1. Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner planned Kim's sex tape to achieve fame.
The book claims:
[Kim and Ray J.'s] romance was short-lived, but at some point in 2003 they found the time to record a raunchy sex tape. A source ... alleged that a mutual friend of Kim and Paris had advised her that if she wanted to achieve fame, a sex tape would be the way to go, and helped her put the video together. The source claimed that Kim had discussed the idea of producing a tape with her family long beforehand.
However, Kim and Ray J.'s relationship wasn't short-lived – they dated for three years and Kim once revealed that she "thought she would marry" him.
Furthermore, Kim made the sex tape in 2003 – over a year before the release of Paris's on 9 February 2004. While releasing the tape may have been used as leverage for achieving fame later, the timeline doesn't support the notion that the decision to have sex and film it was a preconceived plan for stardom.
2. Kris Jenner was responsible for leaking the tape.
The author, Ian Halperin, writes:
Kim's former friend Sheba – whom I was dating at the time – told me that it was Kris Jenner who engineered the deal behind the scenes and was responsible for the tape seeing the light of day, although it was unclear if Sheba was passing on firsthand knowledge or just repeating claims.
However, this revelation is nothing new. Rumours about Kris's involvement in the release of the sex tape first circulated in 2012. The reports then were almost identical to the revelations made in the book.
3. Kim must have consented to the release of the tape.
4. Khloé's DUI arrest in Keeping Up With the Kardashians was staged.
The claim:
[In Season 1, Episode 5] Khloé ends up going to a club and getting drunk. On her way home, she is pulled over by the police and given a field sobriety test which she fails. It is entertaining and dramatic TV, except that Khloé was actually busted for a DUI in March, before KUWTK even got the green light."
However, the suggestion that the arrest was re-enacted to mislead viewers is somewhat inaccurate, as the episode begins with a disclaimer: "The following episode contains recreations of actual events." This is the only instance across all 12 seasons of KUWTK and its seven spinoffs where a disclaimer was used.
However, as the book says, the reason for the incident that led to Khloé's arrest was put down to the fact that she was struggling to deal with her grief as the family acknowledged the fourth anniversary of their father's death.
5. Kim’s relationship with Kris Humphries was fake.
The book says:
We see Kim end the relationship with Shengo on air, even though it's unclear from the time line and the show's shooting schedule how she could have still been dating the Australian when in real life, Kris Humphries was already in the picture. Certainly, as her and Shengo's relationship was unfolding on air, she was already publicly dating Humphries, with whom she had been photographed leaving a Prince concert in February. Only a few weeks after the first season ended, fans were stunned to pick up the May 25th edition of People and learn the news of [Kris and Kim's] engagement.
However, examining the timeline suggests it is possible for Kim to have been dating Deane before she met Humphries. Paparazzi photos reveal that Kim began dating Deane around 25 October, but her relationship with Humphries didn't begin until 12 November. While there may not have been much time between the two, her relationship with Deane was never serious and he only appeared in three episodes.
Furthermore, KKTNY began filming in September but didn't air until January, which accounts for why Kim and Humphries would've made a public appearance together in February as her relationship with Deane played out on screen.
6. Kim’s wedding to and divorce from Kris Humphries were both a sham.
The evidence used to do so is an interview with Kim's former publicist, conducted just after the split, which says:
"She knew weeks before getting married she didn't want to do it. She's never gotten over [ex Reggie Bush]."
There's no way of knowing whether the pressure Kim felt to honour endorsement deals was as a result of being in a fake relationship or because she knew her genuine relationship wasn't right. Either way, the information is nothing new.
Kim wrote about this pressure in a blog post after the split: "I felt like I was on a fast roller coaster and couldn't get off when now I know I probably should have. I got caught up with the hoopla and the filming of the TV show that when I probably should have ended my relationship, I didn't know how to and didn't want to disappoint a lot of people."
And in the episode of KKTNY in which Kim admits she's having serious doubts about her marriage, she cries to Kourtney: "I fell in love with him and he fell in love with me and I got caught up in the fairy tale. I flew everyone out to this huge wedding, I wasted everyone's time, everyone's money, and you don't think I feel bad?"
7. KUWTK itself is staged.
The book uses the legal deposition of Russell Jay, a former executive producer of KUWTK, to provide "incontrovertible evidence" that the show is staged, saying:
[Kim] created scenes for the show entirely from scratch. During one memorable moment, Kim shares with her mother that she is having a hard time being married to Kris and is struggling in the marriage. In his deposition, Jay admitted that this scene was actually shot after the breakup and made to appear as if it took place while the couple was still together.
8. Kanye West was introduced to "rebrand" Kim.
When the first signs of a Paris Hilton backlash had appeared ... her handlers had worked furiously to rebrand her by bathing her in what they called the "hip hop ethos." If small-town young women were beginning to tire of her, it was time to build up her appeal in a new urban market. Whether or not it was a coincidence, Kim suddenly re-emerged from her self-imposed exile in the spring of 2012 with reports that she was dating the hip hop megastar Kanye West.
But the notion that Kim began dating Kanye in order to appeal to an "urban market" (if we're taking this as a clunky reference to people of colour) is confusing, given that she'd married or publicly dated four men of colour prior to Kanye. The start of the book even references Kim's "penchant for dating African Americans" from the age of 14.
Furthermore, it's suggested that the relationship wasn't believed at first: "It seemed like an unlikely pairing. The media were evidently not buying it."
9. O.J. Simpson could be Khloé’s biological father.
The book deals with the subject of O.J. Simpson potentially being Khloé's real dad as though it's new information:
While I was on a media tour ... I found myself appearing on a radio show hosted by [an] old friend ... When I happened to mention ... that I was working on a new book about the Kardashians, he asked me whether I planned to reveal who Khloé's real father was. "Who's that?" I asked. With a straight face, he answered: "OJ."
However, this rumour is not new – it's been doing the rounds in the showbiz circuit since 2012 – and Kourtney Kardashian even references it in an episode during Season 9, which aired in 2014.
10. Caitlyn Jenner hurried along her transition to deflect from her manslaughter charges.
This is the most staggering revelation of all – and one that was used to publicise Kardashian Dynasty. Halperin writes (pronouns used as they appear in the book):
A longtime friend of Jenner's accused him of misdirecting the serious offense by promoting his transition. Before Bruce got into the accident, he gave the world hints about his true sexuality. After the accident he went full steam ahead. I truly believe he was trying to misdirect the negative publicity he received after the car crash. I don't think he would have gone so fast if he hadn't been in an accident. ... The Diane Sawyer interview was a great way to derail the whole thing and to turn the attention to his transgender. To this day I remain skeptical about Bruce's true motives.
However, this assertion is categorically impossible.
But perhaps the most important piece of evidence is the timing of the Vanity Fair profile, in which Caitlyn came out to the public for the first time. The lengths the magazine went to in order to preserve their exclusive have been well-documented – but the most important part is that it was in conversation with Caitlyn about her surgeries, her transition, and how the feature would run from as far back as January. The assertion that Caitlyn decided to transition to get out of charges following the accident are therefore simply untrue.
11. According to ratings, KUWTK is finished, and everyone prefers Caitlyn Jenner.
Halperin writes:
KUTWK ratings for season 10 had ... plummeted, with the series dropping viewers in droves. The premiere of season 10 had drawn only 2.54 million viewers ... Meanwhile, Caitlyn had announced that she would be participating in a new reality series of her own ... When the new show premiered in July 2015, its debut episode drew a healthy 4.7 million viewers over three showings. It appeared that while Caitlyn was indeed on her way up, the Kardashians might have been heading in the opposite direction.
The narrative that ratings for KUWTK are sliding and interest in the family is waning is repeated constantly, but it's simply not true. While ratings are down in comparison with the show's peak in 2010-11, ratings have been consistently between somewhere between 1 and 3 million for the past five seasons.
And while Caitlyn's show was incredibly important, the first season debuted with 2.73 million viewers but ended with 1.26 million – less than the average number of viewers for an episode of KUWTK.
