A chapter titled “Robert George Kardashian” (son Rob Kardashian‘s sock line, Arthur George, utilizes his and his father’s middle names) delves into the hole that opened up in their lives when he died and attributes many a family value to the celebrity attorney and business owner—who, they assure, did not leave his kids a fortune to play around with, but rather instilled in all of them the importance of hard work toward a non-material goal.
“He made us understand that the most important thing was to be a good person,” recalled the sisters, who are known to regularly interact with their fans online (and even when they clap back, they’re remarkably civil, considering some of the stuff the trolls toss their way). “Our dad never talked down to people, no matter who they were or what they did for a living. He always treated people with respect.”
Robert and their mom, Kris Jenner, divorced in 1991, not long before she remarried, but they remained close as co-parents—a relationship Kourtney has credited for helping her figure out a way forward with ex-boyfriend Scott Disick as they raise their three children together. (Kris has said that divorcing her first husband is her “one regret,” but if she hadn’t “then there wouldn’t have been Kendall and Kylie,” so all worked out as it was supposed to. She called the hologram of her late ex “one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen,” telling Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM show, “It started and we just all started to cry. It was just so intense. I must have watched it 20 times.”)
“Dad made us feel so loved, and set such high standards for us,” the Kardashian sisters wrote. “Without his influence in our lives, we can’t even imagine what they’d be like today.”
He died only eight weeks after being diagnosed with stage four cancer, they recalled, “one of the worst times in our lives.”