red light—all twelve of them—and almost kill someone else, I'll definitely tell them off. I stop, tell them to pull up next to me and I say, 'You a--holes! Not only are you going to kill yourself, but you're going to kill innocent people around you.' I just go off on them. And their responses are, 'Well, then don't run away from us.' I'm not running from anyone—I'm just living my life!"

Kendall likes having her picture taken—she is a model after all—but only when she's given consent. It's "kind of impossible" to evade the paparazzi, she said, and being followed can feel "overly" invasive. "When I literally have ten paps waiting outside my house every single day—that's legit stalking. The fact that I don't have any say in it is frustrating. I understand that I'm a public figure, but it becomes very dehumanizing to have zero privacy," she blogged. "No matter what my title is or what I do, I'm still just a normal person who deserves normal privacy."

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