This week, journalist Jonathan Van Meter’s new authorized biography on Kim Kardashian, called “Citizen Kim: The Woman Who Created the Future,” was released.
Written over five years, the book features several interviews with Kim Kardashian herself, where she opens up about her famous family, her relationship with Kanye West, and her past relationships.
Van Meter has written numerous high-profile cover stories and features for Vogue, including a 2019 profile of Kardashian. As Page Six reports, the Skims entrepreneur kept a close eye on the journalist and extensively wrote notes on the drafts of the book.
Here are 9 of the biggest bombshells from “Citizen K.”
Her Teenage Romance With Michael Jackson’s Nephew Before He Introduced Her To Her First Husband
The reality star revealed that she had a teenage romance with TJ Jackson, Michael Jackson’s nephew and son of Tito Jackson. He was reportedly her first boyfriend, and the couple attended prom together.
The All’s Fair star dated him from age 13 to 17. She once even dreamt of marrying Jackson at his famous uncle’s Neverland Ranch.
“I can only hope that my daughters have something like TJ and I did when they’re old enough to have a boyfriend,” Kardashian recalled in the biography.
Van Meter told Page Six that she teared up while fact-checking the chapter about Jackson. “I gave that 13- or 14-year-old girl some grace,” Van Meter claimed Kardashian told him.
The book also reveals that Jackson introduced the reality star to music producer Damon Thomas when she was 14. Thomas, who was 10 years older than Kardashian, married the 19-year-old in Vegas in 2000.
Kim Kardashian Reflects On Wedding To Kris Humphries
Kim Kardashian reflected on her choice to go through with her wedding to Kris Humphries despite knowing it was the wrong decision. She tied the knot with the former NBA player on Aug. 20, 2011, before filing for divorce 72 days later.
The TV star said she “knew it before we were married in my soul” that Humphries wasn’t the right man for her, per Just Jared. But, she didn’t want to back out and become known as a runaway bride.
“I just thought, ‘Well, it’s cold feet.’ But your gut, your soul, is always right,” Kardashian explained. “And then I thought, ‘Well, they’re filming for a show, and if I bail now, they’re going to call me ‘the runaway bride’ and it will be an even bigger thing.’ But I should have just not gotten married.”
, Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner, admitted that she knew her daughter “wasn’t happy” and offered her a way out before walking down the aisle.
Even mother-of-the-bride, Kris Jenner admitted she knew it was the wrong decision.
“I went to her during the rehearsal, before the wedding. We were in this beautiful house in Montecito, [California], and the windows were open and Robin Thicke was rehearsing some songs on the dance floor,” she told the journalist. “And I remember listening to the song, and I said to her, ‘Listen … I can just … I feel like … you’re not making the right decision.’ And I said, ‘If you want to cancel the wedding, just get out of here and I’ll figure it out.’
At the time, Kardashian told People that their lavish, multimillion- dollar wedding was “heaven.”
Kanye West Gave Kim A Ring With An Unromantic Inscription
West, who married Kardashian in 2014 before finalizing their divorce in 2022, gifted the star a second engagement ring in 2016. But, it has an engraving that left Kardashian not best pleased.
The recent biography reveals that West’s ring had “Adidas” engraved on the inside of the band.
According to Van Meter, West bought the piece of jewelry 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. Van Meter called the engagement ring “the least romantic gesture imaginable.”
She wore both engagement rings to a New York show by West, posting a video of the bling. Van Meter writes that this action greatly angered the “Goldigger” rapper.
“Don’t ever do that again — you’re just looking to get robbed. … I’m flashy, but that’s crazy even for me,” he said, just months befrore she was held at gunpoint in Paris.
Kim Talks About The Paris Robbery And Revealed It Came Amid Two Other Breaks Ins
In 2016, Kardashian was involved in a terrifying Parisian robbery where she was held at gunpoint while thieves stole millions of dollars in jewelry.
The incident saw her sister Kourtney urge her to stop posting her whereabouts online, and her ex-husband Kanye West warned her not to wear diamonds in public.
“Don’t ever do that again – you’re just looking to get robbed,” Kanye said to Kim, she said in the new book. “I’m flashy, but that’s crazy even for me.'”
When Kardashian returned to her Bel Air home after the Parisian ordeal, she discovered another burglary.
“It was crazy how that happened at the same time – my bags were taken, my watches were taken. I came home and everything was gone. It was this feeling of, like, I couldn’t win,” Kardashian said in the book. “The universe didn’t want me to have any material things.”
Van Meter told USA Today that the proximity of these events severely affected the reality star and led to a change of career. “These three things happened in succession, and it profoundly changed her,” he says.
“It’s obviously what ignited the desire to backfill her life with purpose and meaning. It can’t all just be about being famous and having diamonds,” Van Meter explained. “So I think that’s where the criminal justice reform and law studies comes from.”
Kim Bought a Monet Because Of A 1990s Movie, Although Found Herself Disappointed
“Citizen K” also tells a story about when Kim Kardashian decided to buy a Claude Monet painting because of her favorite film.
In the 1995 film “Clueless”, they utter the new iconic line, “she’s a full-on Monet.” This means someone looks great from far away, but is a big mess up close—like an Impressionist painting by Claude Monet.
“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 for the biography.
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.”
“I was in Italy, and it was being auctioned, and I was with Kim Jones [creative director of Fendi], and we were doing our Fendi/Skims fitting in Rome. I really wanted this Monet painting because it’s a gray Monet — a pretty landscape, but gray. …” she said, per an excerpt published by The Hollywood Reporter.
She added, “I really wanted it for my Tadao Ando house in Palm Springs, which is all concrete. And I’m bidding and I’m bidding, and it was the first auction that I ever did, so I didn’t really know how they worked. But you get really into it. So Kim Jones is there with me, and he’s like, “GET IT!” So I bid on it. I win. And I went over what my budget was because you’re in the moment.”
But the painting wasn’t quite what she expected; in fact, the author called her “blunder straight out of a comedy of manners.”
“So, I got it. It’s delivered. And it’s like … THIS big. Like, a postcard. I didn’t think to check the dimensions! I thought it was going to cover a whole wall! I’m going to put it in my Ando when it’s done,” she laughed.
Kim Kardashian Opened Up About Her Plastic Surgery
The Kardashian’s looks and their enhancements have long been a topic of discussion.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Van Meter explained why he didn’t want to cover the topic too in-depth: “I didn’t write about this because it became so weird and complicated, but Kim has never had invasive plastic surgery. Her butt and boobs and nose – those are all her own…”
When asked how he could be so certain, the Vogue writer revealed that he trusted the businesswoman to tell him the truth.
“She said there were two plastic surgeons the family is friends with who used to fight about whether she’d had a nose job – each one thought the other had done it. Finally she said: ‘Take an X-ray.”
The Incident Which Led To The End Of Kim’s Marriage To Kanye
“Citizen K” reveals the “point of no return” between Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
The book describes how the reality star 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 while researching the book that the couple was filming their show 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 biography.
“At one point, one of the policemen had a gun to Kim’s head,” Van Meter wrote.
Farjam described the ordeal as “intense” and recalled having to arrange a private jet to get her crew out of Uganda. The E! reality series producer admitted this is when he “first realized how bad things were for the couple.”
The producer “forgave Kanye for the Africa fiasco ‘because he lives with bipolar disorder and he was in a manic place,’ ” Van Meter added.
Kim Kardashian Opens Up About Realities Of Co-Parenting With Kanye
In the recent book, Kim Kardashian spoke about the “big burden” of co-parenting with ex-husband Kanye West, admitting she’ll “always worry” about the rapper.
“Oh, I worry about [Kanye] all day. All the time. That’s the father of my kids, I’ll never not worry about him,” the 46-year-old said in the book, according to Us Weekly. The couple wed in 2014 and split in 2022.
“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 added.
Despite their past conflicts, Kardashian said the former married couple works hard to co-parent their four children: North, 13, Saint, 10, Chicago, 8, and Psalm, 7.
“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 admitted.
Kardashian admitted she tries to move past “all the negative things that happened” to ensure her kids “think their dad is the greatest.”
“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.”
How Kim Kardashian Communicates With Her Ex-Husband
Kim Kardashian revealed that she primarily communicates with ex-husband Kanye West “through his wife,” Bianca Censori.
According to Van Meter’s book, West is currently based in West Hollywood, although Kardashian is not quite aware of the exact location.
“I’ll communicate through his wife. Or through his friend, who is also his manager,” Kardashian told Van Meter, as reported by Page Six.
West does not appear in the book, as Jonathan Van Meter said interviewing the Grammy winner during his mental health struggles would not have been “ethical.”
“Kim initially said, ‘Of course he’s going to talk to you.’ But as his behavior grew more troubling, I didn’t think it would be ethical to interview somebody in the middle of a mental health crisis,” Van Meter said, per People.
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9 Biggest Bombshells From Kim Kardashian’s ‘Citizen K’ Biography