Why Kim Kardashian Just Visited the Menendez Brothers in Prison

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Kim Kardashian’s interest in criminal justice reform led her straight into the path of Erik and Lyle Menendez — despite the brothers being at odds with Kardashian’s co-star and collaborator Ryan Murphy over his latest series, Monsters: The Story of Lyle and Erik Menendez.

Kardashian, 43, has been passionate about criminal justice reform for some time. She’s passed the bar exam, worked with attorneys to free the wrongfully convicted, and advocated to both the Trump and Biden administrations on behalf of convicts in need of a presidential pardon. The Skims mogul visited the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility with her mother, Kris Jenner, sister Kourtney Kardashian, and film producer Scott Budnick to speak to a group of inmates about several prison reform initiatives, according to Page six. The group was also joined by actor Cooper Koch, who plays Erik in Monsters.

The group reportedly discussed an initiative called Greenspace, “a reform strategy aimed at beautifying prison yards to help inmates rehabilitate,” which the Menendez brothers spearheaded while in prison.

In a statement released to X by his wife Tammi, Erik called Monsters a “vile and appalling” portrayal of himself, and said Murphy “cannot be so naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives to do this without malicious intent.” The Netflix series appears to imply an incestuous relationship between the brothers, who allegedly suffered traumatic sexual abuse at the hands of their father, Jose Menéndez. The abuse allegations were ruled inadmissible at their 1995 trial, which Erik said was due to “a time when the prosecution was building a narrative around a belief system that men were not sexually abused and that men experienced the trauma of rape differently than women.” Menéndez said it was “demoralizing” to know that Murphy’s portrayal could “undermine decades of progress in shining a light on childhood trauma.”

Kardashian, who starred in Murphy’s American Horror Story: Delicate and has a television development agreement with American Horror Story 20th Television (formerly known as 20th Century Fox Television) was apparently undeterred by the brothers’ reaction to Murphy’s show, and still visited a group of 40 inmates that apparently included Lyle and Erik Menéndez.