Inside the Kardashian family’s journey from scandal to global stardom

By  Jeff Anthony

Novelist, Big Brother Africa 2 Kenyan representative

What you need to know:

• From Kris Jenner’s early relationships to Kim Kardashian’s controversial rise, the family’s journey reveals the complex relationship between celebrity, publicity and commercial success.
• Kim Kardashian’s sex tape became a defining moment in her rise to fame, raising questions about privacy, consent, publicity and the business of celebrity.

In 1972, 29-year-old PGA golfer Cesar Sanudo began dating Kristen Mary Houghton, who was 12 years his junior. For a year, Kris accompanied Cesar on tours to Japan, Scotland and Mexico. Cesar took her to celebrity parties in mansions and on yachts, exposing her to a luxurious lifestyle that fascinated her and introducing her to industry personalities who would play integral roles in later years.

Kris was living with Cesar when she attracted the attention of Robert ‘Bob’ Kardashian, another older man, at the Del Mar racetrack in Southern California in the summer of 1973. Bob was a descendant of an affluent Armenian family and grew up in privileged life in Windsor Hills, a Los Angeles suburb. He earned a law degree from the University of San Diego in 1969, established a trade magazine called Radio & Records and sold his share of the business in 1979 for $12 million.

When Kris began having an affair with Bob behind Cesar’s back, she had just accepted Cesar’s marriage proposal. Cesar, who had been suspicious of Kris’s sexual recklessness, stumbled upon them having sex at his condominium. Bob burst into tears before Cesar ejected him.

Shortly afterwards, Kris discovered that Cesar was sleeping with a woman he had met at the British Open. She officially ended their engagement and flew back to Los Angeles. Bob was waiting for her at Los Angeles International Airport in a green Mercedes convertible, accompanied by his best friend, OJ Simpson. He proposed, but Kris declined, preferring to work as an American Airlines stewardess.

Upon learning of Bob’s dalliance with Elvis Presley’s ex-wife, Priscilla, Kris panicked and accepted his marriage proposal on Easter Sunday in 1978. They married on July 8, with a reception at the prestigious Bel-Air Country Club. On April 18, 1979, Kris gave birth to Kourtney. She subsequently had Kimberly on October 21, 1980, Khloé on June 27, 1984, and Robert on March 17, 1987.

Kris’s adventurous proclivities led to an affair with Todd Waterman, a 23-year-old professional footballer contracted to LA Heat. In her memoir, Kris Jenner ...and All Things Kardashian, Kris states that she had “wild crazy sex all the time with Todd, in cars, at the tennis court, in the pool house, garage and in her marital bed”.

Bob became suspicious and hired a private detective to follow Kris. He confronted her on four separate occasions, including during an altercation at Todd’s apartment, where Bob attacked him with a golf club. The confrontation culminated in a high-speed chase, with Bob pursuing Kris and Todd in their Jeep. Kris recounts that the affair ended when she caught Todd naked with another woman at his apartment.

Bob filed for divorce in 1990, citing Kris’s alleged careless attitude towards their four children and her having sex with Todd in their marital bed while the children were in the house. The court ordered both parties to undergo psychiatric evaluations. A psychiatrist was appointed to administer the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a controversial clinical assessment tool developed in the 1930s and frequently used by mental health professionals to assess adult personality traits and psychopathology.

Kris scored a ‘spike 4’ on the test, which the psychiatrist noted was associated with people who are “immature, impulsive, high risk takers and who do things others do not approve of, just for the personal enjoyment of doing so”. The results reportedly indicated that Kris occasionally exhibited poor judgement and tended to be callous, pleasure-oriented, narcissistic and manipulative.

These traits would later be linked to allegations that Kris instructed her daughter Kim to create a sex tape to propel her career. At 19, Kim had secretly married 29-year-old record producer Damon Thomas in Las Vegas and endured physical and psychological abuse before Damon filed for divorce in 2004. Kim returned to her teenage business of organising closets and was employed by Paris Hilton, her former Buckley preschool classmate.

Paris, the heiress to the Hilton hotel empire, was propelled to instant notoriety in the summer of 2003 when a sex tape featuring her and her ex-boyfriend, Rick Salomon, surfaced online. Paris’s fame skyrocketed, and the controversy surrounding the tape helped attract an enormous audience of 13 million to her Fox reality show, The Simple Life.

According to the account, Paris’s sex tape scandal was orchestrated by her manager, Jason Moore, who, with the consent of Rick and Paris, struck a deal with internet pornography company Marvad to distribute it. The publicity surrounding the tape coincided with the launch of Paris’s purse collection, jewellery line and perfume venture with Parlux. These investments helped build an empire reportedly worth $100 million, while her nightclub appearances earned her between $25,000 and $100,000 each and elevated her to paparazzi phenomenon status.

Push to fame

Kris was captivated by Paris’s immense stardom and resolved to propel her daughter to the pinnacle of fame. When marketing and distributing a sex tape, both participants must legally consent to its distribution to avoid serious legal consequences.

Kim had already recorded a sex tape with her ex-boyfriend Ray J, whom she met while working for his sister, R&B superstar Brandy Norwood. Kris contacted Steve Hirsch, founder of adult entertainment company Vivid, and negotiated a $5 million distribution deal for the tape on Cahuenga Boulevard in Los Angeles, alongside Kim and Ray J. She subsequently instructed Kim and Ray J to create a second video in high resolution to capitalise on the distribution deal.

In what the account characterises as an attempt to portray herself as the victim of an unscrupulous sex tape release, Kris allegedly instructed Kim to file a sham lawsuit and issue a press release pretending to be upset by the tape’s emergence. The sex tape ultimately helped establish a billion-dollar empire for Kris and Kim and propelled their family to global stardom.

The writer is a novelist, Big Brother Africa 2 Kenyan representative and founder of Jeff's Fitness Centre (@jeffbigbrother).