Kim Kardashian Earns Billionaire Status Amid Kanye West Divorce

Kim Kardashian‘s net worth has continued to climb amid her divorce from Kanye West, with Forbes officially declaring the reality star a billionaire on Tuesday when it released its annual “World’s Billionaires List.” Kardashian made the list for the first time, with the publication sharing that her businesses, including KKW Beauty and Skims, helped gain her entry into the exclusive club.

In October, Kardashian’s net worth was estimated at $780 million, and Forbes estimates that her arrival on the billionaire’s list is thanks to KKW Beauty and Skims as well as cash from reality television and endorsement deals as well as a number of smaller investments. Kardashian launched KKW Beauty in 2017 and sold 20 percent of the company to cosmetics conglomerate Coty in 2020 for $200 million, a deal that valued the company at $1 billion. Kardashian’s remaining 72 percent stake is still worth about $500 million.

Skims was launched in 2019 as a shapewear company and has not disclosed its revenues, though the company has likely seen growth in the past year as it began incorporating more loungewear as people turned to comfy clothes during the pandemic. A source familiar with Skims told Forbes about a transaction that values the company at over $500 million. As a result, Forbes estimates that Kardashian’s stake in Skims is worth a conservative $225 million, which is enough to push her total net worth past $1 billion.

A fair amount of the rest of the 40-year-old’s net worth is in cash, including her paychecks from her family’s reality show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, endorsement deals and products including her mobile game and now-defunct Kimoji app. Kardashian also has several investments, including real estate, and in 2017, West, who is worth an estimated $1.8 billion, gifted her a portfolio of blue-chip investments that included shares of Disney, Amazon, Netflix and Adidas. Much of West’s wealth comes from his apparel businesses, and he made Kardashian a partial owner of Yeezy in 2018 after she turned down a massive deal with a brand that “typically” knocks off of the rapper’s shoe line.

“He happened to be recording out of town, and I get an envelope delivered to the door. I open the envelope, and it is a million-dollar check and a note saying, ‘Thank you for always supporting me and not posting,’” Kardashian recalled on Ashley Graham’s podcast Pretty Big Deal of her Mother’s Day gift that year. “In the rest of the envelope, it was a full, thick contract to be an owner of Yeezy and my percentage.”