Kim Kardashian. [Photo: TVNZ]

Kim Kardashian says she did not damage a dress worn by Marilyn Monroe while on the red carpet at the Met Gala.

Collector Scott Fortner claimed the dress – which was worn by the late Hollywood legend in 1962 when she sang Happy Birthday to then-President John F. Kennedy – was damaged, with “missing crystals” and part of it “left hanging by a thread”.

Ripley’s Believe it Or Not, which purchased the dress, denied the claim, and now Kardashian has addressed the saga on the Today show.

Host Hoda Kotb directly asked Kardashian about the rumour.

“No,” Kardashian replied. “Ripley’s (and I) worked together so well; there were handlers in gloves that put it on me.”

“It was such a process,” she said. “I showed up to the red carpet in a robe and slippers, and I put the dress on the bottom of the carpet, went up the stairs … I probably had it on for 3 minutes, 4 minutes.”

“I respect (Monroe), I understand how much this dress means to American history. And with the theme (of the Met Gala) being American, I thought, ‘What’s more American than Marilyn Monroe singing happy to the President of the United States?’”