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13th Apr 2022

Kardashian App ex-employee nearly ‘sold her plasma and eggs’ due to low salary

Kieran Galpin

She was spurred to come forward after Kim Kardashian said ‘Get your f***ing ass up and work’ in a recent interview

A former employee of the Kardashian clan has claimed she nearly “sold her plasma and eggs” because her salary was so abysmal.

In a scandalous tell-all interview on Vice, Jessica DeFino wrote about her experiences working on the Kardashian-Jenner Official Apps between 2015 and 2016.

Kris Jenner and Kendall Jenner/Via Getty

DeFino was paid $35,000 a year, which she emphasises is “low and laughable in LA, especially considering my experience.” She claimed she barely covered rent and bills and was living from pay cheque to pay cheque.

Things got so desperate for DeFino that she admitted to eventually looking into “selling my plasma, my eggs”, while also shopping at 99 cent stores.

When she was unable to pay for fuel, she phoned in “sick” to work.

https://twitter.com/jessicadefino_/status/1514008976752615430

Ironically, the writer was motivated to speak out after Kim Kardashian, 41, uttered her now-viral advice for women in business.

“Get your f***ing ass up and work,” she said during an interview with Variety. “It seems like nobody wants to work these days.”

While Kim later claimed that the comments were misinterpreted “out of context”, the internet slammed the TV personality for weeks. Such comments were compared to Molly Mae-Hague, the Love Island contestant turned creative director who said: “Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day.”

Kardashian

“When I read Kardashian’s original quote about women not working hard, I thought of the labor I put into launching the Kardashian Jenner Official Apps—days, nights, holidays, weekends, whenever and wherever I was needed,” DeFino wrote.

“I wasn’t alone. I spoke to two former employees who worked on the apps and two former employees of KKW Beauty, Kim Kardashian’s cosmetics line, all of whom described an environment of overwork at the expense of their mental and sometimes physical health, as well as their career advancement.”

According to the same Vice interview, DeFino and other employees featured were employed by Whalerock Industries, which is not owned nor operated by the Kardashian-Jenner family. The site also suggests that “the sisters were likely unaware of what the people behind their apps were paid.”

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