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I’ve been writing about royals and celebrities for 20 years. I’ve sat across from enough of them in interview rooms to know when someone is performing and when they’re being real. The ones I couldn’t get to, I wrote gossip about instead. Along the way I’ve worked for MailOnline, CNN, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express and a string of other publications that have between them covered just about every major celebrity story of the last two decades. I say all of this not to boast, but because it gives me some basis for what I’m about to argue.

For nearly two decades, the Kardashians have dominated our TV screens. Somehow, against all odds, they’ve kept themselves relevant while doing it. People love to class them as full-blown A-listers, but let’s be honest. They’ve only just nudged into that bracket, and they’re sitting firmly at the bottom of it. They’re no Angelina Jolie or Marilyn Monroe (although Kim has tried), that’s for sure.

But here’s the thing. They survived. When reality television’s golden age started crumbling, the Kardashians didn’t go with it. When a wave of influencers came along and copied their entire playbook, they adapted. While other stars from that era quietly disappeared from the conversation, this family somehow refused to leave it. Until now, perhaps. Because 2026 feels different.

There’s been a lot of chatter recently about Kendall Jenner and actor Jacob Elordi. The pair were spotted on a rather loved-up holiday in Hawaii last week, one they clearly didn’t want anyone talking about, which of course meant everyone immediately started talking about it.

And then there’s Kylie, whose relationship with Oscar-nominated Timothée Chalamet has been drawing attention from every corner of the internet for months now.

Taken at face value, these are just celebrity relationships. Famous people dating famous people which is hardly front-page news on its own. But I think they point to something a bit more interesting than that. The Kardashians might be losing their center of gravity.

For years, it was Kim who held the whole thing together. Her relationships weren’t just tabloid fodder but cultural events. Kanye West turned her into a fashion icon. Pete Davidson made her feel contemporary again at a moment when she needed it. And now Lewis Hamilton, one of the most decorated sportsmen on the planet, has her back in the conversation in a way that feels genuinely global. Kim has always understood, perhaps better than anyone in her family, that who you’re seen with is as powerful a statement as anything you could say or do yourself.

But relationships can only carry you so far. Which is perhaps why Kim has spent the last few years furiously adding strings to her bow with acting roles here, a serious business empire there, and a very public journey towards becoming a lawyer that she has pursued with the kind of relentless energy that’s hard not to respect, even if the cynics roll their eyes. She’s approaching her late 40s and she knows it. There’s a franticness to it, if you look closely enough, she’s a woman who has spent her entire adult life at the center of everything, scrambling to make sure she stays there. The question is whether any of it will stick.

And then there are the quiet ones. Kourtney, Khloé and Rob have always occupied an odd space in this family. Just present enough to be recognizable, but rarely generating the kind of heat that Kim, Kendall or even Kylie can produce on a slow news day. Dull as dishwater, some would say, and they wouldn’t be entirely wrong. But that very ordinariness is, I suspect, precisely why they resonate with such a large chunk of their audience. Not everyone wants to watch someone living a life completely beyond imagination. Sometimes people just want to see something that feels vaguely adjacent to their own.