Kim Kardashian slammed for insensitive lavish birthday getaway
LOS ANGELES US reality TV star Kim Kardashian is facing a backlash after chartering a private jet to fly her entourage to a remote tropical island for lavish 40th birthday celebrations during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kardashian and her "closest inner circle" spent last week dancing, kayaking and swimming with whales on a private isle where they could "pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time", she tweeted.
The trip took the celebrities, including sisters Khloe and Kourtney and half-sister Kendall Jenner, some 6,400km from Los Angeles to Tahiti on board a Boeing 777, according to E! and TMZ.
Kardashian wrote: "Before Covid, I don't think any of us truly appreciated what a simple luxury it was to be able to travel and be together with family and friends in a safe environment."
But the glamorous festivities - and Kardashian's posts trumpeting them - were immediately condemned as "disgustingly tone deaf" by social media users at a time when the coronavirus has killed more than 227,000 Americans, and California remains under a non-essential travel ban.
Kardashian said her guests had been asked to quarantine for two weeks before departure and had undergone multiple "health screens". - AFP
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