In a rare unfiltered conversation with podcast host Jake Shane on Therapuss, the 28-year-old beauty mogul spoke candidly about the fear surrounding her first pregnancy, the physical devastation of her second, and what it actually looks like to raise two kids in one of the world’s most scrutinized families.
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As many are aware, Jenner was 19 years old when she found out she was pregnant with daughter Stormi, now 8, whom she shares with rapper Travis Scott. By any measure, it was a lot to carry and she carried most of it quietly, alone, before telling anyone.
“I was 19 when I got pregnant… I was freaking out… I was really scared to tell my parents,” she told Shane. “But there was something just inside of me that knew that I wanted to do this, and I had to make a decision for myself: What do I really want? What can I handle? And even if I have to do this alone or however this is the choice that I’m going to make and then I told my mom… No one was angry at me.”
What followed was one of the most talked-about disappearing acts in pop culture history. Jenner went dark, no bump photos, no announcements, no storylines on The Kardashians. She simply withdrew from public life for the duration of her pregnancy.
The reason, she explained, was self-preservation. Shane noted during the conversation that she rarely left her home during that period, with paparazzi helicopters reportedly circling above her property in search of a single usable photograph.
Days after Stormi’s birth in February 2018, Jenner released a short film titled “To Our Daughter,” an intimate, carefully produced look at her pregnancy — and the internet responded with a scale of emotion few celebrity moments have ever generated.
Shane described it as the video that “stopped the world.” Jenner seemed genuinely surprised by the reaction even now. “I didn’t realize it was going to be like that,” she said. “All the reaction videos to people watching it and gathering in the living room, like, ‘This is crazy.'”
But the release wasn’t without its emotional cost. Jenner reflected on how much she had been holding:
“When I posted that [‘To My Daughter’] video, I sobbed for three hours because it felt like so much weight on my shoulders. And, and just a big thing that I was hiding from the world. And I was, worried about everyone’s reactions. And it was just so emotional. And I’m like, ‘Maybe next time I wouldn’t do that.'”
True to her word, Jenner did not hide her second pregnancy. When she became pregnant with son Aire — now 4, also with Scott — in 2021, she made no secret of it. But what she didn’t fully disclose at the time was the extent to which that pregnancy physically dismantled her.
Jenner described being bedridden for much of it, not by choice but by medical necessity.
“I couldn’t leave my bed anyway because I was in so much back pain and sciatica pain,” she said. “And lots of things were happening with my vagina. I was three centimeters dilated for like a month and a half, two months, the baby was falling out. My doctor is like, ‘You have to stay in bed.'”
The physical consequences extended well beyond delivery. “I have had chronic back pain for three and a half years. It’s just starting to get better,” Jenner said, adding, “My last pregnancy, it really took me out.”
“I was in the best shape of my life for that pregnancy. So, I really had high expectations. I really wanted to work out,” she said. “I gained 60 lbs. with my daughter. I was 200 lbs. when I went in to give birth to my daughter. Oh, I was like 210 with my son. I gained like 65 lbs. with my son. I was huge.”
On Motherhood, and Raising Kids in the Public Eye
Now, with Stormi at 8 and Aire at 4, Jenner has fully entered mommy world, and seems to be living every moment of it.