Kanye West's ex-bodyguard Steve Stanulis calls rapper 'egoist bully', threatens to sue him and Kim Kardashian
A former bodyguard of Kanye West has labeled the rapper a "bully" and threatened to sue him for damages. Steve Stanulis, who has previously claimed Kanye was the "neediest, moodiest client" he's ever had, was accused of breaching a confidentiality agreement after he revealed details about his time looking after the rapper on a podcast earlier this year. However, it is Stanulis who is threatening to sue this time.
Stanulis received a cease and desist letter from Kanye's lawyers in June after he shared a number of stories about the megastar's demands and behavior. The letter threatened to sue the former bodyguard for $10 million if he continued to leak details. Furthermore, the letter claimed that Stanulis, during his appearance on the Hollywood Raw podcast hosted by Dax Holt and Adam Glyn, had made a number of "false and defamatory" statements about his former client during the interview. It also noted that he had breached a nondisclosure agreement he had signed in February 2016.
According to a report by Page Six, however, Stanulis' lawyers have responded to the letter claiming he had never signed any agreement in the first place. "As such, any efforts undertaken by your clients to enforce any purported ‘confidentiality agreement’ will be met with counterclaims, that will seek significant damages, along with court costs and legal fees," the response states. "Our client is being bullied here, and we will not stand for that," Steve's attorney, Dmitriy Shakhnevich, told the paper.
Meanwhile, Stanulis himself said that he's "not going to let Kanye West and [his wife, Kim Kardashian, whose signature also appeared on the cease-and-desist] push me around just because they are rich and famous. I won’t be intimated by these two egotists!" He declared he would never sign away his "first amendment rights" and revealed that he's also working on a new movie based on his experiences as a celebrity bodyguard. "So if Kanye and Kim want to go to war, bring it on — they aren’t the only ones with a strong legal team," he added.
Stanulis made a number of claims about Kim and Kanye during the May podcast. According to him, the famous couple would tip off the paparazzi about their whereabouts and that there was no way for camera crews to just happen to know where they were going. "First of all, there's no way [paparazzi] doesn't get called upfront. There's no way every time they are leaving, all these people know about it," he said on the podcast. "There's definitely somebody calling ahead. That's just my opinion. I'm just saying it's coincidental that wherever we are, they're always there. Maybe they're just better than I think they are."
Stanulis became a celebrity bodyguard after working simultaneously as a police officer and a stripper, according to Mirror. He made a number of claims about Kanye's behavior, recalling one episode when the rapper wouldn't even push a lift button himself. "The first day I met him, it was fashion week. I was supposed to meet him at the studio," the bodyguard recalled. "When he gets there, we get into the elevator and he says, 'Aren't you going to push what floor we are going to?'"
"I was like, 'I have no idea what floor, it's my first day'. So he starts ranting, 'So you mean you didn't call ahead to find out where I'm supposed to be going?' Stanulis continued. "I said 'no'. So he's ranting and raving. So I said, 'Look bro, we can do this one of three ways. One, you could tell me what button to press, and now I’ll know. Two, you could press the button, and I'll see which one you press so I'll know. Or three, you can sit in here all day and tell me how important your time is and we are not going to go anywhere'. Again, that was our first interaction. He went for the first option," he ended.