Kris Jenner on Power and Beauty: “This Is Aging Gracefully, My Version.”

Photographed by Norman Jean Roy, Styled by Law Roach, Dress and Stockings, Saint Laurent. Necklace, Ring (Pinky), Van Cleef and Arpels

When the show first aired, Jenner tells me everything ­happened “so quickly” and the workload was extremely intense. ­Contrary to the idea that reality TV doesn’t involve too much effort as it seems like nothing but capturing everyday life, shoots went on for six to seven days a week and reached over 16 hours per day. “We were doing our wardrobe; sometimes even our hair and makeup. We were filming in our own homes,” Jenner reminisces. “We were proud of where we were living, and we wanted it to be beautiful. So we were also the set directors and the florists, making sure everything was the way we wanted it, as if we had company coming over. Imagine if the whole world is looking at what your kitchen looks like,” she throws. “But looking back, I never even dreamt that I could’ve had this amazing career starting at 51. I feel really lucky that it happened the way it did, allowing us to do it as a family.”

Photographed by Norman Jean Roy, Styled by Law Roach Coat, Balenciaga

Photographed by Norman Jean Roy, Styled by Law Roach Coat, Balenciaga

As with any good reality TV show, a big dose of drama is an important ingredient to keep audiences hooked. The ­Kardashian family mastered this like no other, resulting in an almost-uninterrupted 18 years on air and counting. We have ­witnessed their many wins and moments of joy, but also the ugly divorces, the infamous private tape scandal, the physical fights between the sisters, and, in the case of our cover star, a very ­public second divorce culminating in the gender transition of the father of her two younger daughters. All of this seems extremely ­complicated to navigate in private, and even more complex in front of the entire world. “You know, we don’t have any regrets. I don’t live with regrets,” Jenner counters. “We have a global ­television show in 200 countries and so many languages. Our enormous fanbase is very emotionally invested in the family. At this point, they want to see what we are doing, and they will know everything, especially as we live in the age of the internet. There’s nothing off-limits.” She also reveals that the family holds the editing rights of the show, but that doesn’t mean things should be hidden from the audience, apart from a bad hair day. “We always had these rights, that’s the way I negotiated the deal. I wasn’t going to put my family in a vulnerable situation by signing a piece of paper saying they could do whatever they wanted with our image, and we would only see it on TV. But we quickly realized that the raw moments, the tears, and showing our real lives had real value. We only took something out when we looked bad, or there was a nicer angle.”