Kim Kardashian Admits She 'Scammed' Paparazzi by Pretending to Visit Britney Spears: Fame 'Is All I Wanted'

Kim Kardashian just spilled a pretty funny secret from her pre-fame days.

During an episode of “Khloé in Wonder Land,” the reality star confessed to sister Khloé Kardashian that she once used her connection to Britney Spears to grab the spotlight while trying to make a name for herself in the early 2000s. At the time, Kim was having dinner in New York City with longtime friend Jonathan Cheban, 51, when they found out Britney was staying at a nearby hotel.

Kim explained that one person at the dinner was driving a Phantom Rolls-Royce, while she and Jonathan “could hardly even get a cab.”

“[Fame] is all I wanted,” she admitted. “I lived for it.”

“So we’re like, ‘Oh, can we get a ride to our hotel?’” she continued, noting that the man agreed to drive them.

That’s when Jonathan had an idea, suggesting they sit in the backseat so it looked like they were being chauffeured around by a driver.

Kim recalled that the hotel was packed with “paparazzi everywhere waiting for Britney.”

“They come out, and they’re like, ‘Kim, Kim, are you here to visit Britney?’ And Jonathan’s like, ‘Keep your head down and just shut up,’” she said.

“So we go inside, we go into a phone booth because we’re like, ‘We don’t know anyone at this hotel. We don’t even know if there is a hotel bar for us to walk in,’” Kim added.

To keep the story believable, the socialite stayed inside the phone booth for about 20 minutes before deciding it was time to leave. As she exited, the paparazzi were waiting and immediately fired off questions, including, “Kim, how was Britney?”

“We … took a cab, I think from that point, because this Rolls Royce person dropped us off, but [the paps] weren’t going to take pictures of us getting in, so we totally scammed the system,” Kim joked. “And it was on every cover, and we thought we were killing it.”

The confession comes shortly after Kim and Khloé reunited with Britney for a fun slumber party in November 2025, as OK! previously reported.

The sisters — along with the pop star and her manager, Cade Hudson — enjoyed a cozy night in together. Kim shared a few snaps from the sleepover on her Instagram Stories, showing the group cuddled up in pajamas.

The friends posed on a white duvet-covered bed while making silly faces. “Calabasas Nights,” the SKIMS founder captioned the photos at the time.

Kim and Britney first crossed paths in the early 2000s through their mutual friend Paris Hilton.

Years later, Kim publicly defended Britney after watching the 2021 documentary Framing Britney Spears, which examined the singer’s conservatorship.

“The way the media played a big role in her life the way it did can be very traumatizing and it can really break even the strongest person. No matter how public someone’s life may seem, no one deserves to be treated with such cruelty or judgment for entertainment,” Kim wrote.

“I was shamed on a weekly basis that made my insecurities so painful I couldn’t leave the house for months after,” she continued, referencing moments she was photographed while pregnant with her eldest child, North West. “It really broke me. [I took] these frustrating, embarrassing feelings and channeled it into motivation.”

She concluded with a message of compassion, adding, “Everyone involved in the business of shaming and bullying someone to the point of breaking them down might reconsider and instead try to show some understanding and compassion. You just never fully know what someone is going through behind the scenes and I’ve learned through my own experiences that it’s always better to lead with kindness.”