A defamation lawsuit that claimed Kim Kardashian caused a man “severe emotional distress” after she shared a photo of him on social media and falsely identified him as a death row inmate has been dismissed.
In Feb. 2024, Kardashian, an activist in the field of prison reform, shared a photo with her 850 million followers on social media of who she believed to be Ivan Cantu, a death row inmate in Texas who maintained his innocence for more than 20 years up until his execution on Feb. 28, 2024.
However, Kardashian erroneously posted a photo of the wrong Ivan Cantu; instead of the death row inmate, Kardashian shared a public picture of a New York man also named Ivan Cantu, who in Feb. 2025 sued the reality TV star for defamation over the photo flub.
“Kardashian’s statement was false because Cantu was residing in the state of New York and was not in the state of Texas, had not committed a crime and was not about to be executed,” the lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone read. “Kardashian’s statement that Cantu was on death row in the state of Texas for committing murder was untrue and demonstrably false.”
The nine-page complaint that also accused Kardashian of invasion of privacy and false light, and Cantu claimed the error caused him “emotional and mental anguish, psychological harm, embarrassment, anxiety, loss of sleep, nightmares, post-traumatic stress, headaches, need for medical care, need for emotional counseling and loss of reputation.”
In response to the lawsuit, eternal law student Kardashian filed her own anti-SLAPP motion — a motion to protect free speech against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation — in an effort to dismiss the lawsuit.
“The use of Plaintiff’s image in the February 26 Story was a mistake and was not done
intentionally,” Kardashian wrote, adding that the wrong Cantu’s photo was only on her social media for “a few hours.”
“Neither I, nor to the best of my knowledge, anyone on my team knew or believed at the time the February 26 Story was posted that the person depicted in the image was Plaintiff and not Mr. Cantu. I would not have used the image appearing in the February 26 Story had I known that it was a picture of Plaintiff and not Mr. Cantu.”
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On Wednesday, in documents obtained by Rolling Stone, a California superior court judge overseeing the lawsuit ruled in favor of Kardashian and the anti-SLAPP motion, effectively dismissing the other Cantu’s lawsuit, though the judge left open the possibility of an appeal.
Lawyers from both sides did not respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment at press time.
