For the most part, the Kardashian-Jenner women give boring interviews. They’re reality stars trained from a young age to “save” their big reveals for their own reality show, as opposed to allowing a magazine to filter their most scandalous utterings or actions. But every so often, Kim Kardashian will give an interview and I’m like, “oh, wow, she actually has something to say.” Kim has gotten better at withholding information like a real celebrity. At long last, money has finally bought her some discretion. I thought about all of that as I read through Kim’s Times of London interview, which she gave to mark the opening of a brick-and-mortar Skims store in London. It’s been a minute since Kim talked about a lot of this stuff, including her four kids and her romantic life (she’s currently dating Lewis Hamilton). Some highlights:

Lessons from her father: “I grew up in Beverly Hills. We had this picture-perfect upbringing, two Rolls-Royces in our driveway, living behind the Beverly Hills Hotel, tennis matches every weekend. My dad would always say to me, ‘You see this big life, you’re going to have to work extra hard to maintain the life that you have seen, because this isn’t your life.’”

After her divorce from Kanye West: Kardashian briefly dated the comedian Pete Davidson, but otherwise has been single until now. “I was really single for five years. And that felt great. I could focus on my kids and projects that I really wanted to be involved with. I really felt no rush. Like, I really didn’t feel empty. I felt like I needed my time. I wanted to completely heal and just work on myself. I wasn’t ready to open up. I really wasn’t even thinking about it. The universe works in your favour when you just allow it to.”

Skims is currently valued at $5 billion: “It started with a simple idea. I’ve always loved wearing shapewear but the colour choices were two options, black or a really light, nude colour. I would always dye my shapewear in the sink with tea bags to find something matching my skin tone, so I thought it would be brilliant if there was this range of almost a dozen neutral colours.” The fabric, too, was important. “I’m a comfort girlie. But when you think of shapewear, it’s tiny and takes for ever to put on. I wanted more comfort and ease, but to still feel that snatch.” Another innovation is the wide range of sizes available, and the way the brand celebrates curvier figures, which feels more important than ever in our Ozempic era. “Skims is for every single body,” she says. “I’m not here to judge what makes someone feel confident. I’m here just to build them up and make them feel great.”

On the critical backlash to Ryan Murphy’s All’s Fair: “I am so used to it, I have a really thick skin,. I mean, at the beginning, to the girls, my cast, I was like, ‘Wait, are we OK? Did I ruin everything?’ And they were like, ‘Listen, we are OK.’ I didn’t realise that in the film business as well you get so much criticism. But we had so much fun. We’ve just finished season two. We thought we were a bit more serious last year, but the audiences thought we were really comical, so we’ve leant into that.”

She’s still waiting to retake the bar exam: “I saw somewhere, everywhere, that I gave up. I never give up, but I’m just going to take it on my own time and make sure I’m extremely prepared and don’t have other projects going on at the same time.”

A lot of her time is spent fighting over squishies: While we are talking we are constantly interrupted by Chicago and Psalm. “We’re not fighting over squishies, OK,” she says, still stomping away on the treadmill. “Sweetie, I am on my Zoom. I love you.” Having just come out of the squishy phase with my children, I feel her pain. “I just lifted my purse to grab something and there’s a squishy in there. I looked out my bathroom window this morning and there’s a squishy on the roof of the pergola outside by the pool.”

Her kids have four nannies: Kardashian has one nanny on duty, four on rotation. She takes her children to school every day and collects them, and has dinner with them every evening. “I think I am an intermediate-strict parent. I’m extremely patient and loving. I still have a kid sleep in my bed when they want. I read books with the kids every night.”

Exposing her kids to the fame machine: “I do worry about it. Each kid does what they’re comfortable with. So, my little ones come around when I’m filming but they don’t really do storylines. North loves it a little bit more than the rest. I hold her back. All she wants to do is forward-facing projects. And so it’s like us really kind of trying to savour those moments and not doing everything that comes her way, so we can really make sure that we manage it the right way. And with her, since it’s more music-related, that is something that her dad and I have better communication about. We make sure that we’re aligned and that she’s in projects that we both approve.”

Trying to teach her kids about money: “It’s something I talk to my kids about constantly, about hard work, never taking things for granted, always having gratitude. I lead by example. I’m really open with them about my work, all of the hard work that I put into my law studies, and they’re proud. I think that you can have a big life and still have that spirit in you. But it is more challenging.”

Her 40s: “There’s definitely something about being in your forties that gives you this extra confidence. You know your path and that feels good.” She has, she says, even toned down the tweakments that, in part, made her face emblematic of a modern archetype of unrealisable beauty. “I’ve switched my mentality, and now I’m coming from a place of longevity and cellular health. I love trying things to make me feel confident but I’m more into things that contribute to a healthy lifestyle. So right now I’m super into hyperbaric chambers and red light therapy.”

[From The Times]

About the kids and the nannies… I’m not surprised that she has four nannies on staff, nor am I surprised that Kim considers herself a hands-on mom. I think she’s as hands-on as her schedule allows, and I also think a huge part of the child-rearing has fallen on her shoulders. From what I can see, Kanye only really spends time with North, their oldest. Kim is pretty much raising the other three kids with a completely absent father. I also think that’s for the best, and I’m sure Kim thinks that’s for the best as well. Also: the thing about the squishies is hilarious.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.