One of Kim Kardashian’s Paris robbers is doing some self-reflection.
As the trial of the Kardashians star’s alleged assailants began in Paris April 28, nearly 10 years after the incident occurred at the city’s No Address Hotel, one of the defendants Yunice Abbas admitted, for the first time, that he regrets his involvement in the $10 million heist.
Indeed, the 71-year-old—who had previously admitted to stealing from the reality star in his 2021 book I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian—went from indicating that he was proud of his actions to stating in court, per BBC, “this time I do regret what I did.”
“It opened my eyes,” Abbas continued, adding that each time he would see coverage of the incident on the jail televisions, he was confronted with how much suffering he and his confidantes had caused the reality star. “We just grabbed the lady’s handbag but I have discovered there’s trauma behind it.”
Because prior to the trial—which is set to run through May 23, with Kim set to take the stand May 13—the suspect had recounted that night in Paris with an air of exhilaration.
“A robbery! In the heart of Paris. Just like in the old days,” Abbas wrote of the 2016 incident in his biography, alleging that he did not know the identity of their victim during their non-violent escapades. “Excitement prickles down my spine.”
In addition to Abbas, nine other suspects—part of what the French media has dubbed the “grandpa robbers” due to their advanced age at the time of the heist—also face charges of robbery and kidnapping in connection to the incident. Separately, one defendant in the case had since passed away, according to The New York Times, while another was deemed too ill to stand trial.
As for what exactly happened the night of the robbery? In a verbal statement published by French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche in 2017, Kim told French police that, while she was in town for Paris Fashion Week, two men barged into her hotel room wearing hoods and jackets that read “Police” on them.
Upon forcing themselves in, the 44-year-old alleged that the robbers tied her up with plastic cables, taped her mouth shut and carried her to the bathtub before stealing over $10 million worth of jewelry, electronics and other expensive pieces.
And even after the terrifying incident, Kim was plagued with the lasting anguish the traumatic heist had caused.
“For a good year, I almost lost myself,” the SKIMS founder said on a 2017 episode of The Alec Baldwin Show. “I was never depressed, but I wasn’t motivated to get up and work like I used to. It shook me.”
But despite remembering exactly how it felt to fear for her life in that moment, she expressed that she was “grateful” for the realizations that stemmed from the life-changing incident.
“Even though it was horrific and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone, it really did deeply change me to where now I feel like I can get back to myself,” Kim explained. “There was a lot of me that measured who I was by how much I had. I thought, ‘Oh, I’m worth so much.’ That needed to change in me.”
