Kylie Jenner slams Forbes report debunking her billionaire net worth, gets accused of ignoring police violence
On Friday, May 29, Forbes magazine published a report examining Kylie Jenner's wealth, where the publication accused her of spinning a “web of lies” to inflate her net-worth. “Earlier this year, Kylie Jenner sold half of her cosmetics company in one of the greatest celebrity cash-outs of all time,” the report noted. “But the deal's fine print reveals that she has been inflating the size and success of her business. For years.”
Forbes claims it recalculated Kylie's net worth and concluded that she was not a billionaire. “A more realistic accounting of her personal fortune puts it at just under $900 million.”
Jenner sold 51 percent of her company, Kylie Cosmetics, to beauty giant Coty in a deal valued at $1.2 billion this January. Forbes said the estimated $340 million she pocketed after taxes would still not be enough to push her fortune beyond the 10-figure mark.
"Kylie’s business is significantly smaller and less profitable than the family has spent years leading the cosmetics industry and media outlets, including Forbes, to believe," Forbes reported.
Jenner, following the report, took to Twitter to react to it. She wrote, “What am I even waking up to? I thought this was a reputable site… All I see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. I've never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. Period.”
She added, “‘Even creating tax returns that were likely forged’. That's your proof? So you just THOUGHT they were forged? Like actually what am I reading?”
“I am blessed beyond my years, I have a beautiful daughter, and successful business and I'm doing perfectly fine,” Jenner further wrote on Twitter. “I can name a list of 100 things more important right now than fixating on how much money I have.”
“This is literally the LAST Thing I'm worried about right now,” she said.
Jenner has, since the publication of the Forbes report, been trending on Twitter. “Kylie Jenner”, “Kylie Billionaire”, “Kylie Forbes” has been making the rounds with many having a laugh about the ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ and the cosmetics entrepreneur.
A Twitter user compared Jenner to Russ Hanneman, the eccentric rich entrepreneur from HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’, saying, “Kylie Jenner is acting like Russ Hanneman when he found out he was no longer a member of the Three Comma Club.” The Three Comma Club is a fictional all-exclusive club limited to those whose net worth is valued at a billion dollars or more.
A lot of people, however, brought up many criticisms of Jenner under the ambit of this trend, including the current racial tensions all over the U.S., and especially in Minneapolis, in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Floyd was an African-American man who died suffocating as a police officer held him in place on the road with his knee on his neck.
A Twitter user tweeted the Squidward eyes shut-eyes open meme and wrote, “Kylie Jenner on police brutality or any gahdamn thing else vs Kylie Jenner when Forbes says them pockets ain’t as deep as she claimed.”
Many even accused Jenner and her family of profiting off of “Black culture”. A Twitter user wrote, “Kylie Jenner has a child with a black man, she also rips off of black culture and black women but she’s putting more energy into her being accused of not being a billionaire.” More still urged her to use her platform and clout to raise awareness about police brutality.