Kim Kardashian - Sean Smith

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became renowned for throwing the best parties in the neighbourhood. The mansion had a large swimming pool, a tennis court, a Jacuzzi and a bar by the pool. To buy it in 2015 would cost something like $6 million. There was nothing a thousand other homes in the gilded nirvana of Beverly Hills didn’t enjoy. A housekeeper took care of the shopping and the washing, allowing Kim’s mother the time to go out to lunch with her friends. Uncle O. J. would stop by every week to play tennis, and there would always be a big barbecue for friends and family at weekends.

      As there were so few houses in their little enclave, they decided to call theirs Tower Lane, the same name as the street, so Kim was brought up in Tower Lane, Tower Lane, which must have confused the postman. Anybody who found themselves wandering up Tower Lane would have been looking for a glimpse of either Madonna or Bruce Springsteen, who occupied the other houses during the 1980s. Bruce made it his permanent home, while Madonna was just renting for a short time. This is Los Angeles, however, so you would never walk, even to chat to a neighbour like the famous talk show host Jay Leno, who lived in the next road. The drive at the Kardashian house was almost too long to walk in any case.

      It was a paradise for the little girls, and their early lives were recorded on video by a doting father keen not to miss a second of his children growing up. He called his second daughter Kimbo, or by the pet name of Joge, although she never knew why. In Armenian, the word means ‘imagine’. Kim was a very sweet and pretty child, as the countless home movies show. She and her elder sister Kourtney were so close together in age that they tended to wear the same outfits and often resembled twins. Even though there was plenty of space, the two sisters shared a bedroom, which meant that they forged a special bond and became a clique of two.

      There were cats and dogs, rabbits and birds, and lots of dressing up. The two cats were called Coco and Chanel, an amusing tribute to the queen of French fashion, Coco Chanel. Among the pack of dogs was Valentina, a little Bichon Frisé who, the sisters recalled in Kardashian Konfidential, died after eating some poison. Kourtney and Kim cried their eyes out.

      Having two babies by the age of 24 didn’t stop Kris from having two more by the time she was 30. Khloé Alexandra was born on 27 June 1984, and a longed-for son arrived on 17 March 1987. In the best Armenian tradition, he was called Robert Arthur, after his father and grandfather respectively. Just as Kourtney and Kim were particularly close growing up, Khloé and Robert Jr likewise played together – although the youngest daughter was regarded as a personal plaything by her two elder sisters.

      If the children tired of their wonderland at home, there were always the annual vacations to look forward to: a spring break at Robert’s parents’ holiday home in Indian Wells, skiing in Colorado every autumn to celebrate Thanksgiving and, in between, a trip to Mexico or, if they were very lucky, to Hawaii.

      One of the most important aspects of Robert Kardashian was the strength of his religious beliefs, a product of his Armenian Christian roots. He would meticulously say his prayers every morning by his bedside. He would also say grace before meals in their sumptuous dining room and often carried a Bible with him. Traditional bedtime stories for kids would be mixed with the occasional tale from his Bible. He was very keen for his family to follow his beliefs. The importance of worship, a strong spiritual bond and the belief that marriage was sacred would come to be supremely ironic in a family culture in which adultery and broken marriages became the rule rather than the exception.

      The leading light in the religious community that Robert and Kris were drawn to was the famous fifties singer Pat Boone, who would host weekly Bible studies for like-minded neighbours, including Doris Day, Priscilla Presley and the Kardashians, at his luxurious mansion. Boone was well known for baptising some 250 people in his swimming pool.

      They didn’t go in for any of that in the Kardashian pool, although friends were always welcome to drop in for a swimming lesson. That circle of friends widened naturally when Kourtney and Kim went to school, first to the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Preschool in Rodeo Drive, and then to the ultra exclusive Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, where today it would cost between $33,000 and $39,000 a year to send your child.

      Kim would forge some long-standing friendships with schoolmates, who included Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, fashion designer Nikki Lund, Kimberly Stewart, the daughter of Rod Stewart and Alana Hamilton, and T. J. Jackson, the nephew of Michael Jackson. Her best friend, however, is Allison Azoff, who has never sought fame outside her privileged world.

      Allison is the daughter of Irving Azoff, one of the biggest names in American music. In 2012, he was named the most powerful person in the music business by Billboard magazine. While best known as the boss of Live Nation, Azoff has also managed the affairs of a string of famous artists, including The Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Maroon 5 and, most aptly, as far as Kim is concerned, Kanye West. Irving and Kanye were brought together by Kris, who has been best friends with Irving’s wife Shelli for more than 30 years.

      The Azoffs and the Kardashians lived near each other in Beverly Hills, so it seemed natural that their children would grow up together, spending time at each other’s houses. Kim used to enjoy exploring Shelli’s wardrobe and jewellery box, in particular, and trying on her diamond rings for size.

      Kim has always been respectful of Allison’s desire to keep a low profile and the pair are seldom pictured together, even though they still speak all the time. Kim often says that she and Allison ‘met the day I was born’ and leaves it at that. Other friendships with equally famous people may receive far more publicity, but Allison is her oldest and dearest.

      This rarefied upbringing relied on Robert continuing to make plenty of money without having to go back to the meat-packing business. Not all of his investments went as well as Radio & Records. Irving Azoff observed, ‘Some have and some haven’t been successful. But he’s real dependable and honest and quite an entrepreneur.’

      The Kardashian family were firmly entrenched in Beverly Hills society. They were established in the pool and party circuit, with four lovely children and all the trappings that success could bring. This happiness didn’t last. In 1990, the Kardashians’ world fell apart.

       A Complicated Affair

      The Kardashian family always ate dinner together, even when the children were young. After prayers, Robert would go round the table for ‘The Peak and the Pit’. Everyone in turn had to declare the highlight and lowlight of their day. When Kim revealed on television that they used to do this, it was copied in homes around the country.

      On one particular day in 1990, there were no peaks. That was when Robert and Kris sat them down and explained quietly that they were getting a divorce. Robert Jr was only two, so he wasn’t involved, but the three girls were in floods of tears. Their parents tried hard not to reveal the true extent of their own anguish.

      They wanted to cause as little disruption as possible to their children’s lives, having vowed that their welfare would remain the most important consideration and they would try to act as normally as possibly. That was easier said than done: divorce papers would later make clear just how upset Kim had been by the course of events.

      Robert was completely devastated. Kris had been having a tempestuous two-year affair with a younger man called Todd Waterman, a very fit and handsome footballer with a soccer team called LA Heat. She was 33 and he was 10 years her junior.

      He had spotted her first in a photo at a friend’s house in Beverly Hills and liked what he saw. She evidently felt the same way when they got together during a night out with friends. Their versions of events are different. She says they kissed for the first time in the hall closet of her friend’s house. He says they had sex for the first time in said closet, adding, gallantly, that it was ‘magical’.

      They both agree that they subsequently had a lot of sex. In her memoir, Kris, who once again gives her former lover a false name – this time Ryan – recalls less coyly that they had ‘wild’ sex in almost every imaginable location: tennis court, pool house, garage, back seat of the car and up and down the stairs. ‘Sex everywhere, all the time,’ she

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