Kris Jenner on building the Kardashian empire: ‘I never thought the exposure would be harmful…’
Kris Jenner may be 69, but she’s still running the Kardashian-Jenner empire with the same drive that launched the family’s widely successful dynasty nearly two decades ago. Fresh off her Vogue Arabia cover, chatter about her latest facelift nearly overshadowed her assiduous strategy that transformed her clan into one of the biggest OTT cash cows of the 21st century.
When Keeping Up With the Kardashians debuted, Kris was 51, a mom of six, juggling family and business in Calabasas. She had no doubts about opening her family’s private lives to the cameras. “To be perfectly honest, I never thought the exposure would be harmful. I just thought this was going to be a great journey. ‘Buckle your seatbelts, we are in for a wild ride, but we are going to have the time of our lives,’” she recalled in her interview with Vogue.
Rooted in practicality and faith, her ambition knew no bounds. “We were working in our stores in Calabasas, and I thought this would be a great way to give exposure to our business, as it was like an instant focus group. This was an immediate marketing tool and something that could come in handy for other things. I knew this was not a gamble. I also prayed about it. I got on my knees and I said, ‘Please Lord, lead me in the right direction,’ and that’s what I still do everyday. I have great spirituality and I’m very confident about my decisions, but I also feel we were led in the right direction,” she said.
Looking back at the moment the show began, when Kourtney was 28, Kim was 27, Khloé was 23, Rob was 20, and Kendall and Kylie were just 10 and 9, Kris sees it as the start of something none of them could have predicted. “But looking back, I never even dreamt that I could’ve had this amazing career starting at 51. I feel really lucky that it happened the way it did, allowing us to do it as a family,” she reflected.
Of course, the show revealed more than most families would ever allow. But Jenner insists she has no regrets about how open they’ve been. “You know, we don’t have any regrets. I don’t live with regrets,” she said. “We have a global television show in 200 countries and so many languages. Our enormous fanbase is very emotionally invested in the family. At this point, they want to see what we are doing, and they will know everything, especially as we live in the age of the internet. There’s nothing off-limits.”
From boutique owners in Calabasas to one of the most famous families on the planet, it’s quite clear that Kris Jenner’s gamble continues to pay off.
