Kim Kardashian has recently reflected on a contentious photoshoot with a then 16-year-old Justin Bieber, acknowledging that such a project would likely lead to her being canceled if it were done in 2025.
The photoshoot in question, which took place in 2010 for Elle Magazine, featured Bieber and a 29-year-old Kardashian playfully interacting and running along a beach, generating significant controversy at the time.
Drawing inspiration from the 1967 film The Graduate, the photoshoot depicted Kardashian and Bieber holding hands and sharing gazes in the Bahamas.
Fifteen years later, the founder of SKIMS acknowledged that the shoot was a mistake and believes it deserved more backlash than it received.
During an appearance on the Call Her Daddy Podcast, Kardashian remarked: “I think I’m gonna get canceled if I say it. Like, I don’t know who approved this, and I don’t know who thought that this was normal, this narrative. But I did a photo shoot with Justin Bieber, and he was 16 years old. And I don’t know how old I was.”
She further explained: “Nothing ever weird was obviously happening, and like, I just think that was like an odd concept and why none of us thought that that was odd at the time. But now we look back and I’m like, that would have not been the most appropriate thing.”
At the time, Bieber was in a relationship with Selena Gomez, with Kardashian noting that Gomez was present on the set during the shoot.
Kardashian added: “His girlfriend was there, his parents were. I mean, it was like nothing creepy at all. But I look back and I’m like, that’s the one thing that I feel like, you know, he’s like a good dear friend of ours and the whole family, but like, who thought that that was a good idea?”
The shoot, which was inspired by the narrative involving a college graduate and an older woman in The Graduate, was controversial from the outset.
“It was a story of what’s that story with the teacher and the student, the graduate. The graduate,” Kardashian shared on the podcast. “I just feel like nothing ever weird was obviously happening and it was just an odd concept and why none of us thought that that was odd at the time.
“But now we look back and I’m like ‘that would have not been the most appropriate thing.'”
Over the years, both Bieber and Kardashian have gained the unusual distinction of being banned from purchasing a Ferrari.