Kylie Jenner stripped of billionaire status by Forbes after "lying" about wealth

29 May 2020, 15:38

Kylie Jenner shows off her lavish holiday villa on Instagram

By Woodrow Whyte

Forbes claims the Kardashian-Jenner family have been desperate "to look even richer" than they actually are.

Kylie Jenner made history when Forbes announced that she was the world's youngest "self-made" billionaire in 2019. But now Forbes are claiming that the Kardashian-Jenner family lied about Kylie's net worth and have dramatically stripped Kylie of her billionaire status.

In a scathing piece published today (May 29) by Forbes titled "Inside Kylie Jenner's Web Of Lies - And Why She's No Longer A Billionaire", the publication alleges that the Kardashian-Jenner family consistently lied about the revenue generated by Kylie Cosmetics, the beauty company Kylie started in 2015.

What makes the story even more juicy is that the Kardashian-Jenner family, in particular Kris Jenner, have been actively pursing Forbes to attain higher placings on their Rich Lists.

READ MORE: Kylie Jenner denies sending "Rise and Shine" cease and desist letters

"But, similar to Donald Trump’s decades-long obsession with his net worth, the unusual lengths to which the Kardashian-Jenners have been willing to go—including inviting Forbes into their mansions and CPA’s offices, and even creating tax returns that were likely forged—reveals just how desperate some of the ultra-rich are to look even richer", write Forbes.

So why have Forbes suddenly changed their valuation of Kylie's wealth? It all has to do with the recent sale of a 51% stake of Kylie Cosmetics.

According to filings by publicly traded Coty, the company that bought the 51% stake for $600 million in November 2019, revenue was far lower than previous estimates and what the Jenners had previously told Forbes.

Forbes lays out several examples of how the Jenner's deceived them. One notable example includes Kylie’s skincare line, which launched in May 2019. Kylie reps reportedly told Forbes they the line did $100 million in revenues in its first month and a half. However, the Coty filings show the line was actually “on track” to finish the year with just $25 million in sales.

View this post on Instagram

So excited to finally announce that @kylieskin is launching at Douglas in Europe this Friday! You can shop online on May 22, my Kylie Skin one year anniversary! I can’t wait! 💕 #KylieXDouglas @douglas_cosmetics

A post shared by Kylie 🤍 (@kyliejenner) on May 18, 2020 at 10:44am PDT

Forbes alleges that the Kardashian-Jenner publicists began a campaign to “get a Forbes cover for Kylie", which included a meeting at Kris Jenner's Californian estate with the family accountant. The article reads:

"Forbes was shown tax returns detailing $307 million in 2016 revenues and personal income of more than $110 million for Kylie that year. It would have been enough to put her at number two on the Celebrity 100 list, behind Taylor Swift, the accountant was quick to point out. But the documents, despite looking authentic and bearing Kylie Jenner’s signature, weren’t exactly convincing since the story they told, of e-commerce brand Kylie Cosmetics growing from nothing to $300 million in sales in a single year, was hard to believe."

Forbes now claims that those documents were most likely fake, based on reports on the actual revenue later revealed in the Coty fillings from the 2019 sale.

The article concludes that Kylie's net worth is just under $900 million. It then ends on this zinger: "As usual, we asked the Jenners for input on our numbers. But pressed for answers on the many discrepancies, the typically chatty family did something out of character: They stopped answering our questions."

Damn.

It begs the question: why would the Jenner-Kardashian family, who are already much richer than most people on this earth, want to appear even more wealthy than they actually are?

We can't wait to see how Kris Jenner handles with this one.

UPDATE: Kylie has now responded to Forbes article. (May 29 - 5.30pm GMT)

In a series of tweets, Kylie claims the Forbes piece contains "inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions". She also says she never asked for Forbes to give her the title of billionaire. "I’ve never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER".

We doubt this is the last we will hear from Forbes or the Kardashian-Jenner's on this.