#ProudMama for sure. Kardashian-Jenner family matriarch Kris Jenner detailed to Maria Shriver on Thursday, January 14, how her daughters — Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, Kendall and Kylie — are changing the world, in addition to her hopes for her son, Rob.
“When you discover you have this thing called fame — and as a family we have 500 million followers … someone just gave me this crazy number — you can really make a lot of noise,” the momager told Shriver during Thursday’s Architects of Change Conversation Series at the Skirball Cultural Center in L.A. “You can really do something so amazing and positive with the 500 million people following your every move. You need to choose your words wisely.”
Each of her daughters, she argued, has developed her own gift. “Kendall with her different charities — she wants to go to Africa,” the momager, 60, mused. “Kylie with the anti-bullying campaign. Kourtney with, ‘Everybody in the whole world has to be green! And if you have one piece of plastic in your house, you will die.’ Kim is obsessed with helping young women, like the Dress for Success, and [having them] go out into the work force.” Though Kris failed to acknowledge Khloé in that portion of the talk, she has tweeted numerous posts about the Strong Looks Better Naked author this week.
They got their work ethic from their mom, Kris told Shriver. “I had raised four kids in this opulent lifestyle,” she recalled of her first marriage to Robert Kardashian. “And there was never a fear with money, and when I got married the second time [to Bruce Jenner], and it wasn’t the same pocketbook. The fear was that I’d disappoint [them] … I looked at my family and thought, ‘There are a lot of mouths to feed, and this one is in private school.'”
The family’s big chance came along after they opened Dash in 2006, she said. “I had been in San Diego working at my mom’s children’s store, and my dad was in an accident,” she recalled. “My mom was saying that she had to close her store, and I said, ‘You’re not gonna do that.’ And so I would go to San Diego, and I made this store rockin’ … I said to Kourtney, ‘I’m gonna open a children’s store.’ … And then we opened a store, and the other girls wanted a store; they said, ‘You guys are having so much fun, and you’re making a living! Let’s have stores all down the alley together.’ So Kourtney, Kimberly and Khloé opened Dash.”
Soon thereafter, close family friend Kathie Lee Gifford (also Kendall and Kylie’s godmother) offered some advice that would change the family’s world forever. “She suggested we have a reality show. Several other families had reality TV shows at the time, and I talked to my kids about it, and they said, ‘If you’re into it, then we’re all in, and I think it would be a good idea.’ I said, ‘I think if we had a reality show, people would be really interested in the store, and we could have amazing sales.’ So someone set up a meeting with Ryan Seacrest, and we got set up with E! and the rest was history.” (In February 2007, a home sex tape starring Kim Kardashian and her ex Ray J was leaked; E! picked up the series in August 2007.)
The family hasn’t looked back. “I always look at the glass half-full,” Kris mused. “I’m very stubborn and I don’t like to let things go. I think I am so persistent that I will do it until I feel like it’s good or right … Kourtney was the ringleader of this conversation, she said the moment that one of us is having a horrible time it’s all over, we’re either all in or all out … We just started filming season 12 yesterday. I didn’t realize the amount of work that would go into a project, and it’s very ambitious. Eighteen hours a day … and seven days a week, and we didn’t have any time off between the seasons. We realized this is a commitment.”
The only Kardashian currently missing from the series is Rob, who was recently hospitalized with type 2 diabetes. According to Kris, he’s still signed on to do the series. “I think Rob enjoys all the family stuff we do,” she shared. “He has a sock line and his stuff. It was a perfect time for him to take a little hiatus. We gave him that time to get well and get better. He was depressed and not feeling well.”
Meanwhile, the girls’ love lives continue to play out on the series. “When my kids break up with someone, I feel like I’ve broken up with someone,” Kris mused. “The people they bring home — their spouses — we all spend so much time together, and I think my kids have a very strong love for the people that they have in their lives. I think my kids see that through example, and see me and my relationship with Robert Kardashian.”
