It's hard to imagine Kris Jenner uninvolved in her family's spending, but at one point in her life, that was actually the norm.
In a new interview as WSJ. Magazine's digital cover star, the Kardashian-Jenner family matriarch reflected on the surprising fact that she was not always a part of her own finances. It's something she admitted in her 2012 memoir, writing—according to WSJ. Magazine's feature article—that she "had never paid a bill" during her decade-plus marriage to the late Robert Kardashian Sr. However, once they split, that all changed.
"One day," she recalled to the website, "my friend Shelli Azoff said to me when I was going through my divorce [from Robert], 'How much is your gardener?' And I said, 'I don't know.' And she said, 'You don't know?' That was the turning point for me: I was embarrassed that I didn't know."
The mogul, who has since managed all six of her children's lucrative careers, realized she had to take matters into her own, newly single hands. "I woke up one day to responsibilities that I hadn't had the day before. And I needed to figure it out," she said. "And the good news is, I pay attention...I'm a quick study and I knew I had to get it together."
What started out as a source of embarrassment turned into empowerment for the world-famous momager. "I felt such an enormous sense of accomplishment to be able to figure it all out and pay my own bills and make my own money and do my own taxes," she noted. "And there were times when I didn't have a lot of money, but I was very organized."
Organized doesn't sound like a strong enough word. For one, Jenner, 65, is proud of her meticulous office on wheels. "My car is...fantastic. I have the most perfectly organized car in the entire universe," she said. "It's like a little office, and I know where everything is. So if I go dip in here with my right hand, I'm going to get a lozenge; here, on the left, I'm going to get a glasses wipe, or here, I'm going to get this little patch for my neck, a Salonpas...I know where everything is and I can just—drive."
And, if you ask her daughters, sleeping in was not a tenet of the Kris Jenner household, either. "I've never met someone who knows how to have such a good time but also have it so together. That's why I get up at 5:58 every morning," Kim Kardashian told the website. "If it was 7 a.m. and we weren't up and our beds weren't made, she would be on the intercom screaming and waking us all up. On a Sunday, we were so embarrassed because all my friends would sleep in until 10 and she was like, 'Till...what? Like, past 7? This doesn't make sense.'"