The women of “The Kardashians” spilled all the tea on their Hulu series, the making of their show and challenges of seeing their personal issues play out on screen.
Kris Jenner, Khloé Kardashian and Kendall Jenner were on hand at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday for a special screening and Q&A panel moderated by Beatrice Verhoeven. Executive producers Ben Winston and Danielle King were also in attendance.
The three women opened up about their famous family's decision to return to television after their longtime E! show, “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” ended in 2021.
Deciding to return to the screen was a choice they didn't take lightly, wanting their family and lives be documented in a way that made them feel more "authentic."
“We were really excited to have somebody see us in a whole different way,” Khloé told the audience about their Hulu reality show, which premiered April 14.
The family opted for a documentary-style series with them breaking the fourth wall to let people see a more personal side to them. That also meant finding the new balance between letting people in and keeping certain parts of their lives private.
“I think each person has their set of boundaries or what they feel like showing, and we all respect that each person might have something that they’re more comfortable showing and something that they don’t want on camera,” Khloé explained. “And we have to respect that because this is not only our job, but it’s our real life.”
Over the course of the first season, the family has touched on Kim's divorce from Kanye "Ye" West and her new relationship with Pete Davidson.
There's also been talks about Kourtney's relationship with husband Travis Barker and Kylie has spoken about her pregnancy with baby No. 2, her son with Travis Scott. Khloé also has talked about her and Tristan Thompson's problems and his cheating scandals.
Khloé touched on the challenges of seeing her issues unfold on camera.
“That definitely isn’t fun. When things are so public, if there’s no way around it, I mean, it’s something that I feel viewers would feel slighted or (say) hey, ‘This isn’t a docuseries. It’s not reality because you’re not talking about this or showing this,’” Khloé explained. “And the truth is, you know, Kim was filming something else when this story came out on the media.”
Without naming Tristan, she added that her problems are “somehow is always caught on camera.”
“It’s not easy, but it’s also, I think, a form of therapy for me at the same time and I like to see how the rest of my family responds to things,” she continued. “Those little things, that mean a lot to me. And I like to see that stuff for, like, just how the whole family — not about this situation, but any situation — how we all rally around one another in times that are hard for us.”
Kendall, on her end, noted that in “KUWTK” she and Kylie were more private. However this time around, they “were both really excited to kind of be more open.”
“We’re both at a really cool place in our lives that we're really willing to open up more and share," the model said. "I think it’s also a day by day thing and it’s situational and I think we just take it one step at a time."
As for mama Kardashian, her challenges that arose were seeing her daughters in pain.
"When you have kids and they have partners or spouses or baby daddies and boyfriends, when they break up with somebody, I feel like I just broke up with somebody.
"And then if they break up with somebody and this happens more than once a year..." she said, as the audience and her daughters laughed. "It's like, I need therapy!"
"Thanks mom, love you too," Khloé replied.
Meanwhile, all the ladies serve as executive producers and are “very involved” in the edits of the episodes. In one episode, Kourtney even admitted that she didn't like how she was portrayed in one episode, making the whole show very real.
“We all watch the cuts, we give our notes,” Khloé explained. “I personally, I don’t like to take stuff out. I’m like, this is what happened.”
Growing up with cameras around them, for Khloé it’s second nature and she feels “so safe with the team.”
She added that if the family “didn’t feel safe or comfortable to tell our stories or to feel that we can be vulnerable” they wouldn’t be doing this.
With a “great team” around them, they feel like they can “confide” and trust in them. “You’re in these very intimate scenarios or you’re in your bedroom maybe crying or whatever it is.”
“I don’t know why, I just feel like you’re talking to like your favorite girlfriends or whatever,” Khloé said, noting how they brought over some of the production team from “Keeping Up.” “We’re one weird family. One big ‘ol family.”
The first season of "The Kardashians" is now streaming on Hulu, with a second season in the works.
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