Kylie Jenner tops Forbes' highest earning celebrities list despite losing billionaire status

Though Forbes recently claimed Kylie Jenner had greatly exaggerated her billionaire status, the publication has announced she is the highest earning celebrity of 2020 - thanks to the mammoth sale of her brand Kylie Cosmetics.

The star, who netted over $500 million for the sale, beat the likes of Kanye West, professional athletes and actors to the top of the list.

Jenner sold 51% of Kylie Cosmetics’ stock last year to lifestyle conglomerate Coty Inc, which counts the beauty arms of luxury brands such as Marc Jacobs and Gucci as well as Covergirl and Max Factor under its umbrella.

The $600 million sale netted the Kardashian family member $540 million before tax, boosting her net worth to a sizeable $900 million and leading Forbes to call it “one of the biggest celebrity cashouts of all time.”

Recently, Forbes downgraded Jenner from its list of billionaires after it alleged her ‘business was much smaller than the family claimed.’

She was previously announced as the youngest self-made billionaire by the outlet due to the success of her beauty empire, though Forbes claimed that upon further investigation the numbers didn’t quite add up.

Jenner responded on Twitter and claimed that Forbes had made "a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions." She said, "I thought this was a reputable site... I've never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. period."

The next highest-earning celebrity on the list made less than a third of Jenner’s payday, as Kanye West slid into second place with $170 million.

His success stemmed from his fashion brand Yeezy, which creates cult trainers in conjunction with Adidas. Forbes claimed Yeezy made $1.3 billion in 2019.

He has since been declared a billionaire and also made headlines today when it emerged he had donated $2 million towards the education of the late George Floyd’s daughter Gianna.

Professional athletes such as Roger Federer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi took second, third and fourth respectively with earnings of over $100 million over the past year.

Hollywood producer Tyler Perry made $97 million this year and the highest-earning actor was Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson with a sizeable $87.5 million paycheck.

Other celebrities to join Johnson included Ellen DeGeneres (twelfth place with $84 million), Sir Elton John (fourteenth place with $81 million), Ariana Grande (seventeenth place with $72 million) and Ryan Reynolds (eighteenth place with $71.5 million).

Forbes noted that collectively, the top 100 highest earning celebrities made $6.1 billion - a $200 million drop from 2019 that they claimed was due to coronavirus. A number of celebrities on the list including Sir Elton John have had to cancel international tours due to coronavirus restrictions.

Last year, Taylor Swift was named 2019's highest-earning celebrity with earnings of $185 million.

This year, she made $63.5 million - just over a third of her earnings in 2019.