2022 is coming to an end, and it’s been nothing short of drama for our favorite reality family.
While the Kardashian/Jenners have seemingly tried edging away from the life of controversy, this year has seen the sisters caught up in tons of messy scandals — from "delusional" photoshop jobs to entitled business "advice."
And so, I hereby present you with — in no particular order — the biggest Kardashian Kontroversies of 2022.
First off, people were left infuriated by the way the Kar/Jenners — one of the most influential families in the world — contributed to the growing climate crisis.
In July, Kylie Jenner sparked huge backlash when data published by @CelebJets revealed that she had regularly taken flights as short as 15 minutes.
And she continued to stoke the outrage with an apparent "flex," by posting a now-infamous photo of her and partner Travis Scott embracing in front of their matching jets with the caption "you wanna take mine or yours?"
By December, new data surfaced revealing that the pair had taken separate flights to the exact same location, with fans branding them “unimaginably selfish” once more.
This theme of flaunting private jets became a recurring one within the family, with Kim going on to show off her jet’s all-cashmere interior during an episode of their Hulu show, The Kardashians.
But it wasn’t just carbon emissions that the sisters were using in excess. An LA Times report exposing several celebrities’ excessive water usage came to light in August, with Kim and Kourtney listed amongst the worst culprits.
Kim’s properties reportedly used nine years’ worth of water in just one month amid the California drought, which had been named the worst on record. She and Kourtney reportedly exceeded their limits by a combined total of over 300,000 gallons during the summer.
To make things worse, Kim later defended her and her sisters’ decisions, claiming people should be able to “pick and choose” which practices they use to combat the climate crisis.
“I have super climate change-involved friends, and I love learning from them,” she told Interview magazine in September. “I do what I can, but you have to pick and choose what really works for you in your life.”
Climate change is real 💔🌎
“I also believe in being realistic and I think sometimes there’s so much to worry about on this planet, and it can be really scary to live your life with anxiety,” she added.
And that very same week, Kourtney faced more controversy after unveiling her collaborative collection with fast fashion retailer Boohoo, which she claimed was totally sustainable.
Fans were outraged by the partnership, branding both Kourtney and Kim “the biggest hypocrites.”
A private-jetting Kardashian worth $65 million is now "sustainability ambassador" for fossil fuel fashion brand boohoo, where she'll chat "with sustainability experts to better understand challenges and opportunities in the fashion industry." We absolutely KANNOT.
Kim divided opinion when she rocked up to the event wearing Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “Happy Birthday Mr. President” dress, and later caused even more uproar when she revealed the drastic measures she’d taken to ensure it fit her.
Kim embarked on a rigorous and excessive exercise routine and diet just three weeks before the Met, and was quickly accused of promoting disordered eating.
Kim bragged about her strict diet and exercise plan on the Met Gala red carpet and throughout Season 2 of The Kardashians. And it was just another example of her current obsession with proving how hard she works — something that has frustrated even her biggest fans this year.
Though it’s now become more of a lighthearted meme, Kim’s memorable “advice for women in business” line sparked outrage back in March. When asked what she'd tell aspiring businesswomen during an interview with Variety, Kim responded: "Get your fucking ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days."
Several internet users called the star out for lecturing the public on success without acknowledging any of the factors — namely her family’s wealth, privilege, and connections — that have helped her get to where she is today.
And we later saw Kim’s raw reaction to the backlash unfold in real time thanks toThe Kardashians, where she attempted to level herself with the general public.
While discussing the controversy with Khloé and Kendall, Kim suggested that people didn’t know the true “story” behind their upbringing, insinuating that their family had been through some kind of struggle.
“Yeah, we grew up privileged, but people don’t know the story of [Caitlyn Jenner] and Mom having to sell their house in Hidden Hills because they couldn’t afford it and they had to move to an apartment,” she said. Caitlyn is the ex-partner of their mom, Kris Jenner.
However, a closer look back at Kris’s detailed 2011 memoir — titled Kris Jenner...and All Things Kardashian — revealed that this was actually far from true, and the Hidden Hills move in question was a relocation after realizing they had too much space. In turn, fans accused the family of trying to “gaslight” their audience.
The family also attracted criticism for appearing more unrelatable than ever this year.
Viewers of The Kardashians were left cringing after one episode saw Kris and Kylie excitedly exploring a grocery store as if it was a museum.
The pair, who were desperate to do “normal” things together, admitted they hadn’t been grocery shopping “in forever.” And this was certainly made apparent by their extreme reactions to the most mundane of things, not to mention Kris having absolutely no idea how to work the card machine at the checkout.
Just three months later, Kourtney and her husband, Travis Barker, faced a similar backlash when fans accused them of “cosplaying” as working-class citizens when they pulled up at a truck stop for an “aesthetic” photo shoot.
Plus, who could forget about Kendall and that damn cucumber?
Kendall, who was 26 at the time, went viral when she struggled to slice a cucumber in an episode of The Kardashians, resulting in a panicked Kris Jenner calling for help from their private chef. The bizarre display ended up sparking a serious conversation about the pitfalls of growing up privileged, with many people labeling it “sad” and “frustrating” to see.
Meanwhile, over on Instagram the family were being called out for a series of increasingly bizarre photoshop fails.
Khloé, who has openly admitted to using a “good filter, good lighting and an edit here and there” on her photos, was slammed for tweaking her pictures after fans spotted how strange her hands looked in an Instagram post.
Just days later, Kris literally deleted an entire carousel of pictures from Instagram after seemingly forgetting to edit one of her and Kim. Unluckily for her, eagle-eyed Reddit users had already screenshotted the photo in question.
And by the end of the month, Kim had caused a stir as well after deleting a bikini picture that fans noticed featured a super distorted-looking leg.
Later on in the year, Kim was accused of editing her trapezius muscle out of photos. And just last month, people pointed out that Kendall’s waist looked to have been edited in pictures she shared after they appeared distinctly different from several paparazzi shots.
And I’m sure we all remember the great Disneyland scandal of late 2021, but it was this year that Khloé accidentally confirmed the entire thing, and all our questions were answered.
For those who aren’t up to speed, Kim posted these pretty bizarre-looking photos of her daughter, Chicago, and Khloé’s daughter, True, at Disneyland, on Dec. 31, 2021. I say bizarre-looking because, well, just look at True (on the right).
Fans naturally speculated that it was a bad Photoshop job because of the way that True was seemingly hovering in the shots, and Khloé ended up revealing that this was the case when she let it slip that True's first trip to Disneyland was on her birthday in April 2022 — four months after Kim's post.
Responding to a fan who tweeted that “the people have questions,” Khloé candidly admitted that she had “fucked this one up,” confirming once and for all that the pictures had been edited.
@BonGucci @KimKardashian Welllppp I fucked this one up. Anyways….. let’s focus on something else 😂 Our show airs in a few days 🤣
And it turns out that Kim's decision to tweak the photos was down to her wanting to maintain a pink and blue "aesthetic" on her Instagram — something she confirmed during an episode of The Kardashians.
Speaking of the Hulu show, this too was the source of huge backlash in 2022.
Fans wound up branding the series “a chore to watch” after realizing that the sisters’ various businesses were getting the majority of the screen time, as opposed to the good old drama they became known and loved for back on E!’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Several social media users have since theorized that the Kardashian/Jenners are actually trying to reshape their image altogether, switching scandal and controversy for all things business and work. Sadly for them, many of their fans have been left totally “bored” by the shift.
And finally, this year displayed more clearly than ever the stark difference between how the Kar/Jenners are raising their sons and how they're raising their daughters.
With Kylie having kept all details about her baby boy totally private — including his name and face — since his birthday in February, fans remembered that things were completely different when she welcomed her first daughter, Stormi, in 2018.
Stormi was quickly posted all over Kylie’s Instagram page and, now 4, the little girl often accompanies her mom to photo shoots and red carpets, while also modeling for Kylie Baby.
Fans noticed that this contrast also mirrored the way Khloé is raising her two kids. Photos of now-4-year-old True were posted publicly within weeks of her birth, while Khloé’s second child — also a boy — still remains a total mystery.
And it wasn’t long before people spotted a much wider pattern, with the Kar/Jenners’ only male sibling, Rob, being the only one afforded a private life — in spite of Kylie’s long-running desire to exist outside of the spotlight.
Kylie and Khloé are still yet to reveal their baby boys’ names and faces. Is it too optimistic to hope for some new info in 2023? At this point, probably not.
