Whether you love them or hate them, you’ve most definetely heard of the Kardashian-Jenner family and that is all thanks to one woman, Kris Jenner.
The famous mother-of-6 built a billion-dollar empire and rarely receives the credit she deserves for being the matriarch of her family’s fame & fortune.
Kris Jenner has perfected the art of using the media to her advantage over the years.
It is very rare, that her daughters (who are arguably the most famous women on the planet right now) ever speak out about ongoing controversy or rumours.
Instead, viewers are kept guessing and debating over theories and have to keep their eyes peeled for scandals to play out on the family’s notable reality show.
Who was Kris Jenner before all of this fame?
Before ‘Momager’ Kris managed to get her family on the map, she was somewhat living a lavish life already.
Married to successful lawyer Robert Kardashian at the time, Jenner became involved in the headlines as her husband was appointed to defend OJ Simpson, during his highly public trial.
Soon after, her and Robert Kardashian ended up filing for divorce and Kris re-married to famous Olympian Bruce Jenner.
Kris approached Ryan Seacrest, who owns a huge production company, speaking about creating a show about her family in 2007. Kris already had a production company, but Seacrest liked the concept and decided to produce it himself.
Voila…Keeping up with the Kardashians was born!
The show goes on
Their reality show, Keeping up with the Kardashians was initially not that well received, however with time, viewers had the opportunity to relate to them as they uncovered the various parts of their personal lives.
From breakups, to weddings & (many) babies later, the family let cameras in for over a decade of their lives.
Many fans constantly speculate as to whether Kris is responsible for calculating certain life events.
For example, the show hit an all time high rating when her eldest daughter Kourtney and boyfriend at the time, Scott Disick found out they were having their first child.
Scott was incompetent to be a father due to his frequent partying & substance abuse, as such Kourtney gave Scott an ultimatum that if he didn’t go to rehab, he might never have the chance to meet his child.
As mentioned by Medium, ‘This was a change for the show to deal with more serious situations such as parenthood; Kris Jenner even revealed in her book that this switch up was 100% planned. The numbers started to slowly climb, but Kris Jenner wasn’t going to be happy until ratings hit an all time high’.
Her daughter, Kim Kardashian was also somewhat famous at the time, for her scandal involving a leaked tape with singer Ray-J.
Kris Jenner managed to support her daughter through this huge scandal and turn a big mistake into Kim becoming a worldwide brand for herself.
Kim released a photo book, clothing company and become the face of the worlds biggest magazines and campaigns.
Soon after, Kris’ daughter Kim was getting married to basketballer, Kris Humphries.
The marriage was a train-wreck (lasting just 72 days) and played out on cameras for viewers to see, this is when Kris Jenner’s ability to manipulate the media became more and more apparent.
The relationship failing was plastered across EVERY news outlet possible and Kim was questioned to discuss the divorce after it happened.
Rather than just doing an interview, teaser trailers for the upcoming season would appear, giving fans a small glimpse at what happened between the two.
Audiences were required to watch the new season of the show if they wished to know out what had happened (clever Miss Jenner, clever).
They have become experts at controlling the narrative, both on & off-screen.
Kylie Jenner becomes a billionaire
Kris’ youngest daughter Kylie, from ex-husband Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner…it’s hard to keep up) was labelled as Forbes’ Youngest Billionaire in the world in 2020!
Now, let’s take things back just a few years to when Kylie Jenner’s lips were the number 1 thing people were discussing worldwide.
In 2015, the celebrity came out to finally admit she had lip fillers, in order to plump up the appearance of her lips. It had the internet in a chokehold and everyone wanted ‘Kylie Jenner lips’.
Just a few months later, you guessed it, came the Kylie Jenner Lip Kit products – lip liners and liquid lipsticks made to plump up the appearance of your lips.
At just 18 years old, Kylie managed to sell out her lip kits in just one minute!
The now 24-year old, went on to expand in the field of cosmetics, launching her very own makeup & skincare line now worth $1.2 billion.
Kris did the same thing for daughter Khloe, regarding negative body image media that has confronted her for years. This was done by launching Good American, one of the major body-inclusive jeans brands in the world.
Another Kris Jenner PR guru moment was when Kylie’s pregnancy was kept a secret.
Kylie Jenner was at the pinnacle of her fame when she secretly became pregnant with rapper Travis Scott. Instead of broadcasting her news to the world, as her fans were accustomed to, her & mother/manager Kris Jenner chose for them to step away from social media and the public.
Everyone was obsessed with discovering if she was in fact pregnant, fans were coming out with theories on Twitter and the topic was in the media non-stop until Kylie finally announced her pregnancy with a YouTube video.
The video quite literally broke the internet, becoming the most viewed video at the time and currently has over 105 million views.
Once again depicted how the family managed to gain control and authority over the narrative and reveal things in their own way, gaining further fame through getting people talking.
Takeaways
As the famous phrase goes “the devil works hard, but Kris Jenner works harder”. It ironically demonstrates Kris Jenner’s brilliance and power in what she does.
Having birthed and built up a family worth well over $2 billion, her marketing strategies and resilient business skills are highly admirable to anyone.
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