Kim Kardashian has done everything in her power to distance herself from the infamous sex tape that once loomed large over her career.

The reality star turned beauty mogul has managed to build an empire since her humble beginnings as Paris Hilton’s assistant and now stands at the helm of multiple businesses, including but not limited to shapewear brand Skims, fragrance brand KKW Fragrance, and beauty brand SKKN. She’s also an aspiring lawyer working towards a law degree, and in 2022, she launched the private equity firm Skky Partners with the intent to invest in multiple consumer and media ventures. A girl with no talent, you say?

Critics argue that her success is only a byproduct of the fame brought about by the viral sex tape involving her and her ex-boyfriend Ray J, but according to the mom of four, it’s actually quite the opposite. “I think people would assume that I got everything handed to me, being on a TV show. But being on a reality show, let alone a reality show girl with a sex tape, does not open doors,” she clarified in a “The Kardashians” episode. “And so, I always felt like I had to work extra hard and harder to be taken seriously and for people to forget about my past.”

Despite all her achievements, Kardashian continued to face scrutiny over the sex tape incident. Ray J even insinuated that she knew about the leak, while a sex tape broker claimed that she had profited $20 million from the video.

Kim Kardashian has always maintained that her infamous sex tape with Ray J spread without her consent, but according to Ray J, the leak was all planned and meticulously calculated. He told the Daily Mail that its public release was “a deal and a partnership between Kris Jenner and Kim and me and we’ve always been partners since the beginning of this thing.” He even showed proof on Instagram Live, showing his followers evidence that he and Kim each earned $400,000 from the tape and that Jenner selected which clip to show the masses. “We was in this s*** together,” he said (via the Los Angeles Times). “Kris, you know what you did.”

Meanwhile, Steven Hirsch, the chief of Vivid Entertainment — the firm behind the tape’s distribution — spilled to Page Six that Kardashian hadn’t initially yearned for the tape’s release but ultimately signed off on it. Otherwise, it would have never been released. “Ultimately [Kim] did sell us the footage so we had the ability to put it out and distribute it,” he said. While he refrained from specifying the exact amount Kardashian received, Kevin Blatt, a sex tape broker who tried to get his hands on the tape back in the day, told The U.S. Sun that Kardashian might have earned approximately $20 million from the deal. There’s no way to verify this figure, but it’s aligned with Hirsch’s revelation that it was the company’s most profitable release. “Revenue-wise it has generated more income than any other tape that we’ve done,” he said.

There was always speculation that a second Kim Kardashian and Ray J sex tape exists, but no one has really provided any proof. Wack 100, Ray J’s former manager, once claimed that he had it in his possession, while Ray J shared that their tapes have all been with his ex ever since. “She kept them all,” he told the Daily Mail. “I never had a tape in my possession in our whole relationship … She’s always had all the tapes in a Nike shoe box under her bed. I’m sure she has bigger beds now and better boxes.”

Kardashian, for her part, was adamant that there are no longer any tapes left, even addressing the matter in an episode of “The Kardashians.” It was shown in the series that her ex-husband, rapper Kanye West, retrieved the original tape from Ray J, with Kardashian later clarifying that there was “nothing sexual, nothing weird” in whatever’s in it.

Ultimately, all she wants is to stop being associated with the infamous tape and move past it once and for all. “Kim remains firm in her belief that there is no new second tape that exists,” her reps said in a statement to TMZ. “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.”