Ray J’s breach of contract claims against Kardashian and her mom, Kris Jenner, now move to private arbitration

Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner notched a legal victory Friday when a judge set a trial date for their defamation claims against Ray J while simultaneously kicking his competing breach of contract lawsuit against them into private arbitration.

The mother-daughter duo alleged in an October 2025 lawsuit that Ray J, born Ray Norwood Jr., maliciously defamed them when he suggested during a 2025 TMZ interview and on a subsequent livestream that Kardashian and Jenner were – or should be – the subjects of a federal racketeering investigation. Norwood has denied the women’s claims that he acted maliciously and filed a cross-complaint for breach of a settlement agreement on Nov. 13, 2025.

Norwood’s claims center on an April 2023 settlement that included a non-disparagement clause. The agreement followed statements Kardashian made during a 2022 episode of The Kardashians, in which she accused Norwood of sexual assault, distributing revenge porn, and attempting extortion. Norwood threatened legal action, and under the private deal, Kardashian agreed to pay $6 million and to make no further public references to the sex tape on the show, Norwood said in his cross-complaint.

According to Norwood, within a month of the agreement, Kardashian and Jenner — along with Kanye West and Kendall Jenner — discussed the tape on another episode of The Kardashians, violating the contract. Norwood said he notified them of what he considered a material breach of their pact, and they purportedly responded that the agreement did not apply to Season Three because it had been filmed before the contract took effect.

On Friday, Norwood’s lawyer argued at a hearing that if Norwood’s claims had to go to arbitration, then the defamation claims from Kardashian and Jenner should go too. “Plaintiffs can’t be allowed to circumvent a non-disparagement clause by cloaking their claim as a defamation claim,” lawyer Heather Pickerell argued. “This is a unique agreement that was explicitly written so that it would govern all disputes… The agreement really does embrace all future disputes between the parties.”

Kardashian and Jenner’s lawyer, Alex Bergjans, disagreed. “A non-disparagement claim under the contract doesn’t require falsity. A defamation claim does require falsity,” he said, “which is why one can file a defamation claim in court but also seek breach of non-disparagement in private arbitration.”

After hearing from both sides and taking a few more hours to consider the matter, the judge issued an afternoon ruling that sided with Kardashian and her mom.

“The obligation not to defame [Kardashian and Jenner], and the obligation not to make public statements that place [them] in a false light, exist entirely independently from both the agreement and the relationship created by the agreement,” Los Angeles County Judge Steven A. Ellis wrote. “The court grants the motion of plaintiffs Kimberly Kardashian and Kris Jenner to compel arbitration of defendant’s cross-complaint.”

The judge set a post-arbitration status conference for Feb. 9, 2027. He then set a March 6, 2028, trial date for the women’s defamation lawsuit. Norwood’s lead lawyer, Howard King, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday.

Norwood and Kardashian dated in the early 2000s and appeared together in a sex tape recorded in 2003 and released in 2007 by Vivid Entertainment. The company has long said it obtained the video legally from a third party. The tape’s release came shortly before the premiere of Keeping Up With the Kardashians on E! in 2007.