*In a bombshell exclusive interview Ray J lays bare the truth about the sex tape with Kim Kardashian that became an international sensation

*'I've sat in the shadows allowing the Kardashians to use my name, abuse my name, make billions of dollars talking about a topic I've never really spoken about,' the hip hop star told DailyMail.com

*Kim's former lover revealed she has a SECOND tape of the two of them having sex – and she kept it in a Nike shoe box under her bed

*Kim has always been in possession of all the sex tapes she made with Ray J – he has never owned copies of any of them, he said

*Ray J said he did not leak any tape and the release was and is a business partnership between him, Kim, and Kris Jenner

*He made the claim after Kim, 41, claimed on her new Hulu show that she was worried he would leak it

*He said he was outraged that Kim had claimed on the show that he might have a tape showing him put a dildo in her a** while she slept

*'That makes me sound like a rapist,' Ray J, 41, said

*In a text to Ray J, Kim admits: 'If you're upset about the dildo comment it was clearly a sarcastic joke and I was laughing when I said it'

*Earnings from the tape, released in 2007, have reached an estimated $100 million worldwide

By RUTH STYLES FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The infamous Kim Kardashian sex tape was 'released like an album' by Kim herself who kept the only copy of it stashed in a Nike shoebox under her bed along with the rest of the steamy tapes she made with Ray J, DailyMail.com has learned.

Speaking for the first time about the tape in a bombshell interview with DailyMail.com, Ray J said he had never possessed a copy of any of the tapes they made together, only holding on to photos and texts Kim sent him between 2002 and 2009.

He also insists he never did any of the things she claims he did in the Kardashians' new Hulu show and was outraged by her suggestion he might have a video showing him 'sticking a dildo in my a**' – which he says made him sound 'like a rapist' and was untrue.

And in a private text message to Ray J, seen below, Kim admits: 'If you're upset about the dildo comment it was clearly a sarcastic joke and I was laughing when I said it.'

Ray J – real name Ray Norwood – told DailyMail.com: 'I've sat in the shadows for over 14 years allowing the Kardashians to use my name, to abuse my name, make billions of dollars over a decade-and-a-half talking about a topic I've never really spoken about.

'I've never leaked anything. I have never leaked a sex tape in my life. It has never been a leak. It's always been a deal and a partnership between Kris Jenner and Kim and me and we've always been partners since the beginning of this thing.'

The former couple, who got together in 2002 when both were 21, made the infamous tape during her birthday celebrations that year. It was released in 2007.

Ray J, now 41, told DailyMail.com that putting out the video was his idea and he suggested it to Kim after they saw how Paris Hilton's profile was boosted when the film she made with poker player Rick Saloman was leaked.

But while Kim claims she didn't want to do it, Ray J says the now 41-year-old embraced the idea and enlisted her mother Kris Jenner to organize its release via Vivid Entertainment – a process he had little to do with.

The eventual contract, which was signed by both Ray J and Kim, was for three videos including two sex tapes, one made at the Esperanza Hotel in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and one created in Santa Barbara, and a third tape that is listed as an intro to the Cabo footage.

Only one tape – the video shot in Cabo – was ever released and dad-of-two Ray J told DailyMail.com that all of the intimate tapes were kept at Kim's house in a shoe box under her bed.

He said: It was something we did in Cabo on a trip for her birthday and it was something extra we were doing in the hotel.

'She kept them all – she had to go find that tape [Sex Tape Cabo #1] and then present it. I never had a tape in my possession in our whole relationship.

'I never had a single one at my house – she had them at her house. She's always had all the tapes in a Nike shoe box under her bed.

'I'm sure she has bigger beds now and better boxes. That's how it all came about. Once I pitched the idea to her, just playing around a little bit, that's when she jumped on the idea, talked to her mom and it was out of my hands from there.'

Neither Kim nor Kris, 66, responded to DailyMail.com calls for comment.

Ray J now regrets his role in releasing the tape after he was publicly blamed for leaking it but has been unable to correct the record due to the contract that he had signed without legal advice.

The Love and Hip Hop star says the tape and his role as the villain of the piece has blighted his career and relationships – and even left him feeling suicidal at one stage.

Ray J said: 'I felt suicidal because when you know something's real and it's true and you're watching a whole family create an empire from a lie they've created, it's heartbreaking and disrespectful to all the entertainers who have been honest and true to their craft.

'As a black man living and working in America, it's hard to get up every day and look out at the water or look at my family and know that they think something about you when you know it's 1,000 percent the other way. How do you live like that?

'I couldn't be a part of any reputable major network television show and do Dancing with the Stars, and do America's Got Talent or anything like that because of my image.

'Because of what they made me, I'm not allowed to be in those places.'

The singer added: 'For me, I've been walking on eggshells thinking I'm going to get in trouble for telling the truth and I've been holding onto it for the past 14 years and watching them humiliate me. They're celebrating my destruction.'

He said he had been forced to live a lie and now wants the truth to come out so he can show people – most importantly his daughter three-year-old daughter Melody – that he's not 'a bad guy who exploits and disrespects women'.

Ray J said: 'Where in this whole story did Ray J become the person who leaked the tape and who's made their lives miserable?

'How do you believe that Ray J is the enemy of all enemies when we've been partners from the beginning of the sex tape being released up until now? We're all still making money.

'But yet you go with defame me and blame me over and over and I can't do nothing but defend my honor and speak out and tell the truth.

He said the final straw came when the Kardashians made the tape a storyline in their new Hulu show – at one point discussing whether he might have any more material, including a moment when Kim said he might have a video showing him 'sticking a dildo in my a**'.

In a later episode, her estranged husband Kanye West is seen boasting about collecting a laptop from Ray J and saying his family would no longer be 'extorted'.

But furious Ray J says the reality was very different: he handed over the device stuffed with intimate photos and 'mini-videos' sent to him during their four-year relationship after he heard via Kanye that Kim was worried about what kind of material the laptop might contain.

Despite Kanye's claims of extortion, Ray J says he did not ask to be paid, did not receive any money, and was happy to hand it over to allay Kim's fears.

Instead, he described a four-hour meeting with Kanye at the private terminal at LAX where the pair spoke 'father to father' while the Yeezy designer sat on the floor and looked at everything on the laptop which he then took with him when he left.

Kim later claimed on the show the laptop just contained a video of Kim and Ray J eating at a restaurant but Ray J says that is untrue.

He said: 'It wasn't a sex tape – it was a lot of pictures, a lot of little mini videos, and a lot of proof we've been talking over the years [since they split in 2006]. If you send me an email in 2008, the computer doesn't change the date on it.

'So, in 07 it happened [Kim got in contact], Kanye could see we were talking consistently in 07, 08, 09 through her sending me texts and videos and stuff.

'I was proving to him, I've never been the enemy. I've never been the person who they say I am. If that was the case, why are you guys trying to brainstorm, come up with ideas with me and make me do what you guys say do.

'You want me to continue to act the bad guy and you guys have brainwashed me into thinking that's OK.'

He says the only copies of any tapes that still exist are with Kim. Ray J said: 'She knows there's nothing else. I don't have a tape to leak. I've never leaked a tape. I don't have a plan to ruin them.

'When I put on the comments that all of this is a lie, I didn't mean Kanye coming to meet with me about some second sex tape.

'I mean all of this is all a lie. From the beginning of us putting this sex tape out, this has been the biggest lie in the industry in the history of entertainment.'

He added: 'They're not letting the world know that there's a bunch of sex tapes that we made but they're not going anywhere because she has them all.

'I've never had them to watch and to enjoy.'

Although Ray J and Kim hadn't spoken for a decade, he says he contacted her when the new sex tape allegations on the Hulu show came out – begging her via Instagram direct message to stop saying he leaked the tape.

In the messages, copies of which have been obtained by DailyMail.com, Kim attempts to smooth things over – suggesting PR strategies 'to make me feel better' but does not deny Ray J's version of events.

Ray J said: 'I felt like this was her only chance to try and make this right. In the texts, I demand her to call me immediately or I'm going to go and tell my story.

'So she responds immediately with all of these different plans and ideas that will make me feel better.

'At the same time, you're [Kim] telling the whole world that I'm a horrible person and I haven't spoken to you and how could I do this to you?

'If you look at the DMs, you can see that she's continuing to try to keep me in a box – only what she can do to make me feel better after they killed my name.

'Only because she knows everything I'm saying is true – she never denied on these DMs anything that I've told her.

'I asked her on the DMs, how do I explain to my daughter this is a lie. If you're worried about your family, what about my family?'

'If they didn't come back and show how they really were, how greedy and slimy they really were, I would never have had the enthusiasm or the will to go out and speak my truth.'

Ray J says he is expecting repercussions for speaking out but says he feels relieved to have finally given his side of the story.

He said: 'Now that I'm a father, it kills my soul to think my daughter would have to go through life thinking her dad was something that he wasn't.

'You can't give me any money. You can't pay me for my life back. You can't pay me for honesty and truth.

'You can't pay me any money or apologize to me for any of that. You have to be honest with yourself at this point. I don't need an apology – I have proof.

'I just want my daughter and my son to appreciate what I've done here on Earth and know that their dad doesn't go for exploiting women, disrespecting women, and leaking footage of someone who didn't give permission.'

Ray J added: 'This has been a burden for me. It's been an embarrassment for me. My family has questioned my integrity, who I am as a person.

'Up until now, even some of the people I'm close to – when I tell them what I'm going through, it's really hard for them to believe, with all the things they've [the Kardashians] done and said about me over the years.

'I can't live the rest of my life in this lie. This morning, I woke up and said, you know what? For the remainder of my life, I'm going to live in my truth and not in the lie that's been created by Kris Jenner and Kim.

'I will not let them do this to me anymore.'

Source: Ruth Styles/Dailymail.co.uk

Date Posted: Wednesday, May 4th, 2022 , Total Page Views: 1416