There was a time when Kim Kardashian was best known as the star of an illicit sex tape featuring Ray J.
Yes, 2002 was such a different world that Ray J was the bigger star at the time.
These days, of course, Kim is a billionaire entrepreneur and one of the most famous women on the planet.
She may have reached the point where she can laugh about her sex tape, but she's also at a point in her career where continued conversation about the video is more than a little insulting.
Kim is already dealing with one abusive ex in Kanye West, and now, there are reports that Ray J is seeking to cash in by releasing previously unseen footage from their time together.
“Kim knows that Ray J made other tapes of them together. Some of the footage will be incredibly intimate," a source close to the situation tells UK tabloid The Sun.
“She has told lawyers, ‘over my dead body is this happening again.’”
The outlet reports that Kim has assembled a crack team of attorneys to help block Ray J -- whose real name is Willie Norwood -- from "leaking raunchy recordings."
This is not the first time that we've heard reports of Norwood threatening the release of previously unseen footage from his time with Kim.
Rumors of a second Kim and Ray J sex tape began to circulate in 2020.
In an interview from January of this year, Kanye confirmed that Norwood was considering auctioning off previously-unseen videos of Kim.
West says he intervened and purchased the footage himself to prevent it from being released publicly.
"I went and got the laptop from Ray J myself," West told Jason Lee.
"I met this man at the airport, then got on a red-eye, came back [and] delivered it to her at 8 a.m. in the morning...She cried when she saw it," the rapper continued.
"You know why she cried when she seen it on the laptop? Because it represents how much she's been used. It represents how much people didn't love her, and they just saw her as a commodity."
Despite Kanye's tale of heroics, however, reps for Kim insist that there was no sexually explicit video on the laptop.
"After review, there was nothing sexual unseen, only footage on the plane on the way to Mexico and footage at a club and restaurant on the same trip," said the rep, referring to the trip to Cabo San Lucas, during which the original footage was shot in 2002.
"Kim remains firm in her belief that there is no new second tape that exists," the statement from Kim's rep continued.
"After 20 years, she truly wishes to move on from this chapter with focus instead on the positive things she continues to do as a mother, entrepreneur and advocate for justice reform."
These days, of course, Kim and Kanye are estranged, and it seems unlikely that he'll intervene on her behalf again.
Kim is dating Pete Davidson, the SNL star would likely be willing to perform such a chivalrous act on her behalf.
But it seems that aspiring attorney Kim wants to handle this one on her own.
And with all the wealth and clout that she's accumulated in the 20 years since the first tape was released, we're sure she's more than capable of snuffing out a threat from a relative nobody like Ray J.