Kendra Wilkinson may forever be known as one of "The Girls Next Door," but did you know
that the former reality TV star is now a professional real estate broker?
Keep watching to see how else Wilkinson has transformed over the years.
Before she became a reality TV star, Kendra Wilkinson grew up in San Diego, California.
Wilkinson and her younger brother, Colin, were raised by their single mother and grandmother
after the future reality star's father left the family.
Wilkinson was close to her grandmother Mary Stotz and would later name her future daughter
after her, giving her Mary as a middle name.
Her mother, Patti, previously worked as a cheerleader for the Philadelphia Eagles, as
noted by People.
Like her mother, Wilkinson was also athletic.
As a teen, she played on her high school's softball and soccer teams and professes to
still be a sports fan these days.
She told PR.com in 2009:
"I'm an athlete, and that's me inside.
I'm a tomboy athlete and a sports lover."
Kendra Wilkinson faced some heavy times growing up.
She opened up about living with depression on her show Kendra on Top, noting that her
mother placed her in a mental health facility when she was younger:
"When I was a teenager, I battled some severe depression.
I attempted suicide a couple times."
Wilkinson has been open about her struggles with drug use, which started with cocaine
when she was just 13 years old, according to Yahoo! News.
She also ran away from home as a teen, telling Rosie O'Donnell during an interview on The
Rosie Show,
"I was sleeping from couch to couch, like under beds sometimes."
Although she's had ups and downs, Wilkinson views her experiences as lessons, telling
PR.com:
"I will never forget where I come from.
Everything I've learned from my childhood and my teenage life, that's who I am today."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.
Kendra Wilkinson's life turned in a new direction when she hesitantly decided to take a job
as a "painted girl" for Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's 78th birthday party.
Before taking the gig, she had gone to a car show with her then-boyfriend Zack where a
photographer took her photos and later posted them online.
As Wilkinson recounted in her memoir Sliding Into Home, Hefner saw the photos, which led
to her gig at his party, and called Wilkinson, telling her that she should consider becoming
his girlfriend.
On the day of the party, Zack and Wilkinson made the two-hour drive from San Diego to
the Playboy mansion in Bel Air where she was immediately stripped down and decorated with
body paint.
Throughout the night, Wilkinson served drinks to celebrities and mingled with Hefner.
Wilkinson wrote in her book:
"At the end of the night Hef came up to me, gave me a key, and asked me to stay the night.
I gave him the key back but told him I would see him again soon.
'Will you be my girlfriend?' he asked again before I left."
Wilkinson accepted and soon moved into the Playboy Mansion.
When Kendra Wilkinson moved into the Playboy Mansion, she wasn't the only girlfriend there.
In fact, Hefner had two other girlfriends with whom he lived with — Holly Madison
and Bridget Marquardt.
Although living in the well-known mansion might seem like a constant party, it wasn't
what it appeared to be.
According to Wilkinson, there was a 9 p.m. curfew that left her feeling, quote, "trapped,"
competition between the women, and pressure to keep up a specific physical appearance.
Wilkinson wrote in Sliding Into Home:
"I had this whole mansion and a great life to enjoy, and all I was doing was lying around
and eating.
I felt so lazy and miserable.
This was supposed to be paradise, but for me, it wasn't."
As if moving into the Playboy Mansion and dating Hugh Hefner wasn't enough change for
19-year-old Kendra Wilkinson, her life would take another turn when she, along with Hef's
two other girlfriends, Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, were approached to film the reality
show The Girls Next Door.
Regarding getting cast on the show, Wilkinson recalled,
"One day we're in the limo with Hef and Hef goes, 'We might be filming a reality TV show,
girls.'
I'm like, what?
No!
No, I'm sorry, I'm not doing that."
Although Wilkinson may have been initially hesitant to film the show, The Girls Next
Door became a hit and made her a household name.
She starred on the E! show from 2005 to 2009 and even landed the spinoff Kendra.
While Kendra Wilkinson still lived in the Playboy Mansion, she met then-Philadelphia
Eagles Player Hank Baskett at a Playboy golf event in 2008.
As Wilkinson described to PR.com, the pair became friends first and eventually their
relationship blossomed into a romantic one.
Wilkinson left The Girls Next Door when the couple got engaged and subsequently married,
which was chronicled on her show Kendra.
They held the wedding at the Playboy Mansion, where Hugh Hefner attended, and Holly Madison
and Bridget Marquardt were bridesmaids.
Two weeks before Kendra Wilkinson wed Hank Baskett in June 2009, E! News reported the
couple announced they were expecting their first child.
That December, Wilkinson gave birth to her son, Hank Baskett IV, in Indianapolis after
her beau signed on to play for the Indianapolis Colts.
Wilkinson told the Indianapolis Star that she never expected her son to be born in Indianapolis.
She also said she wanted to have a little girl "in a couple of years," and that's exactly
what the couple got.
Wilkinson gave birth to her daughter, Alijah, in 2014.
The reality star opened up about her parenting style in a blog for People, writing,
"While I didn't have a father around, I did have — and what I want my children to both
experience — the ability to explore, experiment and enjoy life as a kid."
While The Girls Next Door painted life in the Playboy Mansion as a fun sisterhood, it
proved to be a different story behind the scenes.
Kendra Wilkinson dished on For Real: The Story of Reality TV:
"On camera, you saw us together and it was the trio.
Off camera, we would just disappear into our own little world.
We just never bonded.
We were not friends."
That lack of chemistry continued years after the show wrapped, as Wilkinson and her co-star
Holly Madison publicly went back and forth about their differing accounts in the Playboy
Mansion.
After Madison published her tell-all; Down the Rabbit Hole, in which she said her time
in the mansion with Hefner was a, quote, "nightmare," Wilkinson came to Hefner's defense.
"We were treated very well.
It wasn't like a situation where we were treated like meat, like people think."
After the two exchanged verbal jabs in interviews and on social media, including heated tweets
from Wilkinson, Madison vowed to move on, telling People in 2016:
"[I've] just moved forward, and I don't really want to play those games anymore."
Her Girls Next Door co-star Holly Madison wasn't the only one with whom Kendra Wilkinson
had troubles with.
In 2014, a scandal rocked the Baskett family when allegations surfaced that Hank Baskett
had cheated on Wilkinson when she was eight months pregnant.
A year later, Baskett and Wilkinson opened up about the allegations.
Baskett told People:
"I put myself in a bad situation.
And everything through me brought pain upon this family."
While the couple seemingly worked through their marital issues, even sharing their struggles
with TV viewers, Baskett and Wilkinson ultimately decided to split.
"It's done."
In 2018, Wilkinson announced that she filed for divorce after almost nine years of marriage.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, the Kendra on Top star wrote,
"Today is the last day of my marriage to this beautiful man.
I will forever love Hank and be open but for now we have chosen to go our own ways.
I'm beyond sad and heartbroken because I did believe in forever, that's why I said yes
but unfortunately too much fear has gotten in the way."
The reality television star became a single mother when her divorce was finalized in 2019.
In speaking with Us Weekly about parenting during the 2021 pandemic without the help
of nannies or housekeeping services, Wilkinson told the outlet:
"I am doing it all.
I think it shows them that their mom is strong and can do it all.
I also think it's a great way to have them pitch in and help."
Wilkinson also adjusted to co-parenting with Hank Baskett and has opened up about the difficulty
of being away from her two children, whom she shares custody of with her ex.
Wilkinson told People:
"It was a rough start for me to get used to co-parenting.
I didn't know how to not have my kids.
And then the guilt would set in."
After years of being on television and in movies in projects like The House Bunny and
Dancing with the Stars, Kendra Wilkinson took a step back out of the public eye.
Part of her life away from the cameras included a transition to real estate, which Wilkinson
had always been interested in, as she told The List.
Although she had an interest in the housing market, Wilkinson didn't immediately know
what she wanted to do professionally, telling HollywoodLife:
"It was a couple years of trying to figure out my life."
Now, she's documenting her journey as a Los Angeles real estate agent on the Discovery+
show Kendra Sells Hollywood, which she says is different from her previous TV appearances.
Wilkinson told HollywoodLife:
"Before my job was to film a reality show but now I actually have a job.
My show documents me entering the business, learning the business, learning who my partners
are, and getting to know my new life."
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