Man Must Pay Kim Kardashian $167K in Legal Fees After She Mistakenly Posted His Photo on Instagram

A man has been ordered to pay Kim Kardashian more than $167,000 in legal fees after he sued her for mistakenly posting his photo on Instagram and falsely identifying him as a Texas death row inmate.

The lawsuit centered on a photo Kardashian shared on her Instagram story in February 2024 to raise awareness about the case of Ivan Cantu, a Texas man who was on death row after being convicted of murdering his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée. He was executed on February 28, 2024.

But the photo Kardashian shared with her hundreds of millions of followers was not of the death row inmate. Instead, the reality star and businesswoman mistakenly used a photo of another man named Ivan Cantu, who lives in New York.

Kardashian, who is also a criminal justice reform advocate, posted a photo of the wrong Cantu to her Instagram story alongside the message: “The state will execute Ivan Cantu in 2 days.” She also included a link to a petition calling for officials to “withdraw the execution date.”

In February 2025, Cantu sued Kardashian, claiming the photo caused him “severe emotional distress” and exposed him “to hatred, contempt, and/or ridicule.” He also alleged that he suffered a “loss of reputation” because of the mistaken identity in the image and sought compensatory and punitive damages.

Last November, Kardashian asked the court to dismiss Cantu’s lawsuit through an anti-SLAPP motion, a legal filing designed to protect free speech and prevent lawsuits viewed as attempts to silence someone unfairly.

“The use of Plaintiff’s image in the February 26 Story was a mistake and was not done intentionally,” Kardashian wrote in court filings, adding that the incorrect photo remained on her social media for only “a few hours.”

A California judge later agreed with Kardashian and dismissed the lawsuit. Kardashian then requested that Cantu cover her legal costs. And on Monday, the judge ruled in Kardashian’s favor and ordered Cantu to pay the Skims founder more than $167,000 in attorneys’ fees.

According to a report by MyNewsLA, Kardashian had originally requested $186,320 in legal fees. However, the judge reduced the amount after finding some of the requested costs excessive, including more than $57,000 that Kardashian’s legal team said was spent preparing the fee motion.

Cantu attempted to shut down the request, claiming that he would be financially ruined if he had to pay. He also argued that Kardashian, whose net worth has been estimated at more than $1 billion, did not need the money.

“Yes, it may seem anomalous that a person of modest financial means — as plaintiff says he is — would have to reimburse a person who (Cantu says) has lots of money,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael C. Small writes, according to MyNewsLA. “Income disparities are, however, irrelevant to the attorneys’ fees equation.”

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.