| Biography | 2009 | Kristen Mary Houghton grew up in La Jolla ( or in University City, a suburb of San Diego), California. She has one sister, Karen. Kris was married to lawyer Robert Kardashian (best known for his trial defense of O.J. Simpson) from 1978 to 1990. Kris and Robert's marriage resulted in four children: Kourtney on April 18, 1979; Kim on October 21, 1980; Khloé on June 27, 1984 and Robert Kardashian Jr. on March 17, 1987. Following marital difficulties Kris filed for divorce in 1990. Robert Kardashian died September 30, 2003.
Second marriage
Circa 1991, Kris commenced a romance with Olympic gold medalist (decathlon) athlete and business figure Bruce Jenner. Bruce related that prior to proposing to Kris he approached the late Robert Kardashian (to remain on amicable terms, as Bruce viewed the biological father as vital in Robert's children's lives), and invited him to a dinner to discuss an amicable finalization of the divorce. Robert gently agreed and sometime later Bruce proposed to Kris. They married in 1991.
Kourtney relayed in the show that as a child she was the least accepting of Bruce; she deliberately wore black for the first year of her mother's new marriage.
The first grandchild to be born is Mason Dash Disick. Born on December 14, 2009, he is the son of Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick.
Kris' marriage to Bruce resulted in two daughters, which according to Kris were "a fantastic, unexpected surprise"-- Kendall (b. November 3, 1995) and Kylie (b. August 10, 1997).
Kris is stepmother to Bruce's son Burt and daughter Casey from Bruce's first marriage; and stepmother to sons Brody Jenner (born August 21, 1983) and Brandon Jenner (born June 4, 1981) from Bruce's second marriage.
[edit] Television appearances
* Keeping Up with the Kardashians (2007–present)
* Celebrity Family Feud (2008)
* Chelsea Lately (April.20,2009)
* Irene Cooking with the Stars (September 9, 2009)
Wikipedia:
Kristen Mary Jenner (née Houghton /?ho?t?n/ HOH-t?n, formerly Kardashian; born November 5, 1955)[1] is an American media personality, socialite, producer, entertainment manager, and businesswoman. She rose to fame starring in the reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians (2007–present).
She has four children from her first marriage to lawyer Robert Kardashian: Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Robert, and two children from her second marriage to television personality and retired Olympic Games medalist Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn): Kendall and Kylie.
Early life
Jenner was born in San Diego, California. She is the first child of Mary Jo Shannon (née Campbell; born 1934) and Robert True Houghton, an engineer. She is of Dutch, English, Irish, German and Scottish descent. When Jenner was seven years old, her parents divorced and she and her younger sister, Karen, were raised by their mother until a few years later when her mother married businessman Harry Shannon.
Three months after moving to Oxnard, California, Shannon's business partner allegedly left with all the company's capital, so the family moved back to San Diego.[6] In San Diego, Jenner worked at Shannon & Company, a children's clothing store that belonged to her mother.[7] Jenner attended Clairemont High School[8] and graduated in 1973.[9] She worked for American Airlines as a flight attendant for a year in 1976.[10]
Career
Jenner runs her own production company, Jenner Communications, which is based in Los Angeles. Since before the start of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, she has managed her daughters' Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall and Kylie's career. She also is involved with the business management of her other daughters and son.
Jenner opened a children's boutique in 2004 with her eldest daughter, Kourtney. The boutique was called "Smooch" and was open for almost six years before closing down in 2009.[11][12] In 2011, Jenner launched a clothing line, Kris Jenner Kollection with QVC.[13][14] Jenner and Bruce previously sold exercise equipment with QVC in the 1990s.[15]
Writing
Jenner's autobiography, Kris Jenner... and All Things Kardashian, was released in November 2011.[16] She later wrote a cookbook entitled In the Kitchen with Kris: A Kollection of Kardashian-Jenner Family Favorites, which was released in October 2014.[17]
Television show
Jenner hosted a pop culture-driven daytime talk show, Kris. The series began its six-week trial summer run on several Fox-owned stations on July 15, 2013.[18]
Kanye West, her son-in-law, revealed the first public picture of daughter North West on the show. The show's six-week trial run was not extended.[19]
Keeping Up with the Kardashians
Jenner met with Ryan Seacrest in 2007 to pursue a reality television show based on her family. Seacrest, who had his own production company, decided to develop the idea, having the popular family-based show The Osbournes in his mind. Jenner further commented on the possible series:[20]
Like, there's the little girls, and there's the older girls, and then there's my son. [...] Everybody thinks that they could create a bunch of drama in their lives, but it's something that I felt I didn't even have to think about. It would be natural.
Kim Kardashian and Jenner at 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards
The show eventually was picked up to air on the E! cable network with Jenner acting as the executive producer. The series focuses on the personal and professional lives of the Kardashian–Jenner blended families.[11] The series debuted on October 14, 2007, and has become one of the longest-running reality television shows in the country.[21] The 18th season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians started airing on March 26, 2020. The show has resulted in the development of several spin-offs, such as Kourtney and Khloé Take Miami (2009), Kourtney and Kim Take New York (2011), Khloé & Lamar (2011), Rob & Chyna (2016) and Life of Kylie (2017)[22]
Public image
Jenner has often been referred to as the matriarch of the family.[23][24] Dimitri Ehrlich of Interview magazine called her "the matriarch of the Kardashian-Jenner brood" and the "21st century's preeminent female pop-cultural brand-builder."[25] Jenner explained her operations as a businesswoman in her memoir Kris Jenner...And All Things Kardashian: "I started to look at our careers like pieces on a chessboard...Every day, I woke up and walked into my office and asked myself, 'What move do you need to make today?' It was very calculated. My business decisions and strategies were very intentional, definite and planned to the nth degree."[14]
Jenner has graced the covers of numerous fashion magazines, including CR Fashion Book,[26] Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar,[27] The Hollywood Reporter, Es Magazine and New You.
Personal life
Marriages, relationships, and family
Jenner's first marriage was to lawyer Robert Kardashian (who later became widely known for his early legal representation of O. J. Simpson) on July 8, 1978.[28][29] They have four children: daughters Kourtney (born 1979), Kim (born 1980), Khloé (born 1984), and son Rob (born 1987). They divorced in March 1991, but remained close friends until his death from esophageal cancer in 2003.[30]
In 2012, Kris confessed that she had an affair with former soccer player and animator Todd Waterman during her marriage to Kardashian. She referred to Waterman as "Ryan" in her autobiography, but he revealed his identity on his own. They had an encounter on Keeping up with the Kardashians while Kris was having a tennis lesson.
In April 1991, one month after her divorce from Kardashian, Jenner married her second spouse, retired Olympian Bruce Jenner, who publicly came out as a transgender woman in 2015, taking the name Caitlyn.[32] They have two daughters together: Kendall (born 1995) and Kylie (born 1997);[33] in her autobiography, Jenner explained that she named her daughter Kendall Nicole after the late Nicole Brown Simpson.[34] By marriage to Bruce, Kris also had four stepchildren: Burt, Cassandra "Casey", Brandon and Brody.
The Jenners announced their separation in October 2013,[35][36] and on September 22, 2014, Kris filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.[37] The divorce became final on March 23, 2015, because of a six-month state legal requirement.[38][39] Kris Jenner has talked about the breakup with Caitlyn as "the most passive-aggressive thing", saying that while she had known of her use of hormones in the 1980s, "there wasn't a gender issue. Nobody mentioned a gender issue."[40] Through her children, Jenner has ten grandchildren.[41]
Jenner has been in a relationship with Corey Gamble since around 2014.[42]
O. J. Simpson trial
Jenner and her family suffered emotional turmoil during the O. J. Simpson trial (1994-1995), later described as the "Trial of the Century." Jenner was a good friend of O.J.'s ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and Jenner's first husband, Robert Kardashian, was one of O.J. Simpson's "Dream Team" of defense lawyers during the trial.[43]
She was portrayed by American actress Selma Blair in the FX limited series American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson, which premiered in February 2016.[44]
California Community Church
Jenner and Pastor Brad Johnson founded the California Community Church in 2012. It originally was called the Life Change Community Church, located in Agoura Hills, California.
Filmography
As herself
Television Year Title Notes Ref.
2007–present Keeping Up with the Kardashians Main role (223 episodes)
2008 Dancing with the Stars Guest (4 episodes)
2008, 2018 Celebrity Family Feud Guest (3 episodes)
2009–10 Kourtney and Kim Take Miami Main role (3 episodes) [46]
2012–12 America's Next Top Model Guest star; 2 episodes [47][48]
2011–12 Kourtney and Kim Take New York Recurring role (6 episodes) [49]
2011 Khloé & Lamar Recurring role (4 episodes) [50]
2013 Kris Host (30 episodes)
2014 Kourtney and Khloé Take The Hamptons Recurring role (2 episodes)
2015 I Am Cait Recurring roles (6 episodes)
The Mindy Project Guest appearance
2016 Rob & Chyna Recurring role (4 episodes)
Hollywood Medium Guest star (1 episode)
2017 RuPaul's Drag Race
2019 Flip It Like Disick Guest appearance (2 episodes)
2020 Justin Bieber: Seasons Cameo [51]
Kirby Jenner Recurring role (3 episodes)
This is Paris Guest appearance (Documentary)
As producer
Year Title Notes Ref.
2007–present Keeping Up with the Kardashians Executive producer (78 episodes)
2011–12 Kourtney & Kim Take New York Executive producer (20 episodes)
2011–12 Kourtney & Kim Take New York Executive producer (20 episodes)
2011–12 Khloé & Lamar Executive producer (20 episodes)
2009–13 Kourtney & Kim Take Take Miami Executive producer (20 episodes) [52]
2013 Kris Executive producer (30 episodes)
2016 Rob & Chyna Executive producer (3 episodes)
2019 Flip It Like Disick Executive producer (1 episode)
2020 Kirby Jenner Executive producer (8 episodes)
In music videos
Year Title Artist(s) Role Ref.
2016 "Where's the Love?" The Black Eyed Peas featuring The World Herself
2018 "Thank U, Next" |
| Research | 2015 | Magazine|Where Would the Kardashians Be Without Kris Jenner?
Cover Photo
Kris Jenner Credit Graeme Mitchell for The New York Times
Where Would the Kardashians
Be Without Kris Jenner?
The mother, and manager, of reality TV’s most
famous clan has created a strange new form of family
business — and changed the nature of celebrity.
By TAFFY BRODESSER-AKNER
MAY 8, 2015
Kris Jenner slowly descended one side of the curving double staircase in her home in Hidden Hills, Calif., like some sort of grande dame, like Elizabeth Taylor in a White Diamonds commercial, only dressed head to toe in black: Balmain blazer, Rag & Bone jeans and Chanel ankle boots. When she reached the foyer, she greeted the former ’N Sync member Lance Bass, kissing him on both cheeks, and then said hello to Tom, who was .?.?. Bass’s assistant? His producer? Everyone there was an assistant and everyone was a producer. Whatever Tom’s official job title was, his actual name was Bob, and he corrected Kris, who smiled and explained that they really were the same name. A production assistant in surgical shoe coverings handed out microphones, and people wired themselves up through the bottoms of their shirts while Kris invited them into the kitchen for coffeecake.
Bass, in a tight blue sweater that matched his eyes and blond highlights that matched Bob’s, had just returned from New York, where he was promoting an E! special featuring his wedding, which took place in December but was shown Feb. 5. Kris asked how the numbers were. Bass said he didn’t know yet. Kris cocked her head about 19 degrees, pursed her lips and told him confidentially (or in a confidential manner, because no one with two cameras on her could possibly have the illusion of secrecy), “They typically know the numbers in the morning the next day.” It was already a few days later.
But Bass was too exhausted to think about numbers. In New York, he and his husband, Michael Turchin, had made the talk-show rounds and done radio appearances to get people to watch the special. “It literally killed me,” Bass said, as he took an obliging bite of the cake.
Kris attended the wedding. “It was my first gay wedding,” she told Bass. He replied, “It was only my second.”
“It was fabulous,” she said. To Kris, everything is fabulous or amazing or incredible or cute or epic or a nightmare; everything she is even remotely interested in is something she is obsessed with.
Continue reading the main story
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Recent Comments
tom May 11, 2015
I cannot believe you wasted space on these people. this is even worse than the piece that was done a while back on "Snooki". I thought the...
thehousedog May 11, 2015
these people remind me of spoiled milk in the refrigerator. it's too gross to look at or smell so we just throw it out without a second...
Don't drink the Kool-Aid May 11, 2015
The fascination with these 'celebrities' so called, of no talent, no merit, and no accounting for their tasteless subterranean existence is...
Her face was the color of a Malibu sunset, her teeth as white and opaque as Michelangelo’s “David.” Her makeup was a masterpiece: even, perfectly blended foundation; precision-defined eyeliner; expertly contoured cheekbones; a heavy fringe of auxiliary eyelashes. Her hands were closer to the color of her teeth than that of her face, a stark contrast when she leaned her chin on them. She has her makeup and hair professionally done every day that “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” is shooting. An assistant told me that she gets it done quickly because she’s so busy: It takes only an hour.
‘Everybody thinks that they could create a bunch of drama in their lives, but it’s something that I felt I didn’t even have to think about. It would be natural.’
There was a knock, and the giant wooden entry door opened and in walked Robin Antin, Kris’s longtime friend and the creative force behind the girl bands G.R.L. and the Pussycat Dolls; Mike Fleiss, an executive producer of the “Bachelor” franchise; and Michael Einziger, a songwriter and member of the band Incubus. Everyone had gathered to discuss an idea for a new reality show, one that started percolating in Kris’s mind when she considered all these acquaintances of hers and all their talents. The details of the show seemed obvious and compelling to everyone there. (I was asked not to disclose the actual pitch, but all you need to do is consider who was in attendance — two reality-show producers, one of whom produces the elimination show “The Bachelor”; a musician; a former boy-band member; and a creator of girl bands — and apply your knowledge of reality shows and a teaspoon of the cynicism that knowledge has imbued in you, and it’s an easy enough guess.) Now all they needed to do was decide if this would be for network or cable and what the title was. “Everyone, get thinking!” Kris commanded. The name for “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” the reality show about a family full of reality-show stars, was decided just before the show made its debut. She knows you can’t start soon enough on the details.
“I don’t think we’re going to be digging for dirt,” she told the crowd, and they chuckled in agreement. “I think that that is going to come find us.”
There are still people who dismiss Kris Jenner, 59, and her family — Kourtney, Kim and Khloé Kardashian, all in their 30s; her son, Rob Kardashian, 28; and Kendall and Kylie Jenner, 19 and 17 — as “famous for being famous,” a silly reality-show family creating a contrived spectacle. But we have reached the point at which the Jenners and the Kardashians are not famous for being famous: They are famous for the industry that they’ve created, the Kardashian/Jenner megacomplex, which has not just invaded the culture but metastasized into it, with the family members emerging as legitimate businesspeople and Kris the mother-leader of them all.
She is an executive producer of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and its summer spinoffs. She also manages the careers of all six of her children, as well as her own. Without Kris, Kim might not have pulled in a reported $28 million in 2014. Kendall wouldn’t necessarily be an in-demand model, walking runways for Chanel and Marc Jacobs and appearing on the covers of Allure and Harper’s Bazaar. There would most likely be no Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, a choose your own adventure (presuming it’s an adventure Kim Kardashian would go on) game app, starring Kim, that brought in many millions last year, or T-Mobile commercial, or book of selfies (“Selfish”), released this month. Kourtney and Khloé and Kim might not have three retail stores, named Dash, in Los Angeles, New York and Miami; a hair-and-makeup line, Kardashian Beauty; a bronzer line, Kardashian Glow; and Kardashian Kids, a children’s clothing line sold at Babies “R” Us and Nordstrom. Kendall and Kylie might not have licensing deals with PacSun, Steve Madden, Topshop and Sugar Factory, where they each have signature lollipops and several contractual agreements to appear at the candy stores. Rob, the lone brother, would probably not have a sock company that features socks that say things like “LOVE HURTS” and “YOLO” or sell adult onesies at places like Macy’s. There would not be seven perfumes in Kim’s name, or Khloé’s perfume with Lamar Odom, Unbreakable, which is still available, though their marriage has ended. There would be no endorsement deals, either: things like OPI nail polish and a “waist trainer” that Khloé and Kim model on their Instagram account. It is entirely possible that without Kris Jenner and all her wisdom over the years, all the attention she has garnered for her family, 16.9 million people would not have tuned in on April 24 to watch her ex-husband Bruce tell Diane Sawyer that he is transgender.
The thing is, no one in her family knew what they were doing until Kris took charge.
Kristen Mary Jenner (formerly Kardashian, nee Houghton) was born in San Diego in 1955. Her father and her mother divorced when she was young, and her father left, leaving her with her mother and sister and grandparents, who owned a candle store.
She was 17 when she met Robert Kardashian, a lawyer 11 years her senior, at the Del Mar racetrack, she in a sweeping wide-brimmed white hat, he with a smile that showed how completely smitten he was. He pursued her, but she wanted to discover the world. She became a flight attendant for American Airlines. She accepted his second proposal, and they married when she was 22. They moved to Beverly Hills, where she occupied the social space of the “Real Housewives” of the time. They had children and spent their weekends in Fila warm-up suits playing tennis with their friends O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson. (After Nicole’s death, Robert would be a member of O.J.’s “dream team” defense, and Kris, married to Bruce by then and pregnant with Kendall, sat in the courtroom gallery in protest and in hope of seeing justice for her friend, wearing Nicole’s hand-me-down maternity clothes.)
By the time she was 30, she had four children, a mansion and a case of ennui that felt terminal. She loved Robert and the life he gave her, but she still felt young and vital. She had an affair with a soccer player, and Robert found out. The divorce was ugly. Kris’s credit cards were canceled, and she was alienated from her friends. She was depressed and miserable, barely able to function throughout the day.
By E! Entertainment Television 1:31
Moms Just Want to Have Fun
Video
Moms Just Want to Have Fun
Kris Jenner is just as entertaining as her famous progeny. Here are some notable scenes of her from “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” By E! Entertainment Television on Publish Date May 8, 2015. .
Then one day, in 1990, before her divorce to Robert was final, she went on a blind date with Bruce Jenner: fun, straightforward Bruce. They fell in love immediately. They each had four children and wanted even more. Bruce went to Robert and asked him to finalize the divorce so that he could marry Kris, telling Robert that they didn’t want any of his money. Robert agreed, and Kris and Bruce were married a month after the divorce papers were signed. (She and Robert were on good terms when he died in 2003.)
But they were broke. Bruce had a fledgling business doing motivational speeches, and Kris thought that if she took charge, he could be successful. She put together press kits and contacted speakers’ bureaus. “It was a mix of blood, sweat and tears, enthusiasm, determination and just never sleeping and getting the word out there,” she said. The phone began to ring. On the other end of the line were Coca-Cola and Visa.
Bruce became her first project. She set him up to market his motivational speech, “Finding the Champion Within,” to a wider audience, and she also helped him create a series of workout videos, sold via infomercial, called “Super Fit With Bruce and Kris Jenner.” In the infomercial, he coaches Kris as she walks on a very short treadmill. The success of Bruce’s speaking business was just the first time that Kris realized the pool of talent she had right there in her own home, as well as their potential for financial security.
In 2007, Kris marched into Ryan Seacrest’s office to discuss an idea for a reality show based on her family. She couldn’t help thinking how her large brood — six children, who, when the show made its debut, ranged in age from 7 to 26 — could have mass appeal. “Like, there’s the little girls, and there’s the older girls, and then there’s my son,” she told me. “Everybody thinks that they could create a bunch of drama in their lives, but it’s something that I felt I didn’t even have to think about. It would be natural.”
“The children’s father had passed away,” said Jeff Jenkins, executive vice president of development and programming at Bunim/Murray and an executive producer of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” since its inception. “I think she was a mom very concerned that they had something to build and grow and be secure.”
Seacrest sent a producer to their house to shoot a short reel at a family barbecue that would help him decide if the idea had potential. “On the way home,” Seacrest told me, the producer called and said: “?‘We have a show. This is going to be amazing.’ Watch the tape, and you know, you see the craziness that is their family.”
Kim Kardashian had just begun her rise to fame. She spent a few years studying at Paris Hilton’s knee during Hilton’s tabloid heyday, learning a little something about fame and how to work the paparazzi. She even appeared on Hilton’s show, “The Simple Life.” The release in 2006 of Kim’s sex tape with the singer Ray J perhaps gave Kris’s show the household name it needed. “That was a smaller seed than people seemed to think,” Kris says now, but in The New York Times review of the show’s first episode, Ginia Bellafante wrote: “As a parent, Ms. Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner, was concerned for her daughter, she explains. But as her manager, she thought, well, hot-diggity.” About 898,000 people watched the first episode of that first season; 1.9 million watched the last.
Photo
A promotional shot for the first season of ‘‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians,’’ in 2007. Credit E! Entertainment
The show had taken off, and Kris used every opportunity to forge new deals for each of her children. Not everything has worked out. There were deals for signature Silly Bandz, diet pills, liqueurs, laser hair removal, branded prepaid credit cards, watches, candles, shoes, jewelry, nail polish. Kris herself had a QVC line, Kris Jenner Kollection; a tooth-whitening endorsement (that she regrets: “too cheesy”); and even, briefly, a talk show that wasn’t picked up beyond its six-week order.
“It doesn’t mean that we’re always looking for more or that we’re greedy,” Kris said. “There’s a lot of people that have great ideas and dreams and whatnot, but unless you’re willing to work really, really hard, and work for what you want, it’s never going to happen. And that’s what’s so great about the girls. It’s all about their work ethic.”
All the family has to do to be successful is to opt in to the very public experience of living. They have to share their secrets, broadcast their doctor’s appointments, admit that their whim of a marriage was a terrible idea, ugly-cry when they remember their father, let the cameras roll as they emote jealousy or anger or confusion or humiliation. If they do all this, the family business thrives. In February, The New York Post reported (via a cover that said “Big Ass Deal”) that the family signed a reported $100 million deal to extend their flagship show on E! (A representative for E! called The Post’s figure “grossly inaccurate” but would not disclose the actual amount.) In 2012, that same extension deal was reported to be a mere $40 million.
On the 18th-century Italian table in the foyer of Kris Jenner’s house lay a pile of nondisclosure agreements, ready for anyone who enters to sign. On the floor was a small framed sign that states: “What we say here, what we see here, let it stay here, when we leave here.” Cameras, however, have been installed in the ceiling above. At any given moment, there are one or two cameras on some combination of Kardashians and Jenners. They are there 10 to 12 hours a day each day that “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” is shooting, more if a plotline warrants it, which, between the regular season and the spinoffs, is basically always. I did not sign the nondisclosure agreement.
Featured prominently in the foyer is a painting that Michael Turchin made for Kris. It’s a collage of magazine covers of Kris and her family, covered by a painting of Snow White eating the poisoned apple. Kris is not afraid of your interpretations.
The bathroom off the foyer is done in black marble, and its toilet paper is black, too. Later, when I told people this, their response was either to wonder where black toilet paper could be purchased or to ask how you would know you were done wiping. A few also noted that in one episode of the show, Kim complained to her mother about the black toilet paper. (When I heard that, I thought, There goes my exclusive.)
Two Wheaties boxes featuring Bruce in his Olympic heyday stood in a closet off the foyer. An assistant had placed a set of Christmas stockings monogrammed with the names of all Kris’s children and stepchildren and grandchildren on a round table. Kris asked her to have this set, a duplicate, sent over to Bruce’s new house in Malibu. Their divorce was finalized in December. They just couldn’t get along the way they used to, she told me. That he would, a few weeks after we spoke, announce to Diane Sawyer that he is and always has been a woman may have been a factor, too, though one she wouldn’t elaborate on. “At the end of the day, I just want him to be happy,” she said. “He’s going to find his happiness, and he’s going to have his journey.”
Photo
The family last year in Season 9. Credit Brian Bowen Smith/E! Entertainment.
Kris’s home is the centerpiece of the show, with much of the action taking place in the kitchen and the foyer. (In fact, the set of Kris’s short-lived talk show was a replica of that foyer, with the addition of a couch and her name hanging from the banister.) She enjoys redecoration and reorganization. When I visited, she had just purchased a new dining-room table whose width and position meant that the chandeliers didn’t line up correctly, not to mention that they didn’t match the new table. A decorator and his assistant stared at the chandeliers with pursed lips and narrowed eyes, and Kris offered them a solution: It might be time to replace the chandeliers.
Assistants were purging the stainless-steel cabinets that line her garage (meticulously organized by holiday and occasion) of things she didn’t need anymore; they would box up the rest. “Clear plastic bins are my new best friend,” she proclaimed to them all. Nothing makes her feel better than knowing that all her stuff is arranged according to her standards or reconfiguring a drawer that has lost its way.
At any given time there are up to 20 people milling purposefully throughout her home, many in black jeans and ankle boots and black leather motorcycle jackets: The decorators spent the rest of the afternoon staring at fabrics, trying to figure out exactly which sheer, off-white material would complement the gray walls of the foyer and living room before presenting it to Kris; and two people were praying over smartphones, managing extensive calendars and lists. There were the people with the cameras, the guy with the boom; there was the woman who brought us leafy salads with chicken and avocado and the man standing by, ready to reapply or touch up Kris’s makeup.
Soon we would go to Costco. Anyone in this house could have made a Costco run for her, but Costco trips are sacred to Kris, and like most of her life while taping the show, it would be fodder for the editing bay: Something could happen while she was there.
“Costco is a passion,” she told me. “Costco is like a massage.” She wanted to pick out the salmon with the herb butter on her own. She wanted to feel around for the best avocados. She did not trust anyone else to check the date stamp on the oatmeal-raisin cookies to see which were baked most recently. “They have the most amazing dog beds,” she said. “Don’t even get me started.” And the specials! “During the summer, there’ll be a fabulous surfboard. I don’t surf, but I’ve got to buy a surfboard. I mean, that’s how crazy I am.”
She has been called a control freak many times, both on the show and in interviews, by her daughters and by Bruce, whose bank card she once confiscated as the cameras rolled. “I guess if I get a little weird about something that isn’t the way I want it, and I complain, then it’s called controlling,” she said. “I like everything a certain way. I’m not somebody who can just lay back and let it happen. That’s never going to happen for me. And I think that’s what’s gotten me to where I am in life, at the same time. I can’t turn it on and off.”
The 10th season of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” made its debut in March. The show is now broadcast in 160 countries. From its first episode through the end of April there have been 5,135 telecasts and 211,550 total minutes on E! That is nearly 147 days of the show, nonstop.
Photo
Kris Jenner Credit Graeme Mitchell for The New York Times
In the week leading up to the 10th season’s premiere, old episodes were broadcast 81 times. During that week, here is what I saw: Khloé call her mother an epithet so vicious and outdated there have been think pieces devoted to its eradication; Kris and her 81-year-old mother get stoned on marijuana-laced gummy bears; Kris beg Khloé to submit to a DNA test to give Khloé some peace of mind about her true paternity, because all her life, rumors have persisted that she was a result of her mother’s affair with the soccer player or a rumored affair with O.J. Simpson; Kris eventually admit that it was really for her own peace of mind that she would like Khloé to take the paternity test, so that the public would stop disparaging her.
I’ve seen Kim get Botox. I’ve seen her get an X-ray to prove that she doesn’t have butt implants. I’ve seen Kourtney’s very drunk boyfriend, Scott, try to stuff a $100 bill down a waiter’s throat when he refused to continue to serve him. I’ve seen Scott express complete shock each time their sex has led to another pregnancy (three so far). I’ve heard the phrase “vodka-based nutritional drink.” I’ve heard vaginas discussed in detail: their size and shape, how they can sometimes itch. I’ve seen real maternal love. I’ve seen true filial contempt. And eventually, somehow indoctrinated in the name of story research, I’ve cried real tears as Kourtney gave birth to her first child with the family gathered around, a hand-held video in the birthing room accommodating both hospital policy and audience expectations.
Kris and her children didn’t do much press for Season 10, unheard-of for this family or anyone promoting a TV show, really. Call it an educated guess to say that perhaps they didn’t want to be asked about Bruce’s transition. But not because they were shielding Bruce, whom they love. It was not because he needed his privacy during this sensitive time, which was the reason so often cited in articles about the rumors that preceded the ABC special. Bruce picked up some lessons from Kris over the years: He has signed on to do a “docuseries” with the same production company that produces their show (though Kris is not involved in it). Bruce has no privacy; none of them do. That’s the deal they made with one another. When they’re silent on Bruce, they aren’t protecting him from the judgments of a cruel world; they are protecting Bruce’s exclusive. “I learned a lot from her,” Bruce said about his marriage to Kris, during the ABC interview. And so he did: He didn’t reveal how he looks dressed in women’s clothing in the interview or what his new name is. You’ll have to tune in to his show to see that. In the Kris Jenner playbook, you don’t give anything away.
And that right there is the hustle. What matters is not the revelation of secrets; who can keep secrets in this modern tabloid culture anyway? It’s the reaction to recently surfaced information — a father’s transition, a sex tape, a new husband’s crack addiction, a boyfriend’s drinking problem — that are most valuable in this world. Kris Jenner doesn’t care that you know everything. What secrets can you “discover” from a woman who airs her daughters’ discussion of the size of their labia? Kris only cares that you heard them when and where she decided you should.
On the night of April 24, as Bruce’s interview was shown, Bruce’s four children from his first two marriages went on camera to discuss their father. Kendall and Kylie provided a statement that ran across the screen. Kris and the Kardashian daughters did not appear.
But sure enough, a few days later, a publicist from E! told me that “About Bruce,” a two-part special including interviews with Bruce and Kris and all the children, would be shown on May 17 and May 24 on the network, where it and the family would be the beneficiary of the special’s ratings. Exclusives had been preserved. The information — what Kris and her daughters would say — had been meted out according to plan.
I did not go with Kris to Costco that day after all. When the time came for us to leave, a producer entered the kitchen. Sorry, she told me, but the plans had changed, and I wouldn’t be able to come along. Costco would only allow four people total, and Kris, the camera person, the sound person and the producer all needed to go. I argued halfheartedly. I had my own Costco card; I could go of my own free will. I had just been there the day before, in fact, the high ceilings and numbered aisles and zombie-driven shopping carts chipping away at my soul. “No offense,” the producer told me, “but we can’t have any association with you there.” They have to keep up good relations with the businesses where they tape; this would not be Kris’s first or last time shooting at Costco. It would be her last time talking to me.
She offered to let me stay and finish my salad while she went. Then she stood up from the table where we were sitting, and the producers and camera crew and assistants descended on her like a swarm. She moved through the crowd undeterred, answering questions, fulfilling needs. The large wooden door opened and closed, some of the swarm following her to her car, some dispersing to the parts of the house from which they originated. Suddenly it was silent, and the TV set of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” became, briefly, just a house.
Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a contributing writer and a GQ correspondent. Her previous profile for the magazine, of the television producer Jill Soloway, has been nominated for a Mirror Award.
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A version of this article appears in print on May 10, 2015, on page MM28 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Mother of Invention. Today's Paper|Subscribe |
