Kylie Jenner On “Self Made” Backlash: “None Of The Money I’ve Ever Made Is Inherited”

Kylie Jenner is again fighting for her self-made billionaire status. She says being born into a family that gave her many opportunities helped, but she earned the money in her bank account herself.

In an interview, the 29-year-old cosmetics magnate admitted that this was one of the topics about her that causes controversy. “None of the money I’ve ever made is inherited, so it’s technically true,” Jenner stated, “but people just feel like the privilege I’ve had was a major stepping stone.”

The quotes are from the Who What Wear August 27 issue, E! News reports.

Since March 2019, when Forbes named her the youngest self-made billionaire in the world at 21, Jenner has been under attack for claiming to be self-made. In the Forbes article, the magazine said it based her billionaire status on the cosmetics brand she founded three years earlier, launched in 2015 as online kits with lipstick and matching liner for only $29. Forbes also explains the differences between those who inherited and those who earned their fortunes.

The description provoked instant outrage from people who pointed to Jenner’s privileged upbringing in an extremely wealthy family in the American entertainment industry and her debut on Keeping Up With the Kardashians at age 9.

However, Jenner denied these accusations. “There’s really no other word to use than self-made because that is the truth,” she said to the German version of Interview magazine in 2019, “that is the category I fall under.” At that time, she claimed she stopped receiving money from her parents at age 15 and used her own money to start her business.

The next year, things changed dramatically for the entrepreneur. In November 2019, Coty Inc. purchased a 51% stake in the cosmetics company she founded for $600 million, valuing it at $1.2 billion. However, public documents later showed that the business was worth less than expected.

Forbes stripped Jenner of billionaire status in May 2020 after a special investigation, stating that the family provided forged tax documents to boost the status. The magazine adjusted its estimate of the entrepreneur’s net worth to almost $900 million.

Jenner denied the accusations on social media, saying, “a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions.” Her lawyer, Michael Kump, said in an interview with TheWrap that the allegation that the family provided forged tax returns was “unequivocally false” and asked for retraction of the article. Forbes stuck to its position.

Forbes now estimates Kylie Jenner’s net worth at $670 million.

According to Forbes’ rules, founding a company makes a person self-made, even if they were born into a rich family, and this definition fits Jenner perfectly.

In her interview with Who What Wear, Jenner admits that her cosmetics line is still her primary focus, calling it the most important project that she learns from. She celebrated the 10th anniversary of the first lip kit last November.

Jenner has two children: 8-year-old Stormi and 4-year-old Aire with rapper Travis Scott.