In true celebrity style, reality TV star Kim Kardashian was half an hour late as the hysterical screams of fans filled a Sydney department store.
She arrived on stage in a white lace dress shortly after 11am (AEDT) as the crowd chanted: “We want Kim, we want Kim.”
Younger sister Khloe, wearing a black top and denim jeans, was the support act in launching the Kardashian Kollection handbag range at David Jones.
As the rain poured outside, Kim thanked several hundred fans for coming out to see her and her sister, as queues snaked outside around the block with teams of security guards and police on duty.
“We’re so excited to be here in Australia,” she said.
“We’ve had 10,000 boxes of Tim Tams already.”
Khloe stirred the crowd into an even wilder frenzy when she walked off the stage to kiss her basketball star husband Lamar Odom.
Kim, who filed for divorce on Monday from NBA player Kris Humphries, had the support of teenage girls who had lined up outside the store since 10pm (AEDT) on Wednesday night.
“I think she thought he wasn’t the man she thought he was,” Tessa Wilson, 14, told AAP about the 72-day marriage.
“He was so rude to Khloe and the family.”
“I think when you know so deep in your heart that you just have to listen to your intuition, and follow your heart,” Kim Kardashian had told Seven’s Sunrise program.
“There’s no right or wrong thing to do,” she said, refusing to comment when pressed on whether the marriage was a sham.
In a separate interview on Australia’s Channel 10, she insisted she “married for love”.
Year 7 student Lucy Crossing, 13, said meeting the stars was a dream come true. “She’s so nice and she’s just so kind … she’s amazing,” as tears streamed down her face.
“She said, `Are you alright?’ and I said, `Yeah, they’re just happy tears,’ and then she said, `Oh, I love that’.”
Migration agent Marina Khachatrian, who bought her children Alex, 7, and two-year-old Leah from Sydney’s northern suburbs, described Kim as a modern-day Jackie Onassis.
“We’re happy to have Kim here as a fellow Armenian,” the 32-year-old said.
“I’m here to invite Kim to an Armenian concert on Saturday night.”
Kim has one more in-store appearance in Sydney on Tuesday before the Kardashian circus moves on to Melbourne later this week.
