Kim Kardashian on how the Paris robbery changed her: 'It was meant to happen to me'

In a tearful interview with Ellen DeGeneres on Thursday's "Ellen," Kim Kardashian opened up about the aftermath of her traumatic robbery during Paris Fashion Week in October, when thieves broke into her posh Paris apartment, held her at gunpoint and stole more than $10 million in jewelry.

DeGeneres brought up the crime in an emotional exchange with the "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" star. "I don't know that everybody understands how horrific that experience must have been for you," DeGeneres said.

Kardashian nodded. "I feel like that was so meant to happen to me," she said of the attack. She started to cry. "Like, I'm such a different person."

The shocking attack made headlines for weeks, as the perpetrators of the highly coordinated heist remained at large (in January, French police arrested 17 suspects believed to be linked to the case, and 10 have since been indicted.) Immediately after the incident, Kardashian's husband, Kanye West, abruptly canceled a performance in New York to be with his wife. The reality star's closest friends later reported that she was "badly shaken" as she recovered from the assault, during which she was tied up and locked in a bathroom.

Kardashian told DeGeneres that the experience had profoundly changed her outlook and priorities.

"I was being flashy, I was definitely materialistic before," she said. Kardashian added that there's nothing wrong with being proud of hard-earned wealth or belongings, but "I just don't care about that stuff anymore."

"Really?" Ellen asked, as the studio audience offered a round of supportive applause.

"It's not worth it," Kardashian said. "I don't care to show off like the way that I used to ... it's just not who I am anymore."

She told DeGeneres that investigators have told her that the robbers had been following her for years, taking careful note of the jewelry she mentioned in interviews and on social media.

"I truly don't know if I'd ever wear real jewelry again," she said.

Kardashian had been staying at a luxurious mansion in Paris's 8th arrondissement, a discreet address favored by visiting celebrities. The thieves broke in around 2:30 a.m. and held the concierge at gunpoint, demanding that he take them to "the rapper's wife," Kardashian said. ("How dare they not know your name," Ellen quipped.) The handcuffed concierge let the assailants into Kardashian's apartment.

In that moment, Kardashian said, she was "100 percent" certain she was going to die.

"I said a prayer. I'm like - 'I know I'm going to heaven, I hope my kids are OK, my husband,'" she said, her voice breaking.

But in the end, she said she knows it could have been far worse.

"I don't want to sound like I'm not grateful," she said. "I'm out, I'm home, I'm safe. I'm such a better person. It's OK."