Nick Lachey suggests in a new interview that Kim Kardashian used him to get famous.
The two briefly dated in 2006 following his divorce from Jessica Simpson. The former 98 Degrees singer hinted to Details Magazine that Kardashian tipped off the paparazzi about their movie date in May that year.
When he was asked whether photos of their early dates marked the start of Kardashian’s career, Lachey replied, “That’s one way to interpret it. Let’s just say this: We went to a movie. No one followed us there. Somehow, mysteriously, when we left, there were 30 photographers waiting outside.”
“There are certain ways to play this game, and some people play it well,” he continued.
“She also had some help from that sex tape,” the interviewer quipped about her infamous filmed romp with Ray J.
“Yeah, well that was already in the can,” Lachey said.
Kardashian credits the start of her fame after her movie date with the singer. “It started when I went out on a date with Nick Lachey,” she wrote in the 2010 book “Kardashian Konfidential. “Of course the paparazzi took pictures, because people were curious about who he was with.”
She continued, “So the next night I was out with Paris Hilton, we were in her car and the paparazzi started taking pictures. Usually they would shout, “Paris! Paris! Paris! [But] they started yelling “Kim! Kim! Kim!” I wanted to hide, and Paris and I just looked at each other and laughed.”
“She said, ‘Whatever you do, just smile.’ I thought, this is so weird, I don’t know what’s going on. It was surreal.”
Lachey recently welcomed a baby boy with his wife, Vanessa Lachey. Kardashian, meanwhile, is dating and is about to have a baby with her boyfriend, Kanye West.