Kim Kardashian and Ray J’s relationship explained

THE INFAMOUS sex tape that Kim Kardashian and Ray J made broke the internet - and the controversial saga continued into 2022.

In April rumours circulated that racy recordings from the reality show star's two-year romance with the singer could allegedly be released - though Kim threatened to go after anyone who tried to release it.

How did Kim Kardashian meet Ray J?

Kim Kardashian was still married to her first husband, Damon Thomas, when she hooked up with Ray J in 2002.

She had yet to blow up at the time and was working as a stylist for Ray’s better-known sister and singer, Brandy, a multi-platinum-selling performer.

Ray, whose real name is William Ray Norwood Jr, is also the first cousin of rapper Snoop Dogg and began his acting career on The Sinbad Show sitcom in 1993.

Kim married the pop producer, Thomas, in 2000 at the early age of 19, and their divorce didn’t become finalized for another four years.

However, she claimed the marriage had fallen apart after a couple of years because of Damon’s controlling tendencies.

What did Ray J say about his chemistry with Kim?

While she may wish to keep more intimate details of their relationship private, Ray has been very open about their experimental bedroom antics nearly two decades ago.

Ray and Kim had sexual chemistry that they both reportedly found irresistible.

He told The Sun in a 2018 interview: “Kim and I had fun times - marathon sessions. But she didn’t like getting sweaty and would stop to do her make-up if she did.

“She liked to look dope during sex, the right lighting, setting the mood. She was wild - there was a red Louis Vuitton trunk of sex toys.”

The couple turned the camera on their sex sessions during a luxury holiday in Cabo, Mexico, in October 2002.

Kim admitted to taking the party drug ecstasy prior to starting the X-rated home video.

She regretted it because ";everything bad would happen" when she took the banned substance.

On her family's show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kim also said she made the explicit video with Ray "because [she] was horny and felt like it."

The tape included her performing fellatio on the singer - but denied internet gossip about other featured sexual acts.

She said at the time: "People were saying derogatory things (like) someone was getting urinated on. 

“That hasn't happened in my entire lifetime. I'm not knocking anyone else, but I've never personally participated in that. I think it's degrading." 

Ray has not denied being unfaithful to his partners, but he claimed that he was in love with Kim during the 2017 episode of Celebrity Big Brother.

Ray said: "We loved each other. Every relationship I was in, I loved the girl. It's just the moral standards and values were off. I was loving and lying."

The couple split up in 2006 on good terms and described each other as “good friends."

When was the sex tape released?

When an adult entertainment company called Vivid got hold of Kim and Ray's sex tape from a third party the following year, in 2007, Kim initially denied that it existed.

She threatened to sue Vivid, but the two parties came to a financial agreement.

It also catapulted the then-unknown socialite into an in-demand celebrity.

Then known primarily as the daughter of OJ Simpson’s former lawyer Robert Kardashian, she went on to appear in Playboy magazine.

The sex tape going viral also helped the fly-on-the-wall show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians take off, as it aired shortly after its release.

Ray cashed in, securing a deal to advertise condoms.

But it seemed to put paid to his relationship with the late singer Whitney Houston, who is said to have dumped Ray over the appearance of the tape.

Afterward, he started seeing rapper Lil’ Kim. His other relationships have included Welsh model Imogen Thomas and Princess Love, a model and fashion designer who he married in 2016.

The couple shares two children, but they have filed for divorce three times.

Kim was very public in her condemnation of the release of the private tape.

Ray J, though, retorted: "I don't know how it got leaked. But it was great for her career. Will someone explain that to her?" 

What did Ray J say about Kim in his songs?

After Kim started dating rapper Kanye West in 2012, Ray J wrote a couple of cruel songs appearing to take aim at his ex-lover.

In 2013 he released, I Hit It First, which included the lyrics: “She might move on to rappers and ballplayers, but we all know I hit it first. 

“I had her head going North and her a** going South, but now baby chose to go West.”

Three years later he released the track Famous, which included the lines “She f****d me for fame, look in her eyes, She was the first one to sign on the line, She was the real one to plan it all out, Look at the family, they walk around proud, All because she had my d*** in her mouth.”

But when Ray appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2017, he claimed that he was still on good terms with Kim.

He said: "It's all good. I've seen her mom and her sisters at the basketball game and said hi."

What happened to the second explicit video?

In April 2022, the KKW Beauty founder tried to gain access to a second explicit video she claimed Ray J was in possession of.

During an episode of The Kardashians, she explained how her ex-husband, Kanye, had acquired the tape from Ray J.

“So Kanye flew home last night, and he came back this morning. I want to show you guys what he got me. He got me all of the sex tapes back,” Kim explained.

“He flew home, and he got the computer it was on and the hard drive. He met with Ray J at the airport, and he got it all back for me.”

In May, however, Ray J told the  he was never in possession of the sex tape and had been struggling with his mental health because of the ordeal.

"I've sat in the shadows allowing the Kardashians to use my name, abuse my name, make billions of dollars talking about a topic I've never really spoken about," he told the outlet.