Kim Kardashian has revealed she felt like she had agoraphobia during quarantine, after the anxiety was first sparked when she was robbed at gunpoint in Paris.
The Skims founder spoke candidly about her anxieties about being in public in a new clip filmed during the final season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and released on Wednesday.
In the clip, the 40-year-old discussed her fears with her sister, Khloe Kardashian, with Kim revealing that she “definitely” had agoraphobia after the Paris robbery in 2016, and that being in quarantine during the pandemic saw those feelings resurface.
“I feel like I had agoraphobia definitely after my robbery in Paris,” the KKW Beauty mogul said. “Like definitely would stay in, hated to go out, I didn’t want anybody to know where I was and didn’t want to be seen. I just had such anxiety.”
However, according to the reality star, she had just begun travelling again and felt like she was finally recovering from the trauma when the pandemic hit in early 2020, at which point her anxieties worsened again.
The return of the apprehension and feeling as if she “never” wanted to leave her home left Kim feeling like “a freak”, she told her sister in the clip.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, agoraphobia is an “anxiety disorder that involves intense fear and anxiety of any place or situation where escape might be difficult”, and can involve “avoidance of situations such as being alone outside of the home; traveling in a car, bus, or airplane; or being in a crowded area”.
Elsewhere in the clip, Kim described her first outing after quarantine and how it left her “so freaked out”, telling Khloe how she and estranged husband Kanye West had gone to Nobu in Malibu but that she experienced “high anxiety” because fans were trying to approach the couple to speak with them or ask for pictures.
“I came to Malibu not too long ago and went to Nobu, and I have not left my house really since quarantine. I was so freaked out,” Kim recalled. “People were trying to come up to Kanye and talk to him and come up to me and ask for photos. And I was just like: ‘Absolutely not.’ I would stop people and be like ‘Get away. Get away. This is my first time out. I’m not comfortable with you coming a step closer.’”
The mother-of-four’s confession prompted understanding from her sister, who encouraged Kim not to leave her house if she doesn’t feel comfortable, and to prioritise her safety first.
“I’m the biggest supporter of you not leaving your house,” the 37-year-old said. “I mean, we don’t know what else is coming. Everything is so scary. And if you don’t want to, I don’t think you have to. Just because things are opening up doesn’t mean it’s safe.
“Protect yourself and your family at all costs. Do what you gotta do.”
This is not the first time Kim has spoken about the impact the Paris robbery had on her mental health, as she told David Letterman last year that in the year following, she was “really paranoid” about “people knowing my whereabouts”.
“I didn’t even want to go to a restaurant, because I thought: ‘Someone will know I’m at this restaurant. They’ll take a picture, they’ll send it, they’ll know my house is open, they’ll know that my kids are there,’” Kim recalled.
