Kardashians conspired to end Blac Chyna's reality television show, court hears

A lawyer for Blac Chyna has told a jury that the Kardashian family worked together to smear her reputation and ruin her television career, a court has heard.

Kris Jenner and her daughters Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner were in court on Monday and Tuesday, and all are expected to take the stand.

All four women are defendants in a lawsuit brought by Blac Chyna, the ex-fiancee of the lone Kardashian brother, Rob.

Chyna, a model and former reality star whose legal name is Angela White, is suing the family for $100m (£77m) over lost earnings from the end of the 2016 spinoff after one season, as well as the loss of celebrity earning power that resulted from it.

During opening statements in a Los Angeles trial on Tuesday, a lawyer claimed Kris Jenner falsely accused Ms Chyna of physically abusing Jenner’s son Rob Kardashian in a bid to cancel the couple’s reality show, Rob & Chyna.

“Kris Jenner set out to have Rob & Chyna cancelled,” Chyna’s lawyer Lynne Ciani told the jury, as Jenner and the other Kardashian women sat in the front row of the gallery.

“And she brought in her three daughters to help accomplish that.”

Michael G Rhodes, the defendants’ lawyer, began his opening statement by introducing his clients and having them stand, saying that Jenner “manages the vast empire that this family has built from scratch”.

He also referred to Kim Kardashian as “one of the world’s most famous people” and argued that Ms Chyna badly wanted what they have.

“The evidence is going to show you that Miss White would say or do anything to be part of this family,” Mr Rhodes said.

He said the E! Network cancelled the couple’s show simply because they broke up – not because of any machinations by the Kardashians.

“There is no Rob & Chyna show if there is no Rob and Chyna,” he added.

Ms Chyna’s lawyer Ms Ciani detailed the couple’s whirlwind relationship and wild year of 2016 to the courtroom.

The former couple met in January, announced their engagement in April, announced they were having a baby in May, and in November began their reality show and had a daughter, Dream.

“They really clicked, and it was one of those relationships that once they clicked, it really moved fast,” she said.

One detail both sides agree on is that on 4 December 2016, on the day Chyna and Rob Kardashian celebrated the renewal of their show for a second season, the pair got into an argument that permanently damaged their relationship.

However, the differing accounts of that day will take up much of the trial that’s expected to last seven to 10 days – with all four defendants expected to take the stand.

Ms Ciani said that Ms Jenner messaged the head of the show saying that Chyna beat her son with a pole and wrapped a phone-charging cord around his neck so tightly it left marks.

She said unaired footage from the show would confirm he had not been significantly injured.

Ms Ciani also claimed Jenner used her daughters to spread the word of the alleged abuse to key people with power over the show’s future.

Contrarily, Mr Rhodes told the jury that there was evidence of abuse, but said that more importantly the couple’s relationship effectively ended that day, along with any real future for the show, but he highlighted that it was months before any decision was made to axe it.

Chyna took the stand in the last minutes of the day and began by describing her early life and big initial break when the rapper Drake saw her working as a stripper in a Miami club and named her in a song.

She will return to the witness chair today.

After a selection process that saw many prospective jurors air their disdain for the Kardashians and the world of reality television on Tuesday, the two sides settled on a panel of eight men and eight women for the trial.

Chyna is also suing Rob, but the differences in her allegations against him prompted the judge to sever that part of the case into a separate trial that will follow this one.