Entertainment, Moment Kim Kardashian Surpassed Paris Hilton In Popularity And Wealth

 

 Kim truly has Keeping Up With the Kardashians to thank for her career — and perhaps her executive producer Ryan Seacrest.

While they’ve known each other since they were teenagers, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton’s friendship reached new heights around 2003 when the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star began working as her pal’s personal stylist — a job which came with many perks and benefits.

Let’s not forget that this was the same year Paris gained a lot of attention for her incredibly popular reality show, The Simple Life, with her then-BFF Nicole Richie. 

The “Stars Are Blind” singer’s career took off and quite literally everywhere she went, the photographers would chase her every move — and while she wasn’t that known yet, Kim, who would often be by Paris’ side, would soon take over in popularity, wealth and worldwide fame.

Many believed that when Kim and her family kicked off their stint on reality TV back in 2007 that Paris was jealous, having seen how massive the show had become after its first season run on E!. In just 14 years, Kim has managed to build a billion-dollar empire, all while her sisters have done just as well, with Kylie Jenner also amassing a billion-dollar firm with her Kylie Cosmetics firm.

How Did Kim Kardashian Overtake Paris Hilton In Wealth And Fame?

 

Kim truly has Keeping Up With the Kardashians to thank for her career — and perhaps her executive producer Ryan Seacrest, who was adamant that E! should pick up the family’s reality show based on the pilot episode alone.

Ryan found the Kardashians to be very entertaining, and considering Kim had been making a lot of headlines on her own following the “leak” of her raunchy adult tape with R&B singer Ray J, intrigued viewers were definitely eager to see what the family had to offer.

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Of course, nobody could have predicted that KUWTK was going to do as well as it did, averaging over 4 million viewers by season 3 and producing a ton of spin-offs, including Khloe & Kourtney Take Miami, Kourtney & Kim Take New York, Khloe & Lamar, and Life of Kylie, just to name a few.

By 2011, the Kardashians had quite literally taken over the E! network, which made sense because they were bringing in the most amount of revenue from their respective shows.

 

During the rise of Kim’s career, Paris had said some not-so-nice things about her on-again, off-again pal, such as the time she appeared on the Chet Buchanan and the Morning Zoo radio show and said, "I would not want [Kim’s butt] — it’s gross! It reminds me of cottage cheese inside a big trash bag.”

In 2011, Paris gave reality TV another shot when she landed a new show on Oxygen titled The World According to Paris — but after just one season, the network decided to pull the plug since ratings were averaging at just 250,000 viewers per episode, which was a far cry from the 13.3 million she pulled in during episode two of The Simple Life’s first run.

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Meanwhile, it almost seemed as if everything Kim and her family were doing was turning into success and money. From endorsement deals to more reality shows, their rapid rise on social media with millions of followers — the KKW Beauty founder had undoubtedly become more popular than Paris.

 

In a 2011 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Kim acknowledged her feud with the blonde beauty, where she admitted that she hadn’t spoken to Paris in years but insisted that while she believed the latter came into her life for a reason, they simply drifted apart as time went by.

"We don't really talk," she told the magazine. "As I always say, everyone comes into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. There comes a point in life where you just grow apart and you realize you're not as similar as you thought.”

It was in 2016 when things took a turn in the pair’s rivalry when Paris decided to show up to the Kardashians’ Christmas Eve party, where she even went on to pose for photos with Kim and her siblings.

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That night appeared to have changed the friction in their relationship as the two have since collaborated on Kim’s Skims line. The mother of four also made a cameo in the 2019 music video for Paris’ song “Best Friend’s

 

Then, in a 2019 episode of KUWTK, Kim told her sister Khloe Kardashian that she had agreed to star in the music video because she owed it to the 40-year-old, saying, “I really would wanna do anything for her. She literally gave me a career, and I totally acknowledge that.”

Khloe responded, “A lot of people, no matter how they got their success, they wouldn’t say, ‘I got my career because of Paris.’ They wouldn’t say, ‘I wanna do you a favor.’ They’d be like, ‘Haha, b**ch, look who’s popping now,’ but you’re so sweet and kind.”