The Kardashian family fortune: How they make their money

The 2017 theme for International Women’s Day is Be Bold For Change, which here at Yahoo Celeb UK, we constantly witness the achievements of famous women who have embodied that motif in some shape or form.

Whether you love, loathe, or couldn’t give a monkey’s about the women we’re going to talk about here there is no denying that the Kardashian/Jenner clan has laid a claim to that statement.

The reality TV innovators – including Kris Jenner, her ex-husband Caitlyn Jenner, Kim Kardashian-West, Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner – raked in a sizzling $122.5 million combined last year and they didn’t do it by just sitting around on their humongous behinds.

Part of the haul was made up of a £70 million deal with E! which gave the network rights to continue to distribute their famed ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashian’ show for four more years but they were also each paid a mint to promote various brands through their social networking accounts.

To put into perspective just how much influence they have, we counted up the family’s followers on Twitter and Instagram and the total is a staggering 635.69 million following across those two platforms.

That’s not taking into account their Facebook, Snapchat, and individual app following.

It’s more than enough evidence for us to admit they should be celebrated on International Women’s Day for their business prowess.

So, if you’re wondering where they’re at now money wise, here is a breakdown of each gal’s fortune and how they have amassed so much dollar.

Momager Kris Jenner

It’s believed Kris is worth $41million. So how did she do it?

In September 2003, Kris’s first husband and father to their four children, Robert, sadly died of oesophageal cancer and purportedly left his $100 million estate in trust for his wife and children.

He was one of the attorneys who famously defended O.J. Simpson in the highly publicised and televised murder trial in 1995 and it thrust the Kardashian family into the limelight.

She went on to marry Olympic gold medal winner Bruce Jenner pictured below with their daughters Kendall and Kylie. His career as a pubic speaker and TV presenter made him a celebrity in his own right.

Kris previously revealed on KUWTK that the couple raked up huge debts in the Nineties and she stepped in to sort out their finances. We also presume that after Kris got a taste of fame, being rich was not enough. The shrewd matriarch had bigger ideas for her daughters’ and son’s future and knew the Los Angeles-based family to be huge stars.

Kris set out to become a ‘momager’ and parlay the notoriety of her family name, effectively giving her children the green light to sell their natural talents. But she made sure she was there to protect them every step of the way. Although she makes money from the deals she brokers, anyone who watches KUWTK can see Kris is not a pushy boss or dictator and she has created a strong, loving bond between her kids.

Could this be the secret to their family’s success?

Kim Kardashian-West

If the reports are correct, Kim is worth around $88million and the social-media mogul earned $51 million last year alone.

It might seem to us mere mortals that money grows on trees for the mother-of-two but her popularity and first major pay cheque actually sprouted from one little seed: a leaked sex tape. We wonder how that got out? Hmmm…

She sued distributer Vivid Entertainment, who somehow got hold of the saucy footage, and then decided to settle out of court for $5million.

Kim is the protagonist in KUWTK. The show is revolved around her, and early on it gave her major marketing appeal. She sold photos of her wedding to Kris Humphries in 2011 to People magazine for $1.5 million, and the couple split 72 days later.

There are real dramas and trauma in her life – like being robbed last year at gunpoint in Paris of a £3.5 million ring and jewellery box reportedly worth another £5 million – and they have fuelled story lines on KUWTK. But, most of Kim’s cash now comes from her mobile game, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.

In fact, 40 per cent of her payday last year was thanks to the game and her avatar.

She told Forbes: “I became really intrigued with the tech world. I started spending a lot of time in San Francisco. I realized this is really going to be the next cycle of my career and this is what I want to focus on.”

Teamed with earnings from her Instagram endorsements, subscription app and Kimoji mean Kim makes more money from mobile endeavours than anything else.

She added to the publication: “When you get upfront money, that’s great. If you believe in yourself, you should definitely make sure that you get as high a percentage of the revenue as possible.”

Kourtney Kardashian

Kourtney ranks No. 6 in Forbes Top-Earning Reality Stars of 2016 with a net worth of $12million.

The 37-year-old mother-of-three reportedly makes £32,000 per KUWTK episode.

However, her healthy bank balance is buoyed thanks to social media endorsements. It’s thought she can earn up to £200,000 per plug.

For instance she’s said to have been paid to promote Manuka Doctor skin care products and Kardashian Beauty.

Forbes estimates that social media endorsements account for around 10 per cent of Kourtney’s cash haul.

Khloe Kardashian

Khloe also bags £32,000 per KUWTK episode and despite her show ‘Kocktails with Khloe’ being ditched by E!, Khloe is still able to demand big dollar through her line of Good American jeans, a book, and she also posted over a dozen sponsored pictures on Instagram last year.

Kylie Jenner

Kylie is the second most influential member of the family after Kim. She earned $18 million alone last year, has posted 5,034 pictures on Instagram, and promoted eight different brands through her account in 2016.

She is generally known by her first name, which is evidence of how popular she is. However, Kylie Minogue has succeeded in her bid to stop Kylie from trademarking their shared first name.

However, the 19-year-old star will be launching an appeal with the United States’ Patent and Trademark Office as she wants to use Kylie for her own fashion and beauty line.

She also rakes in cash through her Kylie Cosmetics range, subscription to her website, and her joint mobile game with Kendall.

Kendal Jenner

Kendall Jenner is arguably the only woman in the clan to have a so-called traditional job, having carved out a career in the fashion industry.

Her biggest earners are KUWTK, the Kendall & Kylie game and her app, but her profile and bank balance are boosted by her contracts with Marc Jacobs, Estee Lauder, Fendi and Calvin Klein.

And Kendall’s biggest supporters are her family. The brunette beauty told ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’: “Kylie, sometimes if she’s at a show, her and my mom usually, I can hear them screaming and sometimes I’ll smirk a little bit because I can’t hold it in. But I’ll never look.”

She’s also recently revealed her dream is to become a photographer. She unveiled a 72-page portfolio to LOVE magazine, which included portraits of stars including Sienna Miller and Kaia Gerber, and she has confirmed the venture wasn’t just a one-off for her.

She told the new issue of Grazia magazine: “This isn’t a one-off. I’ll be working on more photography. I’m shooting a lot, but it won’t just be fashion. It’s everything. There is definitely more to come.”

Caitlyn Jenner

She rose to international fame after taking home the gold medal in the decathlon at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. And according to reports, she earned $9000 a year as an insurance broker before that. But, Caityln took over the spotlight from her famous family once more when she unveiled in a July 2015 Vanity Fair issue that she would, from then on, be known as Caitlyn.

Caitlyn is reportedly worth an eye-watering $100million, mostly made up from her life-long career as a public figure and endorsement deals with Wheaties, IBM and Coca-Cola. Last year, she bagged her own TV show and earned £3.2 million for ‘I Am Cait’ and she joined forces with make-up brand MAC to launch a rose lipstick called Finally Free.

Although 100 per cent of the profits from the products go to the MAC AIDS Fund Transgender Initiative to support its work in support of transgender communities, her association with the brand will no doubt lead to other beauty and lifestyle endorsements and keep her bank balance out of the red.