What almost wasn’t. Kim Kardashian made a statement in Marilyn Monroe’s dress at the 2022 Met Gala — but the look almost didn’t make it onto the red carpet.
“They just pulled the whole thing from me, so I am fuming. I tried the prototype first to see if that fit. Once it fit, they sent the original,” Kim, 42, explained in a confessional during a new episode of Hulu’s The Kardashians, which premiered on Thursday, November 3. “When I went to put it on, it wouldn’t even go up over my hips. I was devastated.”
The Skims founder admitted she was struggling with the possibility of not attending the event.
“I was so prepared to go in my head that it is going to make me so upset to not,” she told Khloé Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian about her efforts behind-the-scenes. “I wrote [Ripley’s Believe It or Not] a groveling begging email so they were very firm. They were like, ‘We can’t get the insurance,’ so I said we would get it. I have an answer for everything and they are just like no.”
While the episode didn’t air until Thursday, fans know the California native made headlines when she attended the Met Gala in the vintage Bob Mackie gown in May. “It was this or nothing,” she told Vogue about the dress previously worn by Monroe in 1962. “I didn’t starve myself, but I was so strict.”
At the time, the reality star recalled how wearing a sauna suit twice a day, running on the treadmill, completely cutting out sugar and carbs and eating clean helped her lose 16 pounds in three weeks.
Following the big night, Kim took to social media to document her post-red carpet meal. “So, after the Met, I am starving,” she said in an Instagram video at the time. “And my favorite donuts in the entire world, in New York City are these mini donuts. Oh, my God, you guys, I have them in the room! How cute is this?”
The aspiring attorney added: “Guys, I haven’t had carbs or sugar in almost a month. Definitely [not for] three weeks. And this pizza … I’m so excited!”
After people raised concerns about her weight loss, Kim made it clear she stood by her decision. “To me it was like, ‘OK, Christian Bale can do it for a movie role and that is acceptable.’ Even Renée Zellweger gained weight for a role. It’s all the same to me,” she said during an interview with The New York Times in June. “I wasn’t saying, ‘Hey everyone, why don’t you go lose this weight in a short period of time?’”
The beauty mogul noted that she “didn’t do anything unhealthy” to fit into the iconic dress. “It was just important to me to reach that goal,” she continued, before explaining her plan if she didn’t lose the weight in time. “I just simply couldn’t have gone, which wouldn’t have mattered.”
New episodes of The Kardashians air on Hulu Thursdays.
Scroll down for Kim’s special glimpse at the days leading up to the Met Gala:
