I didn’t think there was anything left in the world of the Kardashians that could possibly shock me.
Not even today’s revelation that Kim Kardashian has followed her sister Kylie Jenner in becoming a Forbes-confirmed billionaire.
But I was wrong.
The photo of Khloé Kardashian in a leopard print bikini that’s gone viral this week is truly jaw-dropping.
Because it’s real.
No filters, no airbrushing, little make-up, hair scraped back in a ponytail – just a picture of how Ms Kardashian actually looks.
By comparison to all her heavily enhanced, carefully-staged glamour publicity photos, her waistline is significantly less defined, her curves less dramatic and her skin not so impossibly smooth.
It’s Khloé unvarnished, flaws and all.
And the photo was utterly horrifying.
Not to me, I hasten to add. I thought she looked as refreshingly normal as I’ve ever seen any of the Kardashians.
No, it was utterly horrifying to HER.
The photo of Khloé Kardashian in a leopard print bikini that’s gone viral this week is truly jaw-dropping. Because it’s real. No filters, no airbrushing, little make-up, hair scraped back in a ponytail – just a picture of how Ms Kardashian actually looks
Khloé Kardashian’s not some wondrously sculpted Venus-like goddess after all, she’s just a regular woman with regular looks and a regular body shape. No shame in that – at all – yet she’s made herself very rich by pretending to be something very different and very special. Pictured: Khloé in the same bikini in an airbrushed image
For it turns out the very last thing the Kardashians want is for anyone outside the family to ever see what they really look like.
And the moment we did, all hell broke loose.
An errant assistant – who I fear may now be resting in concrete under LA’s 405 freeway – accidentally posted the image, taken by Khloé’s grandmother during the family’s weekend Easter get-together, online.
It very quickly went viral, meaning her 136 million social media followers will have seen it too.
And they will have been as shocked as me, because they have been very deliberately prevented from seeing what their heroine and role model really looks like.
In the last three weeks, Khloé has posted 12 photos of herself in bikinis on her Instagram, mostly to promote her lucrative new swimwear line.
Those images have all been substantially worked on to create a sense of aesthetic perfection.
They’re all attracted several million ‘likes’ from fans bowled over by how stunning she looks. Doubtless many will have pondered how they too could ever wish to look that perfect.
Of course, the answer is by faking it which is what all the Kardashians have been doing for years.
But many of her fans didn’t know that – until now.
With one carelessly released genuine photo, the scam’s been blown.
In the last three weeks, Khloé has posted 12 photos of herself in bikinis on her Instagram, mostly to promote her lucrative new swimwear line
These images Khloé released on her Instagram have all been substantially worked on to create a sense of aesthetic perfection. They’re all attracted several million ‘likes’ from fans bowled over by how stunning she looks. Doubtless many will have pondered how they too could ever wish to look that perfect
Khloé Kardashian’s not some wondrously sculpted Venus-like goddess after all, she’s just a regular woman with regular looks and a regular body shape.
No shame in that – at all – yet she’s made herself very rich by pretending to be something very different and very special.
And the moment that ruthlessly protected mask slipped – she went berserk.
Within minutes of the photo exploding on the internet, the whole Kardashian machine swung into desperate action – with a flotilla of PRs, agents, managers and lawyers ordered to get it removed.
A legal representative for her grandmother, Kris Jenner’s mother Mary Jo, issued a menacing statement saying: ‘We are counsel for Mary Jo ‘MJ’ Shannon. Copies of a photograph, captured by our client, which captures her family member Khloé Kardashian in a private location (wearing a leopard print bikini), have been unlawfully posted online, without authorization.’
Tracy Romulus, chief marketing officer for KKW Brands, said in a separate statement: ‘The colour edited photo was taken of Khloé during a private family gathering and posted to social media without permission by mistake by an assistant. Khloé looks beautiful but it is within the right of the copyright owner to not want an image not intended to be published taken down.’
But why would she want it removed if she looks so beautiful, as her spokesman says?
Because it exposes the fakery that surrounds the Kardashian brand.
It also exposes the ridiculous hypocrisy behind it.
In a recent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Khloé complained bitterly about people commenting on how she looks.
‘My soul is at a breaking point,’ she said, ‘in regards to the public thinking they’re allowed to talk about my weight, my face, my personal life.’
She even managed to say this with a straight face, which may or may not be down to all the Botox she’s had.
When even her own fans slammed her oddly altered physical appearance in a recent new commercial, she hit back on Instagram by urging everyone to ‘start ignoring people who threaten your joy. Literally ignore them. Say nothing. Don’t invite any parts of them into your space’
Comparisons: Khloe chalks her morphing looks up to picture perfect contouring done by shading and highlighting through makeup (Left 2019, right 2008)
In a recent episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Khloé complained bitterly about people commenting on how she looks. ‘My soul is at a breaking point,’ she said, ‘in regards to the public thinking they’re allowed to talk about my weight, my face, my personal life.’
When even her own fans slammed her oddly altered physical appearance in a recent new commercial, she hit back on Instagram by urging everyone to ‘start ignoring people who threaten your joy. Literally ignore them. Say nothing. Don’t invite any parts of them into your space.’
Incredible.
This is a woman who literally spends her entire time posting every part of herself from her space onto a platform where 136 million people can instantly see it!
As for her soul-breaking belief that the public are awful for thinking they’re allowed to talk about her weight, face and personal life – what the hell does she think they’re going to talk about when she takes part in a 24/7 reality show and so cynically exploits every aspect of her looks and personal life for massive commercial gain?
It takes a quite staggering lack of self-awareness to attack the public who’ve made you a multi-millionaire for doing exactly what you want and need them to do to make you a multi-millionaire.
But then, that’s what the Kardashians are all about.
Within minutes of the photo exploding on the internet, the whole Kardashian machine swung into desperate action – with a flotilla of PRs, agents, managers and lawyers ordered to get it removed. A legal representative for her grandmother, Kris Jenner’s mother Mary Jo (left), issued a menacing statement saying saying the photo was captured by their client, and was ‘unlawfully posted online, without authorization’
As I’ve said many times, they’re a bunch of talentless fame-hungry greedy and hypocritical wastrels who want to have their celebrity cake and eat it.
I see right through them, but many sadly don’t.
Indeed, some of their famous supporters have raced to double down on blaming the public.
Model and TV presenter Vogue Williams posted this furious tirade: ‘I have seen so much crap surrounding this picture of Khloe Kardashian today. Once again discussing a woman’s body and looks. It’s honestly made me feel so angry. If she wants to post edited pictures she can, it’s nobody else’s business and nobody else should care either.’
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Wait, what?
Nobody should discuss a woman’s body and looks when they constantly post intimate semi-naked photos on social media for their 136 million followers to see?
And faking those pictures to create a false impression is ‘nobody else’s business’ and ‘nobody else should care’?
This is just astoundingly deluded, isn’t it?
But that’s the extraordinarily two-faced world we now live in, one personified by Meghan Markle’s ‘my truth’ mindset: believe what I say, even if it’s untrue, and only write and say good things about me, however hypocritical I’m being.
The reason the Khloé fakery matters is that so many impressionable young girls and woman strive to look like the way they think the Kardashians look, from recklessly starving themselves to get the same fake waists, to paying plastic surgeons to irreparably nip and tuck their faces.
Or by using similar filters and photo-shopping to post equally unrealistic images of themselves online that they can never hope to match in real-life.
The reason the Khloé fakery matters is that so many impressionable young girls and woman strive to look like the way they think the Kardashians look, from recklessly starving themselves to get the same fake waists, to paying plastic surgeons to irreparably nip and tuck their faces
Their desperation to emulate their fraudulent idols causes huge mental health issues including anxiety, depression and worse.
And that malevolent influence is compounded by the horrible message the Kardashians sell – that stripping off and exposing your private life to maximum lurid public attention is the route to success, fame, and fortune.
The Kardashians know how damaging this is, yet still they do it without a thought for the harm they cause.
It’s frankly tragic to see how terrified Khloé Kardashian was by the thought people might know what she really looks like.
Tragic for her, and for a society that increasingly values unreality over reality.
In its way, the Kardashian culture of ‘fake views’ is every bit as corrosive as Donald Trump’s penchant for ‘fake news’.
How much inspiring it would be if Khloé stopped trying to ban people from using the photo – and instead, owned, embraced and celebrated it.
Posting the picture again with the words: ‘This is the real me and I want you all to see it because I love the way I am!’ may not be as empowering to her bank balance, but it would be massively more honest and empowering to other women.
