Kim Kardashian shortened her name and revealed a personal academic setback while reflecting on her path from reality TV breakout to aspiring lawyer.
During a recent interview with Time, the 45-year-old entrepreneur and SKIMS founder explained that she ditched “Kimberly” just before Keeping Up with the Kardashians launched in 2007.
“I used to always go by Kimberly, until we signed on to do the reality show. And when I looked at my chyron, Kimberly Kardashian, I said, ‘I think that’s so long for people to say.’ And like, ‘Let’s just shorten it to Kim,’” she said.
The name swap came right as the Kardashian family began filming what would become a 20-season pop culture juggernaut. The original series wrapped in 2021, and the family now stars in The Kardashians on Hulu.
Kardashian also reflected on how her late father, Robert Kardashian, who died in 2003 at age 59, always called her by her full name.
“And it’s so weird, because all my friends from high school and growing up, and my dad, everyone calls me Kimberly,” she said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Kardashian addressed her decision to publicly share that she failed her first attempt at the bar exam. She’s been studying law since 2019 and recently completed her legal education program.
“You get the results on a Friday, and I knew Sunday morning they were going to be live on the Internet. So, I wanted to mention it first and let people know that it didn’t go my way,” she said. “So, instantly I was like, ‘OK, let’s do this, I know what I’ve got to do.’ This really sucks because I put so much time into it, but I know what I can do better. I’m pretty good at taking a failure and turning it into something, and I just don’t have the time to dwell.”
Kardashian is currently promoting her debut MasterClass, The New Rules of Business: The Ten Kimmandments with Kim Kardashian, which is now available on the MasterClass platform.