Kim Kardashian says her COVID diagnosis was unrelated to private island birthday party


Kim Kardashian would like to clarify that while she and her kids caught COVID-19 apparently after she threw a birthday party on a private island, the two events are unrelated.
The latest episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians revealed that Kardashian and her kids contracted COVID-19 last year, and BuzzFeed News subsequently reported that she seems to have tested positive "roughly 10 days after returning home" from a controversial trip to a private island for a birthday party in October. Kardashian drew criticism after posting pictures of herself celebrating her birthday on the island while the pandemic was still raging. At the time, she said the trip was taken "after two weeks of multiple health screens and asking everyone to quarantine."
Kardashian responded directly to BuzzFeed's article on Twitter, calling any suggestion that she got COVID-19 from the island party "false."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Nobody caught COVID from the trip," she said.
Instead, Kardashian said that her son Saint was "the first to have it in our family and he caught it from school from another student who tested positive first." She says she then "developed symptoms and got it a few days after he coughed on me while caring for him." While BuzzFeed didn't explicitly say that Kardashian definitely got COVID-19 from the trip, it speculated that the backlash over it may have at least been the reason her diagnosis wasn't publicly disclosed at the time.
Kardashian described during the episode that when she got COVID-19, she felt "so awful" that she could "hardly even get out of bed." It may not help avoid perceptions of a link between the diagnosis and the party, though, that the episode's highlight reel on YouTube cuts from footage of the island party right to a title card reading "KIM & THE KIDS GET COVID-19."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wife
speed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
-
Giant schnauzer wins top prize at Westminster show
Speed Read Monty won best in show at the 149th Westminster Kennel Club dog show