“People now perceive me in a certain way, which is frustrating. They assume I am slutty. They don’t understand that he was a boyfriend of three years. We were very much in love. But now, because of the sex tape, if I’m dating someone, he automatically assumes I’m going to sleep with him and do all that on the first night.” 

Now a mother of three (Saint, North and Chicago), Kim is beyond her tumultuous past and turned the unsavory recognition into unparallelled success. These days, Kim not only manages a booming beauty empire, but has three wildly successful mobile apps, countless social media sponsorships, a book of selfies, a successful TV show, and much more. Over the years, Kim has become an international brand, not unlike Coca-Cola. And like the fizzy soda, the curvaceous diety shows no signs of slowing down. 

“I always laugh when it says on the Internet that I have fake boobs or butt implants or injected lips, because it’s not true. I’ve never had plastic surgery,” Kim, draped head-to-toe in pearls in her pictorial, told Playboy. It’s a criticism that follows most of the Kardashian/Jenner women, particularly the youngest, Kylie Jenner, who followed in her big sister’s footsteps and manipulated media censure for profit. In 2018, Kylie became the youngest person on the Forbes list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women with an estimated net worth of $900 million. 

At the time of Kim’s Playboy shoot, 27, she was frolocking with the celebrity A-list, hitting nightclubs with friends Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen twins. It was around this time the future tycoon’s star began to ascend. Why? Kim didn’t know either. She told Playboy, “It’s bizarre to me. I’m a girl who likes to go out with my family and girlfriends and have a good time. And somehow that has become a fascination for people.”