Khloe Kardashian is opening up — about not opening up. As the cover girl for Cosmopolitan‘s April issue, on stands March 4, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star reveals more than just her svelte figure; she also shares her thoughts on overcoming obstacles, planning for the future, and living a private life in the public eye.
“I’m not a big ‘cry on a shoulder’ person. I’m very introverted when it comes to my own stuff. Everyone has issues, and I’m not someone who likes to burden people,” the 29-year-old explains to mom Kris Jenner, who conducted the interview.
Case in point? “I got into a car accident yesterday, and no one knew until hours later,” she says. “I said, ‘Oh, my back hurts.’ If it had been Kim, she would have called everyone saying, ‘Help! I’m stranded!’ That’s just how I am. I hold things in. I don’t know why.”
That’s not to say she isn’t close with the rest of her family, though. Quite the opposite, in fact. “We live in the public eye, so if one of us makes a mistake, it affects everyone, which makes me think about what I’m doing in life more. I have such a great support system here,” she says of sisters Kim, Kourtney, Kylie, and Kendall, brother Rob, mom Kris, and “second father” Bruce. “We’re so judged when we leave these walls that we try to never do that to one another here.”
As an example of the scrutiny they face, she cites the frenzy over Kim’s short-lived marriage to ex-husband Kris Humphries. “Your life is meant for you to understand and process, not to make anyone else happy. Kim was so thrashed for her marriage and it not working out,” Khloe says. “If she wasn’t happy, it took guts to say, ‘You know what? I can’t do this anymore.'”
Incidentally, Khloe is going through a very similar situation now. Her marriage to husband Lamar Odom unraveled last year, culminating in a divorce filing in December. “People hate us for showing stuff and they hate us when we say, ‘Fine, we won’t show it anymore.’ I don’t have any regrets,” she tells her mom. “I wouldn’t change a thing. You learn as you go.”
One thing Khloe has learned is to take life one day at a time. “I live for the moment. If you think too far in the future, you might get disappointed or set the bar too low,” she reasons. “It sucks at times, but everything happens for a reason, no matter how s—-y your circumstances are. To say where I want to be in 10 years…I have no idea. I just know that I want to be happy and smiling.”
Happy, smiling — and maybe taking care of a baby or two? “I love kids,” she says. “I hope and pray I have kids when the time is right.”