Kim Kardashian was born on October 21, 1980, in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Robert and Kris (née Houghton). She has an older sister, Kourtney, a younger sister, Khloé, and a younger brother, Rob. Their mother is of Dutch, English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, while their father was a third-generation Armenian-American. After their parents divorced in 1991, her mother married again that year, to Bruce Jenner, the 1976 Summer Olympics decathlon winner. Through their marriage, Kim Kardashian gained step-brothers Burton “Burt”, Brandon, and Brody; step-sister Casey; and half-sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner.

She attended Marymount High School, a Roman Catholic all-girls school in Los Angeles. In 1994, her father represented football player O. J. Simpson during his murder trial. Simpson is Kardashian’s godfather. Kardashian’s father died in 2003 of cancer. In her 20s, Kardashian was the close friend and stylist of socialite Paris Hilton, through whom she first garnered media attention.

In 2000, 19-year-old Kardashian eloped with music producer Damon Thomas. Thomas filed for divorce in 2003. Kardashian later blamed their separation on physical and emotional abuse on his part and said she was high on ecstasy during the ceremony. Prior to the completion of her divorce, Kardashian began dating singer Ray J.

In 2006, Kardashian entered the business world with her two sisters and opened the boutique shop D-A-S-H in Calabasas, California. In February 2007, a sex tape made by Kardashian and Ray J in 2002 was leaked. Kardashian filed a lawsuit against Vivid Entertainment, who distributed the film as Kim Kardashian, Superstar. She later dropped the suit and settled for a reported US$5 million, allowing Vivid to release the tape. Several media outlets later criticized her and the family for using the sex tape’s release as a publicity stunt to promote their upcoming reality show.

In October 2007, Kardashian, in addition to her mother Kris Jenner, her step-parent Caitlyn Jenner, her siblings Kourtney, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian, and half-sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner, began to appear in the reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The series proved successful for E!, and has led to the creations of spin-offs including Kourtney and Kim Take New York and Kourtney and Kim Take Miami. In one of the episodes, Kim discussed an offer from Playboy to appear nude in the magazine. That December, Kardashian posed in a nude pictorial for Playboy.

In 2008, she made her feature film debut in the disaster film spoof Disaster Movie, in which she appeared as a character named Lisa. That same year, she was a participant on season seven of Dancing with the Stars, where she was partnered with Mark Ballas. Kardashian was the third contestant to be eliminated. In January 2009, Kardashian made a cameo appearance during an episode of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother, in the episode “Benefits”. In April, she released a workout DVD series through her television production company Kimsaprincess Productions, LLC which has seen the release of three successful workout videos, Fit in Your Jeans by Friday, with trainers Jennifer Galardi and Patrick Goudeau. Kardashian played Elle in four episodes of the television series Beyond the Break.

Kardashian became a guest host of WrestleMania XXIV and guest judge on America’s Next Top Model in August of that year. In September, Fusion Beauty and Seven Bar Foundation launched “Kiss Away Poverty”, with Kardashian as the face of the campaign. For every LipFusion lipgloss sold, US$1 went to the Foundation to fund women entrepreneurs in the US. The following month, she released her first fragrance self-titled “Kim Kardashian”. In December 2009, Kardashian made a guest star appearance on CBS’s CSI: NY with Vanessa Minnillo.

In 2010, Kardashian ventured into several new endorsement deals, including endorsing various food products for Carl’s Jr. In January 2010, she starred as Summa Eve in the film Deep in the Valley. In April, Kardashian sparked controversy over the way she held a kitten for a photograph, holding it by the scruff of its neck. With sisters Kourtney and Khloé, Kardashian is involved in the retail and fashion industries. They have launched several clothing collections and fragrances. Animal rights organization PETA criticized Kardashian for repeatedly wearing fur coats, and named her as one of the five worst people or organizations of 2010 when it came to animal welfare. June saw Kardashian guest star with Khloé and Kourtney as themselves on the season three premiere episode of the series 90210.

On July 1, 2010, the New York City branch of Madame Tussauds revealed a wax figure of Kardashian. In November, Kardashian served as producer for The Spin Crowd, a reality television show about Command PR, a New York City public relations firm, run by Jonathan Cheban and Simon Huck. The show followed them as they settle into their new offices in Los Angeles. That month, she also appeared on season ten of The Apprentice. Kim, Kourtney, and Khloé wrote an autobiography titled Kardashian Konfidential, which was released in stores on November 23, and appeared on New York Times’s Best Seller List.

In December 2010, Kardashian filmed a music video for a song titled “Jam (Turn It Up)”. The video was directed by Hype Williams; Kanye West makes a cameo in the video. Kardashian premiered the song during a New Year’s Eve party at TAO Las Vegas on December 31, 2010. The song was produced by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart. When asked if an album was in the works, Kardashian replied, “There’s no album in the works or anything—just one song we did for Kourtney and Kim Take New York, and a video Hype Williams directed, half of the proceeds we’re giving away to a cancer foundation, because The-Dream’s and one of my parents passed away from cancer. It’s just all having fun—with a good cause”. Jim Farber, writing for the Daily News, called the song a “dead-brained piece of generic dance music, without a single distinguishing feature,” and suggested that the single made Kardashian the “worst singer in the reality TV universe.”

In April 2011, Kardashian released her third fragrance “Gold”. In March 2012, Kardashian debuted her fourth fragrance, titled “True Reflection”, which she worked with the company Dress for Success to promote. In April, E! renewed Keeping Up with the Kardashians for two additional seasons, in a deal reported to be worth $50 million. In November 2011, she released a novel Dollhouse along with sisters Kourtney and Khloe. In October 2012, Kardashian released her fifth fragrance, “Glam”, which “draws on the glamour of her Hollywood lifestyle”, and was made available through Debenhams. In summer of 2012, Kardashian and her family filmed a music video in the Dominican Republic to Notorious B.I.G’s song “Hypnotize”.

In May 2011, Kardashian became engaged to NBA player Kris Humphries, then of the New Jersey Nets, whom she had been dating since October 2010. They were married in a wedding ceremony on August 20 in Montecito, California. Earlier that month, she had released her “wedding fragrance” called “Kim Kardashian Love” which coincided with her own wedding. A two-part TV special showing the preparations and the wedding itself aired on E! in early October 2011, amidst what The Washington Post called a “media blitz” related to the wedding. After 72 days of marriage, she filed for divorce from Humphries on October 31, citing irreconcilable differences. Several news outlets surmised that Kardashian’s marriage to Humphries was merely a publicity stunt to promote the Kardashian family’s brand and their subsequent television ventures. A man professing to be her former publicist, Jonathan Jaxson, also claimed that her short-lived marriage was indeed staged and a ploy to generate money. Kardashian filed suit against Jaxson, saying his claims were untrue, and subsequently settled the case that included an apology from Jaxson. A widely circulated petition asking to remove all Kardashian-related programming from the air followed the split. The divorce was subject to widespread media attention.

Kardashian began dating rapper and longtime friend Kanye West in April 2012, while still legally married to Humphries. Her divorce was finalized on June 3, 2013, Kardashian and West became engaged on October 21, Kardashian’s 33rd birthday, and married on May 24, 2014, at Fort di Belvedere in Florence, Italy. Her wedding dress was designed by Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy with some guests’ dresses designed by designer Michael Costello. The couple’s high status and respective careers have resulted in their relationship becoming subject to heavy media coverage; The New York Times referred to their marriage as “a historic blizzard of celebrity.”

Kardashian appeared on the cover, and in a pictorial in Paper’s winter issue in 2014 photographed by Jean-Paul Goude. On the cover, her nude buttocks are featured above the caption: “Break the Internet”, which generated considerable comment in both social and traditional media. The photos show Kardashian with her hair tied up in a bun, wearing only a pearl necklace, a pair of earrings and black satin gloves, and, on the cover, with her bare back facing the camera, holding a sequined gown below her bare, oiled-up buttocks, while smiling broadly at the camera. A Time magazine writer commented that, unlike previous celebrities’ nudes that represented the women’s rebellion against repressed society and “trying to tear down” barriers, Kardashian’s exhibition was “just provocation and bluster, repeated images that seem to offer us some sort of truth or insight but are really just self serving. We want there to be something more, some reason or context, some great explanation that tells us what it is like to live in this very day and age, but there is not. Kim Kardashian’s ass is nothing but an empty promise.” However, the stunt “set a new benchmark” in social media response, and Paper’s website received 15.9 million views in one day, compared with 25,000 views on an average day.

In June 2014, Kardashian released a mobile game for iPhone and Android called Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. The objective of the game is to become a Hollywood star or starlet. The game supports a free to play model, meaning the game is free to download, but charges for in-game items. The game was a hit, earning US$1.6 million in its first five days of release. In July, the game’s developer Glu Mobile announced that the game was the fifth highest earning game in Apple’s App Store. Kardashian voiced the role of an alien in an episode of the adult animated series American Dad!, in season 11 (2014–15) in the episode titled “Blagsnarst, A Love Story” on September 21, 2014. In May 2015, Kardashian released a portfolio book called Selfish, a 325-page collection of self-taken photos of herself. In December 2015, Kardashian released an emoji pack for iOS devices called Kimoji. The app was a best-seller, becoming one of the top 5 most bought apps that week. In August 2015, Kardashian was the cover model for Vogue Spain.

In May 2014, Kardashian was estimated to be worth US$45 million. In 2015, Forbes reported she had “made more this year than ever as her earnings nearly doubled to $53 million from 2014’s $28 million”, and reported that she “has monetized fame better than any other”. Much of her income includes wholesale earnings of the Sears line, the Kardashian Kollection, which brought in $600 million in 2013 and the Kardashian Beauty cosmetics line, Kardashian-branded tanning products, the boutique-line DASH, as well as sponsored social media posts which are collectively worth $300,000-500,000 per post. As of July 2018, Kardashian is worth US$350 million. Combined with husband Kanye West’s net worth of $1.3 billion, their total household net worth is an estimated $510 million, making them one of the richest couples in the entertainment industry. Kardashian does not receive alimony payments from either of her first two marriages.

In April 2015, Kardashian and West traveled to the Armenian Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem to have their daughter North baptized in the Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the oldest denominations of Oriental Orthodox Christianity. The ceremony took place at the Cathedral of St. James. Khloe Kardashian was appointed the godmother of North. In October 2019, Kim baptized her three younger children at the baptistery in the Etchmiadzin Cathedral complex, Armenia’s mother church. Psalm was given the Armenian name Vardan, Chicago—Ashkhen and Saint—Grigor.

Kardashian has expressed pride in her Armenian and Scottish ancestry. She is not a citizen of either country and does not speak Armenian. She has advocated for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide on numerous occasions and encouraged President Barack Obama and the United States government to consider its acknowledgement. In April 2015, Kardashian traveled to Armenia with her husband, her sister Khloé, and her daughter North and visited the Armenian Genocide memorial Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan. In April 2016, Kardashian wrote an article on her website condemning The Wall Street Journal for running an advertisement denying the Armenian Genocide. During her visit to Armenia in 2019, she stated that she “talk[s] about it [the Armenian Genocide] with people internally at the White House.” However, she added that “haven’t had a private conversation” with President Donald Trump about it. In 2020, Kardashian condemned the actions of Azerbaijan in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and expressed her support to Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh.

A ^ Jenner changed her name to Caitlyn due to gender transition in 2015. B ^ Shared with Kourtney, Khloe, Rob and Kris C ^ Shared with Kourtney, Khloe, Rob and Kris D ^ Shared with Kourtney, Khloe, Rob and Kris E ^ With Kourtney, Khloe, Rob, Kris, Kendall, Kylie and Caitlyn (then Bruce)

During an interview with Caity Weaver of GQ for the July 2016 issue, Kardashian described herself as a Democrat, and declared support for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US Presidential Election.

On October 2, 2016, while attending Paris Fashion Week, Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in the apartment where she was staying. Five individuals, dressed as police officers, bound and gagged her, then stole $10 million worth of jewelry. The thieves got in her residence by threatening the concierge. Once they accessed Kardashian’s room, they held a gun to her head, tying her wrists and legs and wrapping duct tape around her mouth as a gag. Kardashian, who was placed in the bathtub, was physically unharmed and reportedly begged for her life. She managed to wriggle her hands free from the plastic ties around her wrists and scream for help. The thieves escaped. On October 6, 2016, it was revealed that filming for the next season of Keeping up with the Kardashians had been placed “on hold indefinitely” after the robbery. After the robbery was announced, several critics expressed skepticism about whether it was staged or not, with some even drawing comparison to Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte’s recent false robbery claim. On October 10, 2016, video was released showing Kardashian immediately after the robbery, as police began conducting their investigation. In the video, she is seen using the cell phone that she had reported stolen, and did not have any of the markings she claimed from being bound by her captors, prompting more questions as to whether or not the events were staged. In response, Kardashian filed lawsuits against several media outlets the following day, and secured a gag order to get the video removed from any articles due to it being part of an active police investigation. On October 25, 2016, Kardashian dropped the lawsuit, prompting more criticism that the robbery was a ploy to generate media attention. Production resumed on Keeping Up with the Kardashians on October 26.

As of November 2016, as per CBC Marketplace and interviews with celebrity endorsement experts, Kim Kardashian was paid between $75,000 and $300,000 for each post that she made on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter endorsing beauty products like waist trainers, teeth whiteners as well as Coca-Cola and well known charities. Experts think that celebrities offer fake glimpses into their lives to make viewers fall for their advertising pitches, curated to look as though the viewer is catching them in a spontaneous moment when they are mostly staged. In June 2017, she launched her own beauty line, KKW Beauty, and in November 2017 she launched her own fragrance line, KKW Fragrance.

In January 2017, she tweeted a table of statistics that went viral, highlighting statistics that show that gun violence in the United States kills 11,737 people annually while terrorism in the United States kills 14 people annually. In January 2018, the World Economic Forum awarded it the “International Statistic of the Year” for 2017.

By 2018, according to Business Insider, Kardashian was charging $720,000 per Instagram post. Even though engagement data indicates that her posts are worth slightly less, she is regularly making headlines and this allows her to demand a premium above any calculated Instagram sponsored post price. Kardashian made a cameo appearance in the heist film Ocean’s 8, which was released on June 8, 2018. In 2019, Kardashian made waves at the Met Gala with her figure hugging corset-induced Thierry Mugler dress.

Kardashian has also worked in the area of prison reform, advocating for the commutation of the sentence of Chris Young and also of Alice Marie Johnson, a woman who received a life sentence for a first-time drug offense as the leader of a major cocaine ring in Tennessee which was granted by President Donald Trump in June 2018. Along with Van Jones and Jared Kushner, she was instrumental in persuading President Trump to support the First Step Act, which enacted major reforms in the US prison system. Van Jones later stated that without Kardashian, the act would have never passed because it would not have received the president’s support. It was later passed by a great majority in the US Senate.

On a trip to Uganda in October 2018, she met with President Yoweri Museveni with her husband. They had a press conference, and Kanye talked about tourism in Uganda. They were criticized for meeting the Museveni due to his being a dictator and his recent crackdown on the opposition and the Ugandan LGBT community.

In June 2019, Kardashian launched a new range of shape wear called Kimono. Kardashian was heavily criticised over the name of the brand which critics argued disrespected Japanese culture and ignored the significance behind the traditional outfit. Following the launch of the range, the hashtag #KimOhNo began trending on Twitter and the mayor of Kyoto wrote to Kardashian to ask her to reconsider the trademark on Kimono. In response to public pressure, in July 2019, Kardashian announced that she would change the name. However, Japanese trade minister Hiroshige Seko stated that he would still be dispatching patent officials for a meeting at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and that Japan would keep an eye on the situation. She later replaced the shapewear company to the name Skims.

Kim Kardashian is a Christian and has described herself as “really religious”. She was educated in Christian schools of both the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic traditions. In October 2019, she was baptized in an Armenian Apostolic ceremony at the baptistery in the Etchmiadzin Cathedral complex and given the Armenian name Heghine (Հեղինե).

In early 2019, Kardashian West largely funded the 90 Days to Freedom campaign, an initiative to release nonviolent drug offenders from life sentences by attorneys Brittany K. Barnett and MiAngel Cody. The effort resulted in 17 persons being released under provisions of the First Step Act. Kardashian West was widely credited for the success of the campaign in media headlines. Commentary on her involvement ranged from praise, to assertions that it was a public relations stunt, to accusations that she was taking the credit for work she did not do. In a Facebook post from May 7 of that year, Barnett commented on the divisive and underfunded nature of the “criminal justice reform space,” adding “Kim linked arms with us to support us when foundations turned us down. We and our clients and their families have a lot of love for her and are deeply grateful for her.”

In April 2019, it was revealed in Vogue that Kardashian was studying to pass the bar exam; instead of attending law school, she is “reading the law.”

On October 10, 2020, Kim Kardashian announced that she is donating $1 million to Armenia Fund, a humanitarian organization that supports Armenia’s development. She also had previously posted messages on social media in support of Artsakh due to the recent war that broke out between Artsakh and Azerbaijan regarding the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. She also urged followers to donate too.