By Mark Gray
12:06pm PST, Nov 13, 2017
Seriously, was there a single day in 2017 when a member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan wasn't making news? The year saw a lot of highs (particularly in the sisters' love lives) and quite a few lows (particularly when it came to Rob Kardashian's love life). Wonderwall.com is looking back at the year that was for America's favorite reality TV family. Pardon the pun, but it was hard keeping up with this clan!
RELATED: The estimated net worth of every member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan
For most of the first half of the year, Kendall Jenner was a lightning rod for controversy. Nothing was more controversial, though, than a Pepsi commercial/short film she starred in that debuted in April. In it, the model successfully achieved unity between police and protesters by offering a cop a can of Pepsi. Many felt the ad was completely tone deaf. The ad hit very close to home for some, as protesters and police have clashed in real life over the last several years, often with violent outcomes. Critics thought the ad was an example of exploitation for profit and took to Twitter to skewer Pepsi and Kendall. The soda brand took down the ad and apologized to Kendall. In a trailer for the 14th season of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," Kendall discussed the ad controversy with sister Kim Kardashian West, saying, "It feels like my life is over."
RELATED: The Kardashians' most iconic magazine covers
Who saw this coming?! On Sept. 22, reports of Kylie Jenner's pregnancy almost, well, broke the Internet (sorry, Kim). The 20-year-old reality star and beauty mogul is reportedly due in February 2018. Rapper Travis Scott — the father of Kylie's child whom she's been seeing since April — has allegedly told friends that they're having a girl. A source told People magazine, "The family has known for quite some time. She is REALLY excited and so is Travis!" Another source said, "It is an unexpected but completely amazing turn of events that she could not be more excited or thrilled about. Everyone is overjoyed for her. This is the happiest she's ever been."
RELATED: Celeb babies of 2017
It's a baby boom for the KarJenners! On Sept. 26, it was reported that Khloe Kardashian was expecting with her boyfriend, NBA star Tristan Thompson. It will be Khloe's first child (Tristan has a 1-year-old son with an ex). Without quite confirming the news, Kris Jenner told "Entertainment Tonight" in October that she was "over the moon" for her daughter because Khloe is in such a great place in her personal life these days. A few weeks after the initial pregnancy reports emerged, it was confirmed that Khloe is having a boy. Break out the blue!
In April, Caitlyn Jenner released her memoir "The Secrets of My Life." To say the KarJenners weren't pleased would be an understatement. In the book, Caitlyn is less than flattering about ex-wife Kris Jenner. In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Kim Kardashian West said, "I just feel like I don't respect the character that she's showing now… I just feel like there's no need for a book. Tell your story, but just don't bash other people. My heart breaks for my mom, because I feel like she's been through so much. I just feel like it's unfair; things aren't truthful." Kim, Kourtney and Khloe all backed their mother and called the claims in the book fabrications. While speaking to Andy Cohen, Kim was asked if there was a chance that Kris would ever speak to Caitlyn again. "Zero. No, one, no, I would say 2 percent. And those are Kendall and Kylie," Kim said without mincing words. "That's their percentage. All fair, I think."
Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West are having a third child — this time via a surrogate. Kim confirmed the news in October on "Keeping Up With The Kardashians." In July, Us Weekly reported that the couple's surrogate is a San Diego mom in her late 20s who was referred by an agency. The woman has also served as a surrogate before, the mag said. A month prior, TMZ reported that a financial deal was in place that sees the surrogate pocketing $45,000 to carry the child to term. Under the terms of the agreement, if there are multiples, the surrogate gets $5,000 for each additional kid. There are also reportedly strict instructions in place for the surrogate regarding her diet, hair and sex life (she's also forbidden from handling kitty litter or getting in a hot tub). The child is due in late 2017 or early 2018.
It's hard to think of anyone who had a more dramatic year than Rob Kardashian. After months of fighting with Blac Chyna, the couple finally split. Then Rob went on a profanity-laced Instagram tirade on July 5 in which he accused Chyna of cheating and drug use. He also posted nude pictures of her online. Like, fully nude. (Twitter and Instagram took them down.) A few days later, Chyna was granted a restraining order against Rob, but she still reportedly plans to go forward with a revenge porn case. In September, Rob and sister Kylie Jenner sued Chyna for battery, assault and vandalism. In October, Chyna filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Rob and the whole Kardashian family, alleging they damaged her brand, career and more.
Kendall Jenner was only a month removed from one controversy when another reared its head, though this was really no fault of hers. In May, the model graced the cover of Vogue India's 10th anniversary issue. Kendall, as usual, looked amazing and very few people argued with that. But there was a big social media outcry against the mag for putting Kendall on the milestone cover rather than an Indian model or actress. To say that it had been a bad few weeks of public relations for Kendall at that time would be putting it lightly. She was also one of many models who were paid to promote the infamous Fyre Festival, which turned into a debacle of epic proportions.
After years of off-and-on dating, Kylie Jenner and Tyga split in early April. What went wrong? "There was no crazy fight, we just decided…," she said on her reality TV show, "well, I decided that I'm really young. I don't want to look back in five years from now and feel like he took something from me when he's really not that type of person." The duo was first linked in the fall of 2014. At the time of the split, some friends thought they might get back together, but that wasn't in the cards. A few months later, Tyga said, "I mean, I have love for her. But, like, I'm not in love no more."
You don't often associate Kim Kardashian West with drugs, and there's a reason for that: She doesn't use drugs. But in July, she found herself in the middle of a drug scandal when a white powdery substance seemed to appear on a table in the background of one of her Snapchat videos. From a distance, it looked like white lines, and many immediately thought that Kim was caught with cocaine. Hours later, Kim defended herself and claimed it was sugar, as she'd just taken her kids to a candy store. However, the next day, Kim noticed the lines were still there, so she went over to the "sugar" and quickly realized it was simply the natural veining of the marble tabletop. She rubbed her fingers over it to prove that it was marble. Yep, all that controversy for nothing.
It just wasn't a great first half of 2017 for Kendall Jenner. Aside from her Pepsi and Vogue India controversies, her home was burglarized in March — an estimated $200,000 worth of jewelry was stolen. Kendall was at her L.A. home for most the day but eventually stepped out before the thieves struck. When she returned and went to her bedroom, she realized that her jewelry box had been stolen. There was reportedly no sign of forced entry and reports said it looked to be an inside job.
It's a Kimye collaboration! On May 4, Kim Kardashian West took to Twitter to reveal that she and husband Kanye West were launching a kids clothing line. "For the past few years Kanye and I have made almost all of our kids clothes and we have collaborated on a new kids line!" she wrote. "TheKidsSupply has been what we've been working on for a long time. I'm so excited about this!" Thus far, the power couple has dropped three collections.
Okay, so Scott Disick isn't technically a Kardashian, but he's Kardashian-adjacent, especially considering he shares three children with Kourtney Kardashian. But it seems that maybe, just maybe, he's moving on from Kourtney at last. In May, Scott, 34, and Sofia Richie, 19, were spotted getting cozy with each other during the Cannes Film Festival in France. For months, she denied a romance, but in September, they could no longer deny it once pictures of them making out in Miami were published. In addition to South Beach, their romance has taken them to Mexico, Italy, Santa Barbara and Las Vegas.
For the first part of the year, Kendall Jenner seemed joined at the hip with A$AP Rocky. Then that fizzled and Kendall began dating Los Angeles Clippers star Blake Griffin. The two were first spotted in New York. Later, they were were seen in L.A. (she even once joined him for boys night in Beverly Hills). Once the NBA season started, Kendall was there in the front row cheering on her man. Blake can be a beast on the court, so we can actually call them "beauty and the beast."
Kylie Jenner went out on her own this year… in TV land, that is. In the summer, her reality show, "Life Of Kylie," premiered. Quickly, she bored viewers. Critics blasted the show, calling it everything from "fake" to "vague." There were conflicting reports about show's ratings, but none of them were great. For now, E! is sticking by the show.
The headlines were brutal: "Kim Kardashian West defends a racist." Here's what happened: In August, Kim was promoting her new powder contour kits. Jeffree Star, a model, singer and designer, didn't seem too impressed and let Kim know it publicly. Legions of Kim's fans blasted him, with many bringing up racist comments he'd made in the past (he admitted to them and apologized). Kim admonished her fans for the public bashing. "I get that it's a serious deal if you say racial things but I do believe in people changing. And people that apologize, I will give them the benefit of the doubt," she tweeted, even thanking Jeffree for his honesty. Fans then turned on Kim, who walked back her comments and issued an apology. "So I really wanted to apologize to you guys and my fans for defending a situation yesterday that I really didn't know enough about," she said on Snapchat. "I just feel a bit naïve, and I do want to really apologize for me feeling like I had the right to say 'get over it' in a situation that involves racism." She added, "I just don't really feel like I have the right to speak on that, and I really, really, really am sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I've always been about positivity and I've never been a negative person, so my whole thing was: 'Hey guys, I don't want to see negativity in my timeline or my mentions, let's just move forward — let's be positive and move past this.'"
Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner upset the dead. Not an easy thing to do. On June 30, the legendary rock band The Doors announced it would sue the girls for using the band's late singer's likeness on a T-shirt. A shirt in the sisters' fashion line featured a selfie of Kendall pasted over Jim Morrison. The shirt also featured the band's logo. The sisters also faced a huge amount of backlash that same week for other shirts, particularly the ones featuring images of deceased rappers Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. Biggie's mom, Voletta Wallace, took to Instagram to blast the Jenners, calling their shirt, "disrespectful, disgusting and exploitation at its worst!!!" Other artists featured in the T-shirt line included Ozzy Osbourne, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd (the sisters' images were plastered over all those bands too). It wasn't just the ghost of Jim Morrison who was upset. Ozzy's wife, Sharon Osbourne, took to Twitter to scold the reality TV stars. "Girls, you haven't earned the right to put your face with musical icons," she wrote. "Stick to what you know… lip gloss." The sisters eventually apologized and pulled the shirts. "These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologize to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists," they said in a statement.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 20, a thief ransacked three cars at the end of Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West's driveway. However, once the perp was caught on video, Kimye's security didn't hesitate and went after the man with guns drawn. The crook got away in the darkness with an iPhone that belonged to one of the couple's staffers.
Kanye West and old pal JAY-Z just weren't seeing eye to eye anymore in 2017. In June, Jay called out Kanye on his latest album, "4:44." In early July, Kanye left Jay's streaming service, Tidal, over a money dispute. TMZ reported that the service owned Yeezy more than $3 million. Kanye's team sent a letter to Tidal stating that the company was in breach of their contract, and that it would be terminated. After a two-week back-and-forth, no resolution was reached. Tidal later said Kanye was still under contract and threatened to sue. There were reports in September that implied that Jay and Kanye were clearing things up on a personal level, but apparently they're still hashing things out when it comes to business. Stay tuned.
These KarJenners know a thing about making money with makeup, don't they? In August, it was reported that Kylie Jenner's line, Kylie Cosmetics, was on track to become a billion dollar brand by 2022. The same month — just a year and a half after the cosmetics line debuted — records showed that it had done $420 million in sales. In June, Kim Kardashian West got in on the action too with the launch of KKW Beauty. It's estimated that she made more than $14 million in a matter of five minutes after launching her contouring kits. Still, Kim told Women's Wear Daily that she and Kylie aren't competing. "I am older than Kylie," she said. "We definitely have a different audience. We do have a lot of similar things — but we aren't doing the same products so we won't run into that overlap. We're really cautious of that. We work together to make sure that we don't overlap like that."
Bring on the kash! According to reports in late October, the E! network inked the Kardashian-Jenner clan to a $150 million deal to do their reality show for five more seasons. That equals $30 million per season. The deal will take the family into 2019. TMZ reported that Kris Jenner is pocketing $15 million in manager fees. The family will decide how to divvy up the money, but it seems as though Rob Kardashian and Kendall Jenner will get the least, as they have the least amount of screen time. Regardless of whatever opinions you have about this family, they're not going anywhere.
