Arguably the hottest controversy in Hollywood for the past few months was whether Kylie Jenner was pregnant with Travis Scott’s baby or not. This topic causes us to the question why we feel so entitled to know about celebrities’ sex lives and lives in general?
At the end of the day, celebrities are just people too—don’t they deserve privacy?
For those unaware of the latest news, Kylie Jenner—famous sister of the Kardashian clan—just had her first child—a baby girl—on Thursday Feb. 1. Prior to this date, the public was unsure if Kylie was actually pregnant. While many news outlets, sources and photographic evidence had backed up this information, no one in Jenner’s family had confirmed the pregnancy until the baby was born.
Jenner is a celebrity who causes a lot of “hype” in every aspect of her life, according to Hollywood Life. Despite this well-known fact, an insider discussed with Hollywood Life that even Kylie was shocked by the attention her rumored—and now confirmed—pregnancy has received.
“Kylie is pretty blown away by quite how much people seem utterly obsessed with her pregnancy, it’s like no other 20-year-old has ever given birth before,” a report in Hollywood Life said.
Jenner has worked hard in her life and she has essentially earned the right to choose her privacy, according to U.S. Weekly.
The gravity of celebrity gossip is different for everyone. After speaking to two individuals on-campus, before Jenner’s baby was born, they clearly have different views on the lives of celebrities, yet many have similar thoughts on the privacy celebrities should be given.
“I’m relatively updated [on the Jenner rumors], and I don’t really care that much if she’s pregnant or not,” psychology and economics double major sophomore Otto Junior said. “If you want to be private and have your own life that people don’t know about, sure. But, if you are going to be in the public eye constantly—and have a reality show—I kind of think you give up your rights to privacy.”
On the other hand, biology and mathematics double major junior Melanie Kirk seemed very intrigued by the Jenner gossip, and she said she even has the post notifications on for all the members of the Kardashian-Jenner clan on Instagram.
“Yes, [celebrities deserve privacy], but to a certain extent. They are putting their lives out there—especially the Kardashians—they chose to be on this reality show, so they chose to let the public into their private lives,” Kirk said.
People are much more interested in celebrity gossip now than ever before—mainly because our sources of entertainment have grown, especially through the internet, according to the Huffington Post.
Live Science online quoted psychologist Daniel Kruger’s explanations of why individuals are obsessed with the lives of celebrities. We want to learn about the lives of high-status individuals so that we can possibly mimic their lives and become famous too, according to Kruger. Additionally, Kruger said if we know celebrity gossip, then we will be better equipped to live in the high-class world.
This obsession with celebrities can actually be healthy, according to Medical Daily.
“For some people, learning about the secret lives of celebrities … is a way to escape from their daily routine,” Medical Daily reported.
Whether or not it’s worth it to obsess with celebrities’ sex lives or lives in general is something you’ll have to determine for yourself. But one can still see that despite the Kardashian/Jenner family having very minimal privacy, Jenner impressively hid her pregnancy right up until the baby was born.