Khloe Kardashian is crying all the way to the bank about any regrets she has about their lives being so public and readily available due to Keeping Up With The Kardashians. It’s a song of woe we’ve heard sung by many a reality star, but the Kardashians are an empire – literally – all their own, and probably the most pervasive and successful of the bunch.
Khloe admits, in hindsight, she has some serious regrets regarding how open they’ve been with some very personal situations (her divorce and situation with Lamar Odom is shockingly not one of those regrets!).
The youngest of the original K-sisters never dreamed their reality show would have become so much a part of who they are. When Ryan Seacrest approached them to do the show, Khloe insists she and Kourtney were extremely hesitant about selling their privacy to E! cameras. No surprise, OF’s (Original Famewhores) Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian were eager beavers. Ryan told them it was either the entire family, or no deal, so Khloe and Kourtney reluctantly sacrificed for the greater good.
“My mom and my sister Kim wanted to do the show, but Kourtney and I were really against it,” Khloe shares. “So my mom kind of sold it to us as a great commercial for our stores.”
At that time, Khloe and Kourtney were running their clothing boutiques and didn’t even have full-time assistants! Then Ryan came to a family dinner one day and told them, “You guys are crazy. You need to be on TV.” The rest was history!
“We never could have fathomed the longevity of the show,” says Khloe. “I don’t think anybody could have.”
In the early seasons, the girls were goofy and down-to-earth, and Khloe recalls the years before the glam squads, A-list boyfriends and events, and fame that arose. “Our show, at first, was like a very modern-day Brady Bunch—a little gimmicky and with a takeaway each episode. Occasionally I’ll catch an old episode and notice how we all talked in these baby voices. It’s crazy if you listen to it now. I think maybe we did it because we were nervous.”
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Khloe insists KUWTK is a full-time job which films “six days a week, 12 to 18 hours a day, every single day.” And it’s not all luxury vacations and shopping sprees! “Now our lives have evolved. Not every episode is juicy to us; it’s only juicy to the audience.”
The show has taken on a life of its own and has overtaken the real lives of its stars. Particularly youngest sisters Kendall and Kylie who have grown-up on camera and watched as their entire lives were exposed: from their parents divorce, to their sisters’ divorces, and most pivotally: Bruce Jenner‘s transition to Caitlin.
“Things like Kim’s robbery or Caitlin’s transition? That’s the kind of stuff we wish we had never filmed,” Khloe confesses. “We aren’t ever like, ‘Oooh! Let’s do this for season nine.’ This is our life, and these are the things that happen. And it’s funny—when we decide not to shoot things, people feel slighted. But when we film too much, they’re like, ‘Oh, you never should have filmed that.’ It’s a catch-22.”
“I didn’t start to really understand the opportunity the series presented until the fourth or fifth season,” Khloe shares in a personal essay written for Glamour. “The truth is that I was heavier then too, so not a lot of endorsements were coming my way. Brands would prefer to align themselves with Kim or Kourtney, which I was totally fine with because I was still along for the ride.”
As Khloe came to terms with fame, she admits to making a lot of mistakes – like doing a tampon commercial! “We are by nature vulnerable and open people. And I think it’s a gift to be that way,” she concedes. “The older you get, and the more comfortable you become in your skin, the more you begin to think about what makes sense for you. Now our lives have evolved.”
“When it comes to our drama, we are a large, blended family. If you put a microscope over any family for 10 years, you’re bound to find cracks in the foundation. That’s just the name of the game, and we’re strong enough to endure it.”
Khloe acknowledges that reality TV, and its consequences, are not for everyone. But, “this is what we do and we do it together,” she defends. And at this point, obviously, the Kardashians no longer have any shame in their game: “This is what we’ve chosen, and we’ve chosen to be as raw and honest as we can.” Or not, but apparently it doesn’t matter because people are still watching!
You can read Khloe’s full essay here.
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[Photo Credit: Instagram]
