Who is Blac Chyna? The woman behind the headlines

She’s never far from the headlines and now more than ever as she takes to the stand at the pop culture trial of the year. Blac Chyna is suing the Kardashians after they allegedly interfered with her contract and causing the cancellation of her show, ‘Rob Chyna’. As the trial gets underway, here's a look back at Blac Chyna’s rise to fame...

Blac Chyna’s real name is Angela Renee White and she was born in Washington DC to Shalana Hunter, aka Tokyo Toni, and Eric Holland. Her mother worked as a stripper and exotic dancer and Chyna spent time living between homes of her mother’s and her grandmother. Through her father, Chyna also has a number of siblings including some born in the same year as her!

Chyna followed in her mother’s suit by stripping in order to earn money to fund studying fashion merchandising at collage. She eventually moved to Miami to attend collage but had to upkeep the stripping as a way to get by. Alongside the stripping, she began to book occasional alternative modelling jobs before dropping out of collage to focus on this.

Chyna’s name first came to national attention when she was name checked by rapper Drake in his song, ‘Miss Me’, a moment she has credited in court as her big break. Drake mentioned her after seeing her strip at the ‘King of Diamonds’ club in Miami. She then landed a series of independent magazine covers as well as appearing as Nicki Minaj’s stunt double in the music video for ‘Monster’.

Continuing her quest for fame, she parlayed her success into becoming a video vixen which led to her being cast as rapper Tyga’s leading lady in his hit single, ‘Rack City’. This was just the start for the pair as they eventually began dating and became one of hip-hop’s hottest couples.

In October 2012, Chyna gave birth to her and Tyga’s first child, King Cairo Stevenson. Chyna’s fame continued to increase as friendships with stars such as Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj gained her more media attention as well as being a paparazzi favourite. By 2014, the pair had split after the relationship broke down but Tyga was about to receive even more attention. He began dating Kim’s sister, Kylie Jenner, which propelled him to another level of fame leaving Chyna in the shadows as her friendship with Kim broke down as a result of Tyga’s new romance.

It was a romance that no one expected and the world was shocked in January 2016 when Chyna confirmed she was dating Kim and Kylie’s brother, Rob Kardashian. The unexpected romance was a whirlwind from the start with the duo getting engaged in April 2016 before they announced the impending arrival of their daughter the following month. The Kardashian family’s reaction to all these revelations were documented on the family TV series before the family attempted to heal any rifts with Chyna for the sake of Rob and the new baby.

The couple welcomed Dream Renee Kardashian in November 2016 and Chyna’s pregnancy and birth was captured in the E! reality TV show ‘Rob & Chyna’, the show which would become the focus of Chyna’s lawsuit against the famous family. A month after Dream was born, Chyna and Rob split following an allegedly explosive and violent bust-up, one of the nights being heavily examined in the current trial.

Around six months after they split, Rob posted sexually explicit images of Chyna on Instagram for which she launched a separate lawsuit. Rob’s postings came as a result of reports of Chyna being with a number of other men. Rob also exposed Chyna’s liposuction following the birth of Dream.

Just a month before her make or break trial, Chyna publicly dissed her former partners, Tyga and Rob, for allegedly not paying child support. The exes fired back with similar statements confirming they both paid for education and schooling, all medical expenses for the children and were the main provider and caregiver as they had the children five days of the week in comparison to Chyna’s two.

Chyna has finally got her day in court as she sues Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner over their alleged conspiracy to have her television show cancelled. She claims Kris spread false lies that Chyna abused Rob to network executives and that the sisters used their power, wealth and influence to allegedly ‘blacklist’ Chyna from Hollywood and reality television. The star claims she is owed $108 million in lost earnings from the TV show, nightclub appearances and social media ad postings. Chyna has taken to the stand already to begin questioning with the four Kardashian women, along with a whole host of industry executives, expected to speak at the trial next. The court case has already proved controversial after Chyna’s mother, Tokyo Toni, was asked not to return to the courtroom after making threats to the Kardashians on an Instagram Live after day one of the trial.