At 29, Kim Kardashian was just a tween when MTV started airing “The Real World,” but watching those televised tales of seven strangers picked to live in a house was her “aha” moment.
“In elementary school, ‘The Real World’ came on, and I was like, ‘That’s it! I know I want to be on a reality show,‘” Kardashian told Allure for their September issue. “And I was like, ‘Ok, when I’m old enough, I’ll make an audition tape.’”
Kardashian doesn’t elaborate on whether or not she ever created an audition tape for “Real World,” but we do know that she created a tape of another kind, one that turned an intimate evening with ex-boyfriend Ray J into footage the entire world could see.
“Not my most proud moment,” Kardashian told the beauty magazine about the sex tape. “It was humiliating. But let’s move on. Not that I don’t think it’s no one’s business, but I think I’ve done a good job with replacing negative things with positive things.”
Those positive things all fall under what she terms “The Brand,” encompassing workout DVDs, clothing, self-tanner, skin care products, perfume and, of course, her E! reality show with her family, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
“I feel lazy when I’m not working. I learned all my business sense from my dad,” Kardashian explained. “He always believed in me, and I think the last thing he said to me before he passed away was, ‘I know you’re gonna be OK. I’m not worried about you.’”
And so, Kardashian presses forward, trying to limit club appearances – where a celeb can get paid to just show up and party – in favor of endors****t deals for companies in which she also owns a stake. The strategy seems to be paying off – Kardashian recently purchased a five-bedroom home in Los Angeles rumored to cost more than $4 million. (Allure notes that Kardashian converted one of the bedrooms in the home into a closet.)
Kardashian admitted that “It was way above my price range,” but “I saw it, and I was like, ‘This will be mine.’”
Of course, living a lifestyle that’s so focused on building The Brand doesn’t leave much room for finding The One – at the time of her interview with Allure, Kardashian’s five-year relationship with football star Reggie Bush had come to an end.
So while she’d thought that by 30 she’d be a mom of four, the challenges of dating have pushed that dream back about five years, and have dropped the expectant kid count from four to one or two.
“Who would ever want to deal with a hectic schedule and not really [getting] to see someone that often? That’s the reality of my life right now,” Kardashian said of the challenges of dating. “It’s tough, but I’m totally fine on my own. I’ve always been in a relationship, so it’s kind of refreshing to just do me 100 percent.”
What about her obsession with grooming?
“I am Armenian, so of course I am obsessed with laser hair removal! Arms, bikini, legs, underarms…my entire body is hairless.“
Read the full interview in the September issue of Allure, which hits newsstands August 24.
