Sitting cross-legged on her black-sheeted bed amid stacks of papers and photos,Kris Jenner -- matriarch of reality TV’s juggernaut family-- is trying to explain the unexplainable: Why the Kardashians? Why are her children’s squabbles and shopping habits and waxing appointments a national fascination? Why was daughter Kim, best known until four years ago for making a sex tape, the fourth-most-Googled person in 2010 (behind Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Selena Gomez)? And why, despite the eye-rolls of half of America, does the other half worship at the altar of a family that unabashedly embraces, celebrates and monetizes that post-millennium cliché of being famous only for being famous?
"We’re just this big family with a lot of drama and a lot of issues, and there’s someone here for everyone to relate to," says the 55-year-old mother of six (Kourtney, 31, Kim, 30, Khloe, 26, Robert, 23, Kendall, 15, and Kylie, 13), wife to Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner, and, most crucial, hands-on manager of them all. "I think if you’ve ever been embarrassed by your family — like your mother’s a kook or your father’s too strict — the show gives you hope. I’ve had so many people come over to me and say, ‘I remember the episode where you were crying over blah, blah, blah, and it helped me so much and I got through my dad’s death because of you.' "
And then there are those who watch the family’s three series on E! (with a fourth going into production this year) for the there-but-for the-grace-of-God voyeurism: Thank God my mom doesn’t want to know the size of my boyfriend’s penis! Hey, at least my dad isn’t walked over by every single member of his family and my mom doesn’t engage me in a postpartum discussion about personal lubricant. When asked about that last particular discussion, Jenner looks genuinely puzzled. "Really? Who hasn’t had to use lube?"
Of course, this is a mother who has hanging in the bedroom of her immense home in Hidden Hills, Calif., a photo of her three eldest girls, over which one of them has scrawled in what looks like hot pink lipstick, "Hookers R Us." But if the Kardashians have no filters, they have no pretenses, either. This is a great part of their charm.
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