NEW YORK – Flanked by multiple security guards, Kim Kardashian and her family on Thursday left the Manhattan apartment where they have been closeted since she was robbed at gunpoint in Paris, amid reports that the reality star was planning to take some time off.
News video and photos showed Kardashian, her face partly hidden by a hoodie and baseball cap, getting into a car with her two young children and rapper husband Kanye West.
It was the first time she had been seen since returning to New York after masked robbers held a gun to her head and stole some US$10 million (S$13 million) worth of jewelry in Paris early on Monday morning.
Kardashian’s personal bodyguard, Pascal Duvier, who was protecting Kardashian’s sisters at a nightclub at the time of the robbery, was among a handful of security staff keeping media at bay and helping stash suitcases into waiting cars.
The family were thought to be heading to their southern California home.
The celebrity family, whose lives are chronicled in the TV show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and on their busy social media accounts, has been uncharacteristically quiet since the robbery. No arrests have been made.
Celebrity website TMZ and magazine Us Weekly reported on Thursday that a badly shaken Kardashian was taking about a month’s break from work.
“She has cancelled everything for the next several weeks and will not be working,” Us Weekly quoted a source close to the star as saying.
TMZ, quoting an unidentified source close to Kardashian, said that when she does return she will cut down on her use of social media and displays of her wealthy lifestyle.
Kardashian’s representatives declined comment on the reports.
Kardashian, 35, has come in for criticism that she made herself vulnerable by posting photos of her US$4 million dollar engagement ring and other jewelry, in the days before the attack.
“If you are that famous and you put all your jewelry on the net, you go to hotels where nobody can come near to the room,”fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld told reporters in Paris this week.
“You cannot display your wealth and then be surprised that some people want to share it with you.”
The Kardashian family was not filming for their reality show at the time of the robbery, a spokeswoman for the show said on Thursday.
“Our focus right now is entirely on Kim’s well-being,” the spokeswoman said in a statement.
