Despite Kylie Jenner's drama with 'Forbes' over her billionaire title, it gave her the No. 1 spot on its 2020 Celeb 100 list.
Despite Kylie Jenner's recent feud with Forbes over her billionaire title, the magazine did give her the No. 1 spot on its 2020 Celeb 100 list, which ranks the world's highest-paid celebrities in terms of annual pay.
The annual list was released on Thursday. According to Forbes, 22-year-old Jenner earned $590 million over the past year, which can mostly be attributed to Coty buying a 51 percent stake of Kylie Cosmetics last January. She sold it for $600 million, which led to her earning $540 million, pretax.
The magazine named Jenner's brother-in-law, 42-year-old Kanye West -- who also previously publicly called out Forbes for initially not naming him a billionaire -- as the second highest-paid celebrity this year. According to the magazine, he earned $170 million over the past year, mostly due to his popular fashion line, Yeezy. Forbes estimates his net worth to be $1.3 billion.
Rounding out the top 10 highest-paid celebrities are Roger Federer ($106.3 million), Cristiano Ronaldo ($105 million), Lionel Messi ($104 million), Tyler Perry ($97 million), Neymar ($95.5 million), Howard Stern ($90 million), LeBron James ($88.2 million) and Dwayne Johnson ($87.5 million).
In an article published last month, Forbes boldly accused Jenner of faking her finances in order to appear more wealthy than she actually is, which she denied. The exposé claimed that the makeup mogul, who had previously been dubbed the youngest self-made billionaire ever by the magazine, lied about her earnings for years and backed up those numbers with falsified tax returns.
Jenner tweeted in response, "What am i even waking up to. I thought this was a reputable site. All i see are a number of inaccurate statements and unproven assumptions lol. I’ve never asked for any title or tried to lie my way there EVER. period."
On Monday, a source told ET that Jenner now just "wants people to stop focusing on how much money she has."
"The article was written by Forbes and they were given proof of everything," the source also told ET. "This whole thing seems to be a clickbait attempt for Forbes."
Meanwhile, Jenner's attorney, Michael Kump, released a statement on the matter, demanding the magazine retract the article.
"We have reviewed Forbes' article accusing Kylie of engaging in deceit and a 'web of lies' to inflate her net worth," the statement reads. "The article is filled with outright lies. Forbes' accusation that Kylie and her accountants 'forged tax returns' is unequivocally false and we are demanding that Forbes immediately and publicly retract that and other statements. It is sad that, of all things, Forbes has devoted three reporters to investigate the effect of the coronavirus crisis on Kylie's net worth. We would not expect that from a supermarket tabloid, much less from Forbes."
In an interview with ET on Thursday, Forbes' Senior Editor of Media and Entertainment Zack O'Malley Greenburg opened up about Jenner's presence on the list following all that drama.
"This is a list of earnings and not a net worth list," he explained. "She's our No. 1 this year in terms of annual earnings and I would expect a very steep fall off next year because she sold [a majority stake in Kylie Cosmetics], which was driving her wealth and fortune. Bow she's set for life, so there you go."
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