Julia Fox Seemingly Defends Kim Kardashian Amid Balenciaga Scandal

Julia Fox has seemingly defended her ex's ex: Kim Kardashian. The reality star was criticized for not speaking out sooner against Balenciaga’s controversial ad campaign. The ad featured disturbing images of children holding BDSM teddy bears and an image of a Supreme Court opinion on a child pornography case. Kardashian, 42, has been an ambassador for the fashion house and folks on social media were calling on her to denounce the brand after the images blew up online.

The Skims founder broke her silence  Sunday (November 27) and wrote: “I have been quiet the past few days, not because I haven’t been disgusted by the recent Balenciaga campaigns, but because I wanted an opportunity to speak to their team to understand for myself how this could have happened.” She went on to say that as a mother of four, she was left “shaken by the disturbing images.” Kim followed her initial statement by stating her future with the brand, adding: “I am currently re-evaluating my relationship with the brand, basing it off their willingness to accept accountability for something that should have never happened to begin with — & the actions I am expecting to see them take to protect children.”

The Uncut Gems actress shared her thoughts on the Balenciaga scandal in a TikTok video after fans asked her to weigh in on the photo shoot. “First things first, I’m not their spokesperson, I have zero relationship with the brand -- I've never even been to one of their shows. They haven’t invited me,” Fox, began the video. “Regardless, I think it’s horrific and when I was reading and watching all the videos I literally felt sick to my stomach. But I couldn’t help but think, 'Damn, the women who are associated to the brand professionally are getting so much pushback, it’s almost as if they’re the f---ing child molesters. And then another thought popped into my head: no child was actually harmed in that shoot, but millions of children are harmed in the church every day. I don't see hashtag cancel the church anywhere. Anyway, those are my thoughts," she ended with a shrug and a smile.

The 32-year-old wrote over the TikTok video: “Why are women being blamed for a MANS mistake? It’s the internalized misogyny for me," followed by: "Where's the outrage?" when discussing her thoughts on the church. Despite not mentioning Kim Kardashian by name, many fans in the comments said they believed Fox was referencing to the reality TV star, commenting, "Thank you I’m seeing Kim get more backlash then man who created the whole campaign." Another wrote, "Also so many men are associated with Balenciaga yet got no backlash and it’s not as if Kim has anything to do with that shoot." One person added, "The way Kim is getting backlash and she’s probably just an ambassador for the brand it’s not like she said yes to the shoot being done I don’t get it."

Balenciaga posted a new statement to Instagram yesterday "strongly" condemning child abuse and addressing the fallout over their "series of grievous errors" involving children. In the statement, the luxury brand said its bondage teddy bears “should not have been featured with children,” writing: “This was a wrong choice by Balenciaga, combined with our failure in assessing and validating images. The responsibility for this lies with Balenciaga alone.” Going forward, the company said it will be working with organizations that “specialize in child protection” and aim to end “child abuse and exploitation."

On Wednesday (July 6) in Paris, Balenciaga's creative director, Demna, unveiled his second couture collection for the luxury fashion house. Not only were there plenty of celebrities sitting in the front row, but walking the runway too.

Showgoers included Kris Jenner, North West, Offset, Playboi Carti, Alexa Demie and Tracee Ellis Ross, who looked on as Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa, Bella Hadid, Naomi Campbell and Selling Sunset’s Christine Quinn surprised the audience by walking the runway.

Balenciaga posted footage from the entire show on Twitter, watch it in full below:

Check out the highlights of the celebrities at the Paris show below: