Kourtney Kardashian Explains Why KUWTK's 'Toxic Environment' Caused Her To Leave The Show

Keeping Up with the Kardashians Kourtney Kardashian E!
(Image credit: Timothy White / E!)

Keeping Up with the Kardashians is moving forward without one of its famous Kardashians. Last year, Kourtney Kardashian announced that she would be leaving the show despite that healthy paycheck through the years. Now, Kardashian is explaining why she decided to exit, citing a “toxic environment” as being part of the reason.

Before you start wondering, it apparently does not have to do with that headline-making fight that Kourtney Kardashian had with her sister, Kim. Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ cameras caught that quarrel during Season 18. However, there are echoes of that fisticuff in what Kardashian had to say. On her decision to leave the reality show, Kardashian told Vogue Arabia:

I have been filming the show non-stop for 14 years. I was feeling unfulfilled and it became a toxic environment for me to continue to have it occupy as much of my life as it was. Privacy is something I have come to value and finding that balance of private moments with being on a reality show is hard.

So it sounds like It was an issue of privacy. While being on a highly-successful show is excellent, it also came at the expense of Kourtney Kardashians’ personal space. After nearly a decade-and-a-half, it seems that constantly having cameras on her has become too much for her. And through the years, cameras have caught almost everything in the Kardashian family’s dramatic lives.

This has included Kourtney Kardashians’s expanding family and eventual break-up with longtime boyfriend Scott Disick, who recently broke-up with Sofia Richie. During Kourtney’s time on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, her and Disick’s life post-breakup was also chronicled, and there's sure to be a lot of intimate material on that front.

It makes sense that wanting to take back some privacy would be an issue for Kourtney Kardashian at this point. Meanwhile, Kardashian’s family has found a way to keep Keeping Up with the Kardashians going during the coronavirus quarantine. Fans still need to keep up, right? As for not wanting to work, that is another issue for Kardashian, who said:

People have this misconception that I don't want to work, which isn't true. I am following my happiness and putting my energy into that which makes me happy.

While Kardashian doesn't explicitly mention her aforementioned Season 18 fight with Kim as a reason for leaving, it wouldn't be surprising if it were a contributing factor. In the episode, Kim said that she and sister Khloe would show up for events while sick, adding that Kourtney didn’t “care about stuff.” The comment did not go over well with Kourtney, at all.

Kourtney and Kim Kardashian ended up getting into a physical altercation, and Kourtney then commented about the “negative environment” with Kim and Khloe. Between that and Kourtney feeling that Kim was taking a dig at how hard she works, things got heated between the sisters.

The fact that Kourtney Kardashian references a “toxic environment” in her interview after the referencing a “negative environment” during her fight with Kim on Keeping Up with the Kardashians would definitely appear to be signs that she's done with the show. Aside from the toxicity sentiments, Kardashian also said that she has felt “unfulfilled” while adding the show’s stake in her life was not desirable. And after doing the show for so long, one could understand why she would want a change.

Though fans are sure to be sad that Kourtney Kardashian is leaving Keeping Up with the Kardashians, her reasons should help them see things from her perspective. Keeping Up with the Kardashians will be back after this summer’s premieres on E! in September, though an exact return date is still pending.

Britt Lawrence

Like a contented Hallmark movie character, Britt happily lives in the same city she grew up in. Along with movies and television, she is passionate about competitive figure skating. She has been writing about entertainment for 5 years, and as you may suspect, still finds it as entertaining to do as when she began.