Kylie Jenner had a lot of doubters from the get-go.
It has long been a topic of speculation whether the 22-year-old makeup mogul is really a billionaire or even an actual self-made businesswoman.
And now, it seems like the verdict on these topics has finally been settled once and for all. By no other than Forbes, the same publication who first crowned her the title in 2019, at that.
Not a Billionaire
Forbes is taking back Jenner’s billionaire status after the results of investigations into the reality star turned social influencer’s finances. The publication accused Jenner’s camp of allegedly giving them misleading information concerning her actual wealth in a recently published exposé.
As per its current estimates, the Kylie Cosmetics founder has a net worth of just under $900 million. Although this proves she is indeed extremely wealthy, it’s still ways off of the billion-dollar mark.
Jenner’s accountants are particularly accused of forging tax returns, a claim that her lawyer Michael Kump has refuted. The maligned businesswoman has also taken to Twitter and said that Forbes’ article presented some unproven assumptions.
The investigation was reportedly prompted by newly-filed documents that showed stark differences between privately and publicly shared information about the company.
Recent Developments
Forbes’ backtracking on their previous conferring of the billionaire title from Jenner comes after she sold 51% of her cosmetics brand to the beauty conglomerate Coty Inc. The sale valued Kylie Cosmetics at $1.2 billion paying its founder $600 million ($340 million after tax).
The numbers seemed to confirm Jenner’s initial claims about her brand and Forbes even described the transaction as one of ‘the greatest celebrity cashouts of all time’.
However, the publication now believes that the coronavirus pandemic has negatively affected Jenner’s stakes enough to push back her net worth and demote her back to a hundred millionaire.
Reputation on the Line
Jenner isn’t the only one in hot water though. Forbes itself is facing some criticism regarding its not-so-thorough verification of the information they were initially presented by the beauty mogul’s camp.
NewsGuard editor James Warren particularly observed that Jenner’s initial claim was both easy to make yet also difficult to verify. He also emphasized the importance of verification regarding a person’s billionaire status as some use the title as a ‘credential of grand distinction’ almost similar to an Ivy League degree.
Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath expressed similar sentiments and said that Forbes’ story placed the business magazine in a ‘tough spot’.