Kylie Jenner hits back at report accusing her of ‘inflating’ billionaire status

Kylie Jenner is hitting back at a media outlet that accused her of lying about her wealth and forging tax returns.

On Friday, Forbes published a scathing article alleging that Jenner, half-sister to the Kardashians, is no longer a billionaire. The business magazine also claimed that Kylie Cosmetics, the makeup company Jenner founded in 2014, is significantly smaller and less profitable than the family made it out to be.

The piece is titled, “Inside Kylie Jenner’s web of lies — and why she’s no longer a billionaire.”

“What am I even waking up to,” wrote Jenner on Twitter Friday morning after the story was published. “[I] thought this was a reputable site.. all i see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. i’ve never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. period.”

“‘Even creating tax returns that were likely forged’ that’s your proof?” Jenner continued. “So you just THOUGHT they were forged? like actually what am i reading.”

In March 2019, Forbes named Jenner, then 21 years old, the “youngest self-made billionaire ever” thanks to her cosmetics company, which the business magazine estimated was worth at least $900 million. Critics at the time questioned the notion that Jenner was “self-made,” given her headline-grabbing family and long slate of Hollywood connections.

In January, the media personality sold 51% of Kylie Cosmetics to the publicly traded beauty company Coty for $600 million, a deal that put a hefty $1.2 billion value on the brand. But according to Forbes, the financial documents and records Coty released showed discrepancies with the numbers Jenner’s team gave the media outlet.

In its report (and accounting for the impact of COVID-19 on consumer spending and beauty stocks), Forbes said it “now thinks that Kylie Jenner, even after pocketing an estimated $340 million after taxes from the sale” to Coty, “is not a billionaire.”

“Of course, white lies, omissions and outright fabrications are to be expected from the family that perfected — then monetized — the concept of ‘famous for being famous,’” wrote Forbes reporters Madeline Berg and Chase Paterson-Withorn.

“Revenues over a 12-month period preceding the deal: $177 million, according to the Coty presentation — far lower than the published estimates at the time,” Forbes said in its report. “More problematic, Coty said that sales were up 40% from 2018, meaning the business only generated about $125 million that year, nowhere near the $360 million the Jenners had led Forbes to believe. Kylie’s skin care line, which launched in May 2019, did $100 million in revenues in its first month and a half, Kylie’s reps told us. The filings show the line was actually ‘on track’ to finish the year with just $25 million in sales.”

But Jenner seemed generally unbothered by the accusations. “i can name a list of 100 things more important right now than fixating on how much money i have,” she wrote on Twitter.