Back in March, Kim Kardashian got herself into a world of trouble thanks to a piece of advice she gave to working women in an interview with Variety. While she attempted to clarify her remarks then, tonight’s new episode of “The Kardashians” highlighted what went down as Kim and her family reacted in real time to the backlash.
In case you missed it, during a profile for the Hulu show’s first season, Kim was asked to give her advice for women in business. Her very frank response: “I have the best advice for women in business: Get your f—ing ass up and work. If you put in the work, you will see results.”
The only thing Kim saw after making those comments, however, was criticism — as many called her out for not acknowledging the privilege she came from and how she seemingly always had a leg up on the average person.
“I’m assuming you saw all of the backlash of the Variety interview. I’m like mortified, I don’t know what to do, it’s all my fault,” Kim said in a phone call to her mother as the negative reaction rolled in. Kris Jenner tried to calm her down, telling her daughter, “It’s not your fault, sweetie, people misunderstood where you were coming from.”
“When I made that statement, it wasn’t a blanket statement toward all women, as if I didn’t think women work hard or respect the work that they do, because I see it every single day,” Kim said in a confessional. “The most important people in my life that have shaped my life and shaped my career and help me get to where I am today all are women. So I hated that that got misunderstood. And for that I’m so sorry.”
While Kris told Kim to take a beat and sleep on it before responding, an exasperated Kim said to Khloe, “It never ends. Will it end?” Her sister responded saying, “No, it won’t end until we end. But guess what, we’re built for this.” Though Kim wasn’t sure if she was “built for this” anymore, Khloe added, “It’s all noise, none of it’s real.”
Kim and Khloe later met up with sister Kendall Jenner to talk more about the fallout from the interview.
“There’s just been so much going on because of that Variety interview. I said what I said about people working. Do I believe in that? Yes. I believe you have to work hard in order to do that … but I was just blindsided by how angry people got,” Kim told Kendall. “Enough people were triggered that I want to be responsible and understand why people feel the way that they do and I do understand that. A lot of people weren’t given the same opportunities as us.”
“If people understood that, yeah, we grew up privileged, but people don’t know the story of your dad and mom, having to sell their house in Hidden Hills because they couldn’t afford it and they had to move to an apartment and mom really started her career and making money at 50,” Kim continued. “I saw her work her ass off. That really inspired me to work.”
In a confessional, she added that she’s always felt she had to work “extra hard to be taken seriously” since she started out as “a reality show girl with a sex tape” — something she noted “does not open doors.”
In her own confessional, Khloe defended Kim from the criticism — saying she would have been screwed no matter her answer.
“No matter what her answer would have been, people would crucify her regardless because they’re always gonna say, ‘What do you know, you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth,'” said Khloe. “But it’s frustrating when the world doesn’t want to see you for who you are and they want to always make whatever you say a personal attack and you don’t have empathy or compassion for other people. So it’s the right message, the wrong messenger.”
Kendall, meanwhile, said “all of the false narratives” around the family had “gotten out of control” — before pointing to “the whole situation” Kim was “dealing with,” referring to Kanye posting about Kardashian allegedly limiting how much he was “allowed” to see their kids.
“Oh, Kanye posted ‘I can’t see the kids.’ And I’m like, you were here this morning, stop with this narrative,” said Kim. “But then I don’t want to go back and forth on the internet.”
“It’s all gaslighting. All of it is whatever narrative everyone wants to believe,” added Khloe, before concluding, “We should buy them all lighters for Christmas.”
New episodes of “The Kardashians” drop Thursdays on Hulu.
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