by Sean Smith
Oct 1994: Celebrates her fourteenth birthday at Neverland, the famous Santa Barbara ranch of Michael Jackson. She has started dating his nephew, T. J. Jackson, who would be her boyfriend throughout her high-school years.
Oct 1996: On her sixteenth birthday, Kim is given the keys to her first car, a brand-new white BMW 318 saloon. She has to sign a contract with her father that she will be responsible for any repairs – and promptly drives into the back of another vehicle.
Nov 1995: Kendall Jenner, Kim’s half-sister, is born. She is given the middle name Nicole in memory of her mother’s dead friend.
Aug 1997: Kylie Jenner is born. She is the last of Kris Jenner’s six children; the eldest, Kourtney, is now 18.
Jan 2000: Gets married in Las Vegas to record producer Damon Thomas without telling her family. She is 19. It proves to be an unhappy marriage.
July 2003: Her father tells the family he is suffering from oesophageal cancer. All four of his children attend when he marries Ellen Pearson at a ceremony at his house in Encino.
Sept 2003: Robert Kardashian dies, aged 59. Kim gives an address at the funeral at Inglewood Park Cemetery.
Oct 2003: Now separated from Damon, she makes a sex tape with her well-endowed boyfriend, Ray J, a hip-hop artist and actor. They fly to Mexico the next day to celebrate her twenty-third birthday.
Feb 2004: Her divorce from Damon is finalised. She receives $56,000 in the settlement and the return of an inscribed Bible, a gift from her father, which she had left behind at their house.
Jan 2006: Opens a Myspace profile under the name of Princess Kimberly. Says she is in a relationship (with Ray J), is straight, Christian and would like children some day. Acquires 856 friends.
May 2006: Goes to the movies in Calabasas with singer Nick Lachey and has her picture taken by the paparazzi. Publication of the pictures gets her noticed for the first time.
July 2006: Accompanies Bruce Jenner to the ESPY Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood and meets American football star Reggie Bush, but it takes months for him to ask her out. On their first date, they go to a car wash and Chipotle Mexican Grill.
Dec 2006: Spends the run-up to New Year in Sydney with Paris Hilton, who has flown to Australia to choose the face of a new beer. Kanye West sees a picture of the two young women on Bondi Beach and knows he wants Kim to be his girl.
Feb 2007: Announces she is suing Vivid Entertainment in a right-to-privacy lawsuit over the distribution of her sex tape.
April 2007: Settles her suit with Vivid after reaching an agreement with the company. Kim Kardashian Superstar reportedly becomes the biggest-selling sex tape of all time. Filming begins for the Kardashian family’s reality TV show, focusing on Kris and Bruce’s sixteenth wedding anniversary celebrations.
Sept 2007: Attends opening of the Intermix boutique in West Hollywood and is pictured with Kanye West and his girlfriend, Alexis Phifer. Kim later admitted ‘there was definitely a spark’ between them.
Oct 2007: Keeping Up with the Kardashians begins on E! and, including repeats, draws an audience of more than 13 million during its first four weeks. Less than a month after the premiere, the family starts shooting its second season.
Dec 2007: Appears on the front cover of Playboy magazine. The shoot was documented in an episode of the reality show and Hugh Hefner helped to select some nude shots for inside the magazine.
March 2008: Plays the love interest in video for ‘Thnks fr th Mmrs’, a song by rock band Fall Out Boy. Shares billing with a bunch of chimpanzees, who she says were ‘scary’.
Aug 2008: Makes her feature-film debut in the ironically named Disaster Movie. The critics hate it and Kim is nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award (Razzie). Says her ambition is to be a Bond girl.
Sept 2008: Is the third contestant voted off season 7 of Dancing with the Stars, despite being paired with reigning champion Mark Ballas. Judge Bruno Tonioli called her rumba colder than Siberia.
Dec 2009: Guest stars in an episode of CSI: NY, playing a femme fatale called Debbie Fallon. She turns out to be the villain.
Feb 2010: Watches Reggie Bush and his team, the New Orleans Saints, claim the Super Bowl in Miami by defeating the Indianapolis Colts. She invades the pitch afterwards to give her man a congratulatory kiss. Launches her first perfume, Kim Kardashian, at TAO nightclub in Las Vegas.
March 2010: Splits with Reggie for a second and final time. She buys a $4.8 million Tuscan-style villa in Beverly Hills, with swimming pool, Jacuzzi, movie room and a waterfall in the garden.
July 2010: Unveils a wax statue of herself in Madame Tussauds, New York. She wears the same pink Hervé Léger dress as the figure and exclaims, ‘I think she’s pretty hot.’
Nov 2010: Demonstrates she never turns down an opportunity by opening a new toilet facility in Times Square, New York. She doesn’t go inside to be the first to spend a penny. Poses dead in a coffin for the Digital Life Sacrifice in support of a World Aids Day campaign. Watches new boyfriend Kris Humphries play basketball for the New Jersey Nets.
Dec 2010: Is officially the top-earning reality TV star with $6 million. She launches the premier Kim Kardashian Signature Watch Collection. Distributes hundreds of toys at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on Christmas Day.
March 2011: Releases her first and only single to date, a dance song from The-Dream entitled ‘Jam (Turn It Up)’. The record is not a success, despite being for charity, and Kim doesn’t pursue a pop career. The video, directed by Hype Williams and co-starring Kanye West, is never released.
May 2011: Walks into the bedroom of her Beverly Hills home to discover boyfriend Kris Humphries on bended knee, holding out a 20.5-carat diamond ring, worth a reported $2 million. ‘Will you marry me?’ is spelled out in rose petals on the floor. She says yes.
June 2011: Kim is named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in Berkeley Square Gardens, London. Has bum officially X-rayed to prove that she hasn’t had butt implants.
Aug 2011: Marries Kris Humphries in a lavish ceremony in Montecito, California, which is filmed for Keeping Up with the Kardashians. He surprises his new bride by taking her for a quick honeymoon on the Amalfi Coast.
Oct 2011: A two-part special, Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event, airs on E! and is a big ratings success. The first night attracts 4.4 million viewers; the second night 4 million. Kim files for divorce after 72 days of marriage, citing ‘irreconcilable difficulties’.
April 2012: Kim is a guest at the White House for the Correspondents’ Dinner. Arrives hand in hand with Kanye West at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
Nov 2012: Launches a new clothing line for curvy girls, the Kardashian Kollection, at Dorothy Perkins in London. She and her sister Kourtney are accompanied by an entourage of 47.
Dec 2012: At his concert in Atlantic City, Kanye stops his song ‘Lost in the World’ and points at Kim. ‘Can we make some noise, please, for my baby mama right here?!’
May 2013: Fails to please everyone in her Mrs Doubtfire dress at the Met Ball. The theme of the night was punk, but critics thought her outfit from Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy resembled a pair of curtains.
June 2013 Finally divorced from Kris Humphries after divorce proceedings that lasted seven times longer than her marriage. The marriage is dissolved, not annulled, as he had asked for.
Her first baby, North West, is born a month prematurely at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Nori, as she is called, weighs 4lb 15oz. The Keeping Up with the Kardashians cameras are not invited to the birth. Kim’s mother and stepfather separate after 23 years together.
Oct 2013: Kanye’s birthday surprise for Kim is to take her blindfolded to the AT&T Park in San Francisco and pop the question, with an orchestra playing her favourite song, ‘Young and Beautiful’ by Lana Del Rey. The message ‘Pleeease Marry Meee!’ lights up the night sky. Kris Humphries sells the engagement ring he gave her for $749,000 at Christie’s in New York.
March 2014: Wins the Razzi
e as Worst Supporting Actress for her role in Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, written and directed by Tyler Perry.
April 2014: Realises a long-held ambition to appear on the cover of Vogue. The picture, with Kanye, is taken by Annie Leibovitz. Kim tweets, ‘This is such a dream come true!!!’
Aug 2014: She and and Kanye buy a $20-million estate in Hidden Hills, boasting 10 bathrooms, eight bedrooms and two swimming pools. They purchase a $2.9-million property next door to ensure their privacy.
May 2014: Kim and Kanye marry in the most romantic setting, Forte di Belvedere, on a hilltop overlooking Florence, Italy. The cameras aren’t invited and her beautiful Tisci-designed wedding dress is kept hidden until the big day. Her brother Rob doesn’t attend, nor does stepbrother Brody Jenner. Andrea Bocelli sings ‘Ave Maria’ as Bruce walks her down the aisle. The not-so-secret honeymoon is in Ireland.
July 2014: Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, a video/mobile game created by Glu Mobile, is an instant hit, with 28 million downloads and 11 billion minutes of play in the first six months.
Sept 2014: Kim is named GQ magazine’s Woman of the Year at the Royal Opera House in London.
Nov 2014: Paper magazine features Kim on the front cover and inside, with nude images of her famous rear end, and the inspired marketing tag ‘Break the Internet’.
Jan 2015: Premieres her 30-second commercial for T-Mobile’s Data Stash during the Super Bowl. She is filmed taking selfies and says, ‘It’s your data. Keep it.’
Feb 2015: Joins her family in signing a deal worth a reported $100 million with E! for another four years of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The show is now broadcast in 160 countries. Presents a prize to Sam Smith at the BRITs in London and introduces her husband Kanye West’s performance.
April 2015: Visits Armenia for the first time with Kanye, North and Khloé. She lays flowers at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan and meets Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan. They journey on to Jerusalem, where North is baptised. Named as one of Variety’s Power of Women Inspiration Impact Honorees for her charitable work. Both Kim and Kanye make Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
May 2015: Wears a show-stopping Roberto Cavalli bird-of-paradise gown to the Met Ball. Her book of selfies, Selfish, is published and becomes a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. Announces she is pregnant with her second child. Meets Caitlyn Jenner for the first time at her photo shoot for Vanity Fair magazine. She says, ‘She’s beautiful.’
June 2015: Forbes places her thirty-third in their Celebrity 100 list of the world’s highest-paid celebrities, with annual earnings of $52.5 million. Watches Kanye perform on the main stage at Glastonbury.
Aug 2015: Has combined following on Twitter and Instagram of 77.8 million and rising. The population of the United Kingdom is 63.5 million.
Acknowledgements
Just for a change, I wanted to begin by saluting the brilliant work done by the astrologer, Madeleine Moore. She has written birth charts for all my best-known books and they have never been less than fascinating. In the case of Kim Kardashian West, however, she has excelled herself. She may be one of my dearest friends, but she never sees the manuscript or discusses the subject with me beforehand. I am always amazed and delighted if some of what she reveals reflects the story I tell. I couldn’t put down the pages about Kim – a powerful woman who can make a difference.
On the subject of unsung heroes on Team Sean, thank you to Jen Westaway, who somehow manages to transcribe my interview tapes, even when it’s quite clear I am chatting over a nice lunch in a very noisy restaurant. Once again, Arianne Burnette has done a marvellous job copy-editing the text. My researchers, Emily-Jane Swanson, Jo Westaway and Alison Sims have been terrific and they, like me, are in awe at just how much Kim Kardashian has achieved in her 35 years.
Special thanks to my old friend Kevin O’Sullivan, the best television critic in the country, for his insight into reality television, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians in particular. On that subject, Elliot Mintz, the former media consultant for Paris Hilton, was fascinating. I loved his stories of clubland with Paris and Kim. Alison Jane Reid was as incisive as ever regarding Kim’s fashion. Good luck with your website: http://www.ethical-hedonist.com/
Congratulations to my agent, Gordon Wise at Curtis Brown, on deservedly being named Agent of the Year at The Bookseller Awards of 2015. I always knew he was the best agent in the business and now it’s official. Thanks also to his assistant, Richard Pike, for dealing so expertly with far too many enquiries from me.
In Los Angeles – and Calabasas – I enjoyed meeting a number of aspiring actresses and singers working in bars, restaurants and hotels while they pursued their dream. Many people in LA preferred not to be named when they talked about Kim, because it’s a very small world out there. Thank you, and I won’t forget that I owe a lot of lunches. It was great to see Gill Pringle, Katie Hind and Richard Mineards while I was there. Thanks to Cliff Renfrew for putting me up and sharing an excellent meal at Carousel, the Kardashian’s favourite Armenian restaurant. I can see why – the food is excellent.
There’s a superb team at HarperCollins backing me up. Sincere thanks to my editor Kate Latham for her enthusiasm and expertise; Georgina Atsiaris and Mark Bolland for project editing; Anneke Sandher and Martin Topping for their breathtaking cover design; Virginia Woolstencroft for looking after publicity; and Kate Elton for overseeing the whole project. Finally, a special word for my publisher, Natalie Jerome, who first suggested that Kim would be a great subject for me. I hope you are enjoying your time with the new baby.
You can read more about my books at seansmithceleb.com or follow me on Twitter @seansmithceleb and facebook.com/seansmithcelebbiog.
Select Bibliography
Beaumont, Mark. Kanye West: God & Monster, Omnibus Press, 2015
Behan, Pam with Sara Christenson. Malibu Nanny: Adventures of the Former Kardashian Nanny, Minnesota Girls Press, 2013
Billieon, Maxwell and Ray J. Death of the Cheating Man: What Every Woman Must Know About Men Who Stray, Strebor Books, 2012
Cohen, Nadia. Kim & Kanye: The Love Story, John Blake Publishing, 2014
Crawford, Byron. Kanye West Superstar, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014
Jenner, Bruce and Phillip Finch. Decathlon Challenge: Bruce Jenner’s Story, Prentice-Hall, 1977
Jenner, Bruce with Mark Seal. Finding the Champion Within: A Step-By-Step Plan for Reaching Your Full Potential, Simon & Schuster, 1999
Jenner, Kris. In the Kitchen with Kris: A kollection of Kardashian-Jenner family favorites, Gallery Books/Karen Hunter Publishing, 2014
Jenner, Kris. Kris Jenner … and All Things Kardashian, Simon & Schuster UK, 2012
Kardashian, Kourtney, Kim and Khloé. Kardashian Konfidential, St Martin’s Press, 2011
Schiller, Lawrence and James Willwerth. American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense, Random House, 1999
Simkin, Ryan. Flash! Bars, Boobs, and Busted: 5 Years on the Road with Girls Gone Wild, 4 Park Publishing, 2010
West, Donda with Karen Hunter. Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar, Pocket Books, 2007
List of Searchable Terms
The page numbers in this index relate to the printed version of this book; they do not match the pages of your ebook. You can use your ebook reader’s search tool to find a specific word or passage.
Abrahamyan, Hovik 7, 276
Adams, Maud 22
Affleck, Ben 172
Alligator Boots 194–5
American Tragedy (Schiller/Willwerth) 69, 70
Anderson, Pamela 110
Angel by Thierry Mugler 158
Aniston, Jennifer 210
Antin, Robin 150
Armenia 3–11, 13, 22, 24, 25, 53, 54, 73, 102, 200, 206–7, 246, 252, 276
Artest, Ron 162
Ashley, Jan 97, 100, 243
Austin, Miles 166
Avagyan, Lilit
200
Azoff, Allison 26–7
Azoff, Irving 26–7, 164, 211, 212
Azoff, Shelli 26–7, 56, 164, 211, 217
B. Mel 211
Babyface 73, 85, 86, 90, 152, 164, 173
Bailon, Adrienne 164, 242
Baker, Dr Carol 185
Ballas, Mark 149, 150, 271
Balmain 217
Banks, Tyra 137, 144–5
BAPE 200
Barber, Lynn 168
Bartoli, Chloé 240
Baywatch 148
Beach Bunny Swimwear 157
Beckham, Victoria 73–4, 90–1, 145
Behan, Pam 48, 50–1, 72
Berger, Lisa 140
Beyoncé 94, 136, 151, 152, 196–7, 200, 214, 218
Beyond the Break 166
Bieber, Justin xiii, 158, 236, 237
Bissinger, Buzz 42, 224
Blac Chyna 238, 239
Blahnik, Manolo 90, 94
Blige, Mary J. 73
Blue Table deli, Calabasas xii
Bocelli, Andrea 218, 275
Body boutique, Encino 75, 80, 85, 87, 88–9
Bohana, Donald 61
Boone, Pat 25–6
Boyz II Men 85
Brandy 103, 104, 106–7, 115, 117–18, 121, 135, 179
Brandy: Special Delivery 106–7
Braun, Scooter 236
‘Break the Internet’ campaign 233–4, 275
Bridge, Wayne 166
BRITs, 192, 245, 276
Bruce Jenner: The Interview 225
Bruckheimer, Jerry 67
Bryant, Kobe 163
Buckley School, Sherman Oaks 26, 59, 60, 267