Kim Kardashian Hangs with Ex-Assistant Stephanie Shepherd at Kourtney's Birthday Party
Kim Kardashian West and her former assistant Stephanie Shepherd may have ended their professional relationship, but they’re still close.
While celebrating Kourtney Kardashian’s 39th birthday, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star, 37, shared a video of herself cozying up with Shepherd, months after the pair parted ways last November.
In a video posted on the mother of three’s Instagram Story, Kardashian West stood with her arm around Shepherd — who first became Kardashian West’s assistant in 2013 and briefly rose to be COO of Kardashian West Brands — while the pair cheered on the birthday girl.
As part of the festivities, Kourtney’s bash was also filled with a series of piñatas depicting all of the pals the 39-year-old spent her birthday with last year during a fun-filled trip to Mexico, which included Shepherd and Kardashian West, who were still working together at the time.
While sharing a video of all of the piñatas, Kardashian West named “Stephanie” as being one of the depicted friends, before adding that her own “Kim piñata” only “kind of looks like me.”
“Take us back to Mexico,” Shepherd wrote alongside her own video of the personalized party decorations.
Kardashian West and Shepherd were also featured in a short clip shared by Larsa Pippen of the pals having some silly fun with the birthday girl.
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A post shared by Larsa Pippen (@larsapippen) on Apr 19, 2018 at 10:23pm PDT
Of course, this hasn’t been the first time Kardashian West has proved she’s still on good terms with her former assistant.
In February, the reality star sent Shepherd one of her Kimoji Hearts KKW Fragrance chocolate heart press boxes, letting her longtime assistant know they’ll always be “Ride or Die” pals.
Sharing a photo of the sweet early Valentine’s Day gift on social media, Shepherd tagged Kardashian West in the photo and captioned the snap simply with a heart emoji.
A post shared by STEPHANIE ANN SHEPHERD (@steph_shep) on Feb 5, 2018 at 7:46pm PST
When the pair ended their professional relationship in November, sources told PEOPLE that the pair’s fallout was complicated.
“Kim made a decision to let Stephanie go,” an insider said.
“She was a good assistant, but when Stephanie wanted to transition into a larger role with Kim’s brand and businesses, it just didn’t work,” the insider continued, adding that “after a short time it became clear that Stephanie just didn’t have the knowledge to take on a role like that.”
RELATED VIDEO: Kim Kardashian’s Former Assistant Stephanie Shepherd Shares a Cryptic Post
Another source revealed that Shepherd’s Instagram fame added to the rift.
“Steph went from being an assistant to being a celebrity,” another source added. “For a regular girl, she has a huge social media following. She loves the attention, but it took away from her job. There was a feeling that being Kim’s assistant, Steph should stay more in the background. But Kim is the one who helped her get the followers by posting pictures with Steph.”
