Khloé Kardashian Just Responded to Backlash Over Kim Kardashian’s 40th Birthday Party

Following her sister’s private island bash, Khloé Kardashian responded to Kim Kardashian’s birthday backlash. The 36-year-old Good American founder made an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday, October 29, where she addressed fans’ criticism of her family’s luxury trip with “20 or 25” of Kim’s closest friends and family for her birthday in early October.

In photos shared from Kim’s 40th birthday festivities, the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star was seen with sisters Khloé, 36, and Kourtney Kardashian, 41, and Kendall Jenner, 24 (notably, youngest sis Kylie, 22, was missing from the flicks). Other members of the KarJenner squad—from Kendall’s bestie, Fai Khadra, to momager Kris Jenner and her beau Corey Gamble—were also in attendance. Interestingly, everyone was pictured in close proximity to one another without wearing masks, which had many fans raising questions. But on October 27, Kim revealed that everyone underwent “multiple health screens” and quarantining before making their private flights out to the island.

Khloé went on to address fans’ concerns on her Ellen DeGeneres Show appearance. “I haven’t heard a lot about it, but I did hear people were upset that we went out of town,” she said. “This year is a frustrating year — I get it. I think there’s so many frustrations going on for everybody, but also it’s her 40th and this is something that she really wanted to do. For us, it was such a nice thing.”

Source: Instagram

“Being there with all the precautions that we took,” she continued, “and how grateful everyone was for the tourism aspect of it.” The star added, “So many people said that we were their first party of guests that they’ve had in months and what it’s done for them to be able to pay their bills or to be able to do stuff for their family, just hearing those messages when we were there, we felt really good and we felt so safe. We did it in the safest way I could imagine someone doing it.”

But health and safety considerations weren’t the only things frustrating fans. Many were outraged by Kim’s “tone-deaf” captions to her photos during a time when many individuals remain unable to travel or have endured tragedies amid the coronavirus pandemic. “After 2 weeks of multiple health screens and asking everyone to quarantine, I surprised my closest inner circle with a trip to a private island where we could pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time,” Kim wrote in a tweet. “I realize that for most people, this is something that is so far out of reach right now, so in moments like these, I am humbly reminded of how privileged my life is.”

https://twitter.com/KimKardashian/status/1321151217482014726?s=20

On Twitter, writer Jenna Quigley replied, “cool, people have had to say goodbye to loved ones over the phone while they died alone in a hospital. but neat trip to post all over social media while the world suffers. so humble and so down to earth, truly.” She added, “like, have a birthday trip but to post it all over social media right now is disgustingly tone deaf AT BEST.”

“Congrats on this nomination for most tone deaf tweet of the year,” wrote another Twitter user. “You want normal? Try people unemployed, at food banks, teaching kids at home, or worse in the hospital by the tens of THOUSANDS! Oh the plight of the wealthy & their struggle to an escape to a private island.”

Khloé, however, hoped that the criticism wouldn’t “overshadow” how “beautiful” the trip was for their family. “It was such a beautiful experience and I want Kim to focus on how beautiful it was and what she did for everybody,” she said. “I don’t want that to overshadow all the greatness that happened.”