Kim Kardashian Biography
Kim Kardashian's road to the spotlight kicked off with reality TV—you know, the whole "famous for being famous" gig, side by side with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. Kim made her name known along with mother Kris Jenner and sisters Kourtney Kardashian and Khloé Kardashian on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, but she didn't stop there.
Kim was determined to be famous, and she went for it hard. Turning heads for the right, wrong, and shocking reasons. However, behind the glam, stylists, magazine covers, and entrepreneurship, this mother of four juggles careers like a pro. She also has some serious game in social and political advocacy. So, while some might raise an eyebrow at her reality roots and question her fame, don't for one second doubt the fact that Kim Kardashian has built a billion-dollar empire out of her own ambition.
Early Life and Education
Kim Kardashian was born in Los Angeles on October 21, 1980, to Kris (nee Houghton, later Jenner) and Robert Kardashian, a successful attorney known for representing O.J. Simpson in his murder trial. She has two sisters, Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian, and a brother, Rob Kardashian, from her parents’ marriage, as well as three step-brothers, Burt, Brandon, and Brody, a step-sister, Casey, and two half-sisters, Kendall and Kylie Jenner.
Kardashian attended Marymount High School, a Catholic all-girls school in Los Angeles, then briefly attended Pierce College in California but dropped out to pursue her career in fashion. She began working as a closet organizer and stylist for various celebrities, including Paris Hilton and Brandy.
Career
2000s
Kardashian’s rise to fame can be said to have started with her job as a personal stylist to R&B singer Brandy, with whose brother, Ray J, she would later appear in a leaked sex tape.
She went on to work as a stylist for her friend, Paris Hilton, and would make appearances on Hilton’s reality show, The Simple Life. These appearances combined with her leaked sex tape would grab the notoriety and attention to launch her own reality show.
Keeping Up With The Kardashians launched in 2007, and would run successfully for a decade and a half, spawning several spin-offs as the family shared further endeavors.
In 2006, with her sisters Khloe and Kourtney, she launched a fashion chain called Dash.
In 2007 she appeared in Playboy (she would later appear in the Romanian edition in a series entitled "Poezia Unui Fund Bombat" – or in English, “The Poetry of a Bulging Ass.”
In 2008 she appeared with Carmen Electra in the film spoof Disaster Movie, and on Dancing With The Stars.
In 2009, she became the representative of a campaign by Fusion Beauty and Seven Bar Foundation called “Kiss Away Poverty,” selling lipgloss products with proceeds benefitting women entrepreneurs.
In the same year, she released her first fragrance, and a workout DVD series, as well as appearing on America’s Next Top Model and making guest star appearances on several popular tv series.
2010s
Kim’s success was booming. She was signing endorsement deals, had a wax figure in Madame Tussaud’s, released a song called Jam (Turn It Up), and produced a reality show called The Spin Crowd.
She also continued to use her fame for good, donating proceeds from Jam (Turn It Up) to a cancer foundation.
In 2011, she released her thirdfragrance, and, with her sisters Khloe and Kourtney, a novel called Dollhouse.
She won the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her role in Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor in 2013, but never allowed the criticism to slow her down.
She also released a mobile game called Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, another app centered around emojis, and a portfolio book called Selfish, filled with photos she’d taken of herself.
Her nude buttocks made the cover of Paper, with the caption “Break The Internet,” and the site soared from it’s usual 25k daily views to almost 16 million.
In 2017, she launched hear own fashion and beauty lines, followed by a shapewear line – initially called “Kimono” but later changed to “Skims” after controversy over sharing a name with the Japanese garment.
2020s
Kim announced a partnership with the US Olympics team, providing clothing printed with the Olympic logo to female athletes, and in 2022, she launched her own equity firm, making her mother a partner.
Personal Life
Relationships
Kim’s first marriage was in 2000, at age 19, to music producer Damon Thomas. They would divorce in 2004, and she would later say that she was on ecstasy when they eloped, and that the marriage dissolved due to abuse.
She then married NBA player Kris Humphries in 2011, filing for divorce after 72 days.
In 2014, she married controversial rapper Kanye West, and they had four children together. Their relationship would come to a formal end in 2022, after Kardashian (who dropped “West” from her name) pleaded with a judge, saying that her husband was dragging out the proceedings.
Religion
Kardashian was raised in a Christian household, and maintains her faith. She grew up in Catholic and Presbytarian schools, but in adulthood was baptised in an Amenian Apostolic Christian church, and has remained connected to that sect, including baptizing her children into it.
Health and Pregnancies
Kim has birthed two of her four children: daughter North (2013), son Saint (2015). Her daughter Chicago (2018), and son Psalm (2019) were born through surrogacy. She has shared that she had difficulty with her pregnancies, including pre-eclampsia and placenta acreta, and was advised not to become pregnant again after the second.
Net Worth
Kardashian has a reported net worth of $1.7 billion. Yes, billion. Nine zeros.
What does Kim Kardashian do to make so much money?
Kim Kardashian rakes in $50–80 million annually, fueled primarily by her lucrative businesses, KKW Beauty and Skims.
Launched in 2017, KKW Beauty's strategic move came in 2020, when she sold a 20% stake for $200 million. By doing this, the company was then valued at $1 billion.
Meanwhile, Skims, the shapewear brand introduced in 2019, hit a whopping $4 billion valuation after a $270 million funding round in July 2023.
Kim Kardashian's Instagram game is strong too, pulling in a cool $300,000 to $500,000 per post. That's not pocket change; it's a serious flex of her social media power, adding up to an estimated monthly earning of $1–2 million.
Activism
Kardashian is an advocate for criminal justice reform and has successfully lobbied for the release of several inmates who were serving long sentences for non-violent crimes. She is also involved in various charitable efforts, including the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, and has been vocal about issues such as gun control and climate change. She lobbied President Barack Obama for formal recognition of the Armenian genocide, and later thanked President Joe Biden for being the first president to do so.
Controversies
Kardashian has been involved in several controversies throughout her career, including the release of her sex tape, allegations of cultural appropriation, and facing backlash for promoting weight loss products. She was also criticized for staging a large gathering during COVID-19, where she was rumored to have caught the virus.
