How much Caitlyn Jenner is worth and the amazing story that got her where she is today – Wales Online

Caitlyn Jenner is said to be the highest-paid I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here contestant this year.

And a whole generation will know her from reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which made global stars out of the Kardashian family. But Caitlyn had achieved huge success 30 years earlier when, as Bruce Jenner, she fought her way to gold in the decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

It was an achievement that transformed her life overnight, with The Mirror reporting that she made half a million dollars in the first 12 months. She became the face of brands like Tropicana and Wheaties and made a fortune delivering public speeches.

But the success slowed after her 1986 divorce from American actor Linda Thompson, a one-time girlfriend of Elvis Presley who she met in the Playboy mansion. Caitlyn tried to broach her gender confusion with Linda but the marriage came to an end and Caitlyn retreated to a house in the Malibu Hills where she tentatively began her transition, taking hormones for breast growth and having her beard removed through painful electrolosis. However, it would be another 30 years before she would be able to fully transition.

Living as a recluse by day, she would drive around Los Angeles dressed as a woman by night as the work dried up.

Eight years after her last paid-for speech and with just 154 in the bank, the situation was desperate and she decided to abandon her transition amid worries about her four young children.

"I got to 39 and I couldnt do it," she told the Guardian.

"For six years I had isolated myself in a house, didnt date, didnt go out. And Im thinking, boy, maybe I should get back into the game. Im just sitting here in this house, rotting away. I just dont have the guts to do it."

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Then in 1990, she met Kris Kardashian, a young Beverly Hills housewife with impeccable taste and a love of shopping. Kris was then divorcing top lawyer Robert Kardashian. Caitlyn and Kris met on a blind date and married within a year. Caitlyn says in her book she had been on hormone replacement therapy for four and a half years and had a bust size of 36B.

Kris fired Caitlyn's agents, got her name on a line of gym equipment and thoroughly rebooted her career.

They had two children, Kendall and Kylie, whom they raised alongside the four children from Kriss previous relationship, Kourtney, Kim, Khlo and Robert, the future stars of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

But, at first, she wasn't interested, reportedly saying the last thing she needed was a "Beverly Hills shopper". But when she heard about Kris's four children, she thought: "She comes with as much baggage as me."

Business-savvy Kris realised they needed to make some money, and quickly.

"I became his manager instantly because he didn't have a lot going on. I saw this incredible potential, and he wasn't doing anything," Kris said on a podcast with writer and transgender rights activist Janet Mock.

"Nobody was booking him for speeches. Nobody was sending him out on the road. I thought, Wow. You should be this incredible public speaker. I just figured it out to that point."

She had no income following her own divorce and borrowed from friends, spending the last bit of her cash on glossy press packs for Caitlyn, which she sent out to 7,000 public speaking agencies across the States. The bookings soon rolled in, and so did the adverts.

Caitlyn posed for Eagle Eyes Sunglasses and plugged a piece of exercise equipment called the SuperStep. The couple did an infomercial series called Super Fit and their bank balance started rising.

"I fell in love with him, 150 per cent," said Kris.

"I've always looked at things like 'We're just going to figure this out'. I don't stop and think about 'What's the plan here?'

"I just went for it. I realized after we got married and I had a limited amount of money, and I said 'We're going to move into this house. We're going to work hard'."

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Of course, it was Keeping Up With the Kardashians that propelled them to the big time and according to reports, by the time Kris and Caitlyn split in 2013 they had 46million to share equally.

Kris kept their Hidden Hills estate, Caitlyn got the 174,000 Sherwood Country Club membership that Kris bought her two decades earlier.

To mark the start of a her new chapter, Caitlyn bought a 3,500 sq ft four-bedroom clifftop home in Malibu, "not some mansion of a monstrosity like all my kids live in," she told the Guardian.

"Its a humble little place. I bought an airplane, just a small one, because Ive always been into aviation and Kris didnt like that, so Id been out of it for 15 years. I bought a couple of little race cars," she said.

And since her transition she made yet more money thanks to her reality series I Am Cait, autobiography The Secrets of My Life and ad deals with MAC and H&M Sport, putting her net worth at 77million.

And despite her differences with Kris, she admits she will always be grateful to her ex for changing her life.

"A lot of women have that can-do attitude and think I can fix this guy. And I wanted to be fixed, to be honest with you. I wanted to get back into work. We paired up and were a great team. It was 23 years of my life. We raised wonderful children. She was an extraordinary good business person," she told The Guardian.

"I owe her a debt of gratitude for getting me out of this hole and getting me back working. It was a very mutual decision to split. I didnt leave to go transition."

And now she says it's the time of "this woman [who] had lived inside me for 65 years" to shine, saying: "Its time for her to live! Lets give her a shot and see what she could do. Bruce has done everything! Had all his children, won the Games. This woman its her turn! And that platform I have: can I make a difference in the world?"

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How much Caitlyn Jenner is worth and the amazing story that got her where she is today - Wales Online