Keeping up with Kim Kardashian.
Journalist Jonathan Van Meter’s authorized biography, “Citizen Kim: The Woman Who Created the Future,” hit shelves Tuesday, making multiple revelations about the reality star’s life, particularly about her tumultuous relationship with her ex-husband, Kanye West.
Kardashian’s life has long played out in the spotlight, but the book pulls back the curtain on the drama behind the headlines.
Read on for the biggest bombshells from “Citizen Kim.”
Kris Jenner’s ‘extraordinarily sloppy’ affair with a man in his 20s
Van Meter writes that Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner, had an “extraordinarily sloppy” affair with a soccer player in his 20s in 1989, which ultimately ended her marriage to Kardashian’s father, Robert Sr.
The affair, which Jenner, now 70, detailed in a chapter titled “Unfulfilled” in her own memoir, was no secret to her daughters, according to Van Meter.
“We knew my mom was dating, because we would see it,” Kardashian told Van Meter. “She introduced us to her boyfriend. He was 10 years younger. He was kind of like a playboy.”
Van Meter said in a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter that Jenner allegedly “flipped out on camera” after learning the affair was included in the book.
“Why did Kim drag us all into this? Why is my affair from 30 years ago in the book?” he recalled Jenner asking, according to Kardashian.
Although the soccer player Jenner allegedly had a fling with is not named in the book, she has previously revealed an affair with Todd Waterman, which she called “my life’s biggest regret.”
West gave Kardashian an engagement ring with ‘Adidas’ inscribed inside
West, who married Kardashian in 2014 before finalizing their divorce in 2022, gifted her a second engagement ring in 2016 with “Adidas” engraved on the inside of the band.
According to Van Meter, West bought his then-wife the ring with his first paycheck from Yeezy sneaker sales.
Kardashian told Van Meter it was “a really big 20-something-carat ring” with “Adidas” inscribed inside the band, a detail Van Meter called “the least romantic gesture imaginable.”
Kardashian recalled wearing both engagement rings to one of her then-husband’s concerts in New York City before reposting a video someone had taken of her wearing “two huge diamond rings.”
Van Meter writes that when West saw the post, he told Kardashian, “Don’t ever do that again — you’re just looking to get robbed. … I’m flashy, but that’s crazy even for me,” warning her months before she was robbed at gunpoint in Paris that October.
West turned a visit to a Malibu house now owned by another A-lister into a 4-day stay
Van Meter writes that West showed up unannounced at a multimillion-dollar house in Malibu, and ended up staying for four days.
He claims West “pulled up to the gate, rang the buzzer,” and announced, “Hi, it’s Kanye,” but the homeowner “hesitated.” West then said, “If Elvis Presley came to your door and rang your buzzer, would you let him in? This is that.”
West subsequently “set up his ‘office’ by the pool” for four days and “took meetings because he wanted to feel the vibe of working in an Ando,” according to Van Meter, who notes that the mansion, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, was later purchased by Beyoncé and Jay-Z for $200 million in 2023.
Kardashian bought a Monet for a surprisingly superficial reason
According to Van Meter, Kardashian’s decision to buy a painting by Claude Monet stemmed from her love of “Clueless,” her favorite movie — though the reasoning behind the purchase was rather superficial.
“The first real piece of art that I bought — myself — was a Monet. Because in the movie they called the girls ‘a Monet’ if they look good from afar, but up close they’re just a mess,” Kardashian told Van Meter, who says the explanation sounded “extravagantly implausible.”
Van Meter writes that Kardashian bought the painting “not because she had visited the famous “Water Lilies” at l’Orangerie in Paris or was under the art world tutelage of Kanye West,” but instead “as a piece of high school nostalgia.”
Kardashian’s first husband, Damon Thomas, showed her father, Robert Sr., nude photos of her sister
Kardashian’s first husband, Damon Thomas — whom she eloped with at age 19 in 2000 — allegedly showed her father, Robert Sr., nude photos of one of her sisters, though Van Meter does not identify which sister in the book.
During her 2003 divorce proceedings, Kardashian claimed, “My father called outraged to tell me that Damon had brought nude pictures of my sister to his office,” a revelation Van Meter describes as “one of the most shocking details” in the filings.
Kardashian further alleged that Thomas, now 55, showed her father the photos and told him, “Your daughters are whores, and I have the pictures to prove it.”
“He then made packages and sent the pictures gift-wrapped to my best friend’s place of employment in Encino to scare us,” Kardashian claimed in the court documents.
Kardashian reveals her father’s last words to her before his death
Kardashian’s father, Robert Sr., told her “you’ll be fine” before his death from esophageal cancer in 2003, she recalled in the book.
“The last thing my dad ever said to me was, ‘I know you’re going to be good — I can see it. It’s as if I can see what your whole life is going to be like,’” Kardashian told Van Meter.
She said her father “didn’t go into detail” as they sat on the couch watching a movie, but placed his hand on her leg in a moment she said she would “never forget.”
“And he said, ‘You’ll be fine. But take care of the other ones. And make sure your brother’s good,’” Kardashian told Van Meter, referring to her sisters Kourtney, now 47, and Khloé, now 42, and her younger brother, Robert Jr., now 39.
Kardashian also recalled her final words to Robert Sr. as he lay bedridden and “couldn’t communicate” because “his vitals were almost gone.”
She told Van Meter, “The last thing I said to him was, ‘Dad, thank you so much for everything that you’ve taught me, from how to be a good person to how you did my homework with me, everything I’m going to do with my kids one day. And I’m going to take the lesson of you being in my life and carry that forward.’”
Kardashian’s 2018 trip to Uganda ended with a gun to her head
According to Van Meter, things reached “a point of no return” between Kardashian and West when she had a gun held to her head during an October 2018 trip to Africa with her then-husband.
Van Meter explains that Farnaz Farjam, an executive producer of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” told him the couple was filming at a remote location in Uganda when West became “paranoid and agitated.”
“He basically got the local police to believe that there were people trying to drug him, and so they came and they had guns out. He had them raid everybody’s rooms,” Farjam told Van Meter, according to the book.
“At one point, one of the policemen had a gun to Kim’s head,” Van Meter writes, while Farjam described the ordeal as “intense” and recalled having to arrange a private jet to get her crew out of Uganda before ultimately forgiving West, understanding that he was in a manic state due to his bipolar disorder.
Kardashian calls co-parenting with West a ‘big burden’
Kardashian opened up about the “big burden” of co-parenting with West, with whom she shares four children: North, 13, Saint, 10, Chicago, 8, and Psalm, 7.
“Oh, I worry about [West] all day. All the time. That’s the father of my kids, I’ll never not worry about him,” Kardashian told Van Meter. “And that’s a big burden of having kids with someone who you don’t necessarily get along with. My kids would never know that.”
She said she tries to “forget about all the negative things that happened” while maintaining boundaries with her ex-husband.
“It’s been pretty smooth for a while. I guess because we don’t talk that much. But when we see each other, we give each other a hug,” she told Van Meter.
Kardashian also revealed that she had an “open-door policy” for West and his family, with whom she said she is “really close.”
How Kardashian communicates with West
Kardashian revealed that she primarily communicates with West “through his wife,” Bianca Censori.
According to Van Meter, West is currently based in West Hollywood, though Kardashian told him she believes her ex-husband has an apartment there but doesn’t know exactly where he is.
“I’ll communicate through his wife. Or through his friend, who is also his manager,” Kardashian told Van Meter, who recounts one such instance during his interview with Kardashian at her home, when she took a call from someone on “Team Kanye” about their children visiting West.
“It is challenging co-parenting with someone who comes by every few months, but I’m always like, ‘Oh, Dad’s traveling,’” Kardashian told Van Meter. “I still make up stories and protect them because I want them to think their dad is the greatest.”
