11 Demanding Rules The Kardashians Expect Their Surrogates To Follow
Kim and Khloe have high standards.
Instagram Khloe Kardashian is now the second of her sisters to use a surrogate to welcome a new addition into her family.
Khloe is expecting her second child with ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson via surrogate after learning last year that she would be a high-risk carrier if she was to get pregnant again.
Following in the footsteps of her sister Kim, who used a surrogate to have her third and fourth children — Chicago and Psalm — Khloe’s surrogate is expected to give birth any day now.
Carrying a Kardashian baby is no easy task. In fact, the sisters have revealed many strict regulations they have for surrogates.
Here are the rules the Kardashians expect their surrogates to follow:
1. No EDM music.
Khloe was picky when it came to choosing a carrier for her second baby, even narrowing down her choices based on her music taste.
In a 2021 episode of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” Khloe told Kim that she was having trouble choosing between surrogates after reading some of their interests in their profiles.
“Like what,” Kim asks, “What kind of music they listen to?”
“That’s really one of them,” Khloe explains, “One of them is EDM or whatever.”
“If you do that, I’m thinking you do drugs.”
Looks like Khloe's surrogate was required to strictly avoid EDM music or else the "Good American" founder decided to bend this rule.
2. Kim reportedly made her surrogates watch “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.”
Kim reportedly believed that the baby could understand everything while in the womb and wanted the baby to be familiar with her family. Luckily for her, there were years worth of reality TV episodes for the unborn child to catch up with.
“Kim believes the unborn child – or children – will subconsciously get to know their future family by hearing the show in the womb,” a source said at the time of Kim’s first surrogate pregnancy.
3. Kourtney suggested Khloe should control what her surrogate watches on TV.
While Kourtney has never used a surrogate for having her own children, she did have some advice for her younger sister when Khloe was first considering surrogacy.
“I think it depends even, like, what they watch on TV,” she told Khloe in a June 2021 episode of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians.”
Scott Disick, Kourtney’s ex with whom she shares three kids, clarifies that Kourtney means the media the surrogate consumes while the baby is in the womb can impact the child.
“She feels like they can hear it,” Scott explains.
However, Khloe says she doesn’t think what a pregnant person watches has any impact on the child so hopefully, she didn’t enforce this rule on her surrogate!
4. Surrogates can only eat organic food.
While discussing surrogacy with her sisters, Khloe said that she believes the surrogate’s diet can affect her baby and was concerned that her carrier wouldn't eat the right food.
“You can ask her,” Kim says in response to Khloe’s concern, “You can pay for extra organic stuff so they only eat organic fruits and vegetables and meat.”
This appears to be what the mom of four did for her surrogates.
In a 2018 Elle interview, Kim said she requested her carrier have a clean diet, “which is just how she eats, so it was a good match for us,” she explained.
However, she was lenient, claiming that she gave her surrogate the freedom to eat whatever she craved.
She said, “I straight-up told her, ‘Look, I ate doughnuts every single day. If you want doughnuts and ice cream, go for it. Do whatever you feel. I’m not going to be picky like that. That’s just ridiculous.’”
5. Kim surrogates reportedly listened to Kanye’s music every day.
Since Kim and Kanye were keen for their third and fourth children to still be close with the family despite her not carrying them, they developed a plan to make sure Kanye had influence while they were still in the womb.
Kanye reportedly asked the surrogates to listen to his music on a daily basis.
“Kanye believes hearing dad's music in the womb will bond them," a source said back in 2017.
6. Kim’s surrogate wasn’t allowed to know whose baby she was carrying – at first.
While appearing on “The Real” back in 2017, Kim mentioned that she kept her surrogate in the dark about whose baby she was carrying for the first few weeks of pregnancy.
Kim said that she could have kept things anonymous for the entire pregnancy but decided she wanted her surrogate, who was expecting her third child, Chicago, to know the truth.
Kim said that she could have kept it a secret for the entire pregnancy, however, she chose not to.
“I just felt like, whoever is carrying my baby, what if they weren’t a fan of me or my husband? What if they didn’t want to be carrying our baby?” she said.
“I wanted to give them that choice, and be proud and on the same page. I wanted a relationship with her.”
7. Kim insisted on meeting her surrogate's family.
Once she revealed her identity to her surrogate, Kim was quite insistent on meeting her and getting to know more about her.
While discussing Khloe’s surrogacy journey on “KUWTK,” Kim explained that she had a strict approval process.
"I did a FaceTime first and then I invited them over for dinner with their two kids and Kanye [West] and her husband," Kim recalled.
"I wanted to meet them all face-to-face. I wanted to feel and see if this energy would was going to work for us. She was amazing and her husband was so great. You want to make sure they're just a good person."
8. Khloe wanted control over her surrogate’s medical choices.
In the early stages of her surrogacy journey with Tristan, Khloe was somewhat surprised to know that her surrogate couldn’t be forced to continue a pregnancy that she didn’t want.
In the final season of “KUWTK,” Tristan and Khloe meet with a surrogate therapist to be evaluated before continuing the process.
"These questions you might find uncomfortable but they're important," the therapist said before asking "What are your beliefs about fetal reduction or termination of pregnancy due to multiple pregnancies? Say the embryo split and the surrogate was carrying twins suddenly."
Khloe and Tristan explain that they are fine with having twins if this occurred — but the therapist notes that it is not entirely their decision to make.
"What if your surrogate wasn't onboard with that?" he asked the pair.
"But, don't they have to kind of go with what our wishes are?" Khloe responded.
The therapist explains that the surrogate still has control over her body, "So, she could terminate the pregnancy with any unplanned outcome."
In a confessional interview, Khloe notes that this possibility concerns her.
“I know it's her body [and] my baby, but I really did not put two-and-two together that that means she has the control whether she would want to terminate the twin."
9. Kim’s babies had to be born in L.A.
While it’s not yet known where Khloe’s surrogate will give birth, Kim insisted her kids be born in her native Los Angeles.
Kim told Elle, “[That's] where all my babies were delivered, and for her to use my doctor. She was totally comfortable with that.”
10. Kim’s surrogate reportedly had security and a new house.
When the surrogate was pregnant with Chicago, Kim allegedly moved her into a house in the suburbs of Los Angeles.
The surrogate also had tight security, the house was fitted with cameras and even had a driver to take her anywhere she needed to go.
"So with the rent on the house, expenses for the security staff and their wages – that's around $1.5million for the surrogate's safety,” a source said at the time. "But of course, it's worth it — they want the best for her and their unborn baby."
11. No speaking to the media.
The Kardashians are known to keep plenty of secrets and Khloe’s surrogacy process was no different.
While the news has now been leaked, Khloe’s surrogate and everyone around her clearly managed to keep the news a secret for months.
Equally, Kim’s surrogates have never spoken to the media so it seems the family has strict measures in place to keep the details of their surrogate pregnancies a secret.
Alice Kelly is YourTango’s Deputy News and Entertainment Editor. Based in Brooklyn, New York, her work covers all things social justice, pop culture, and human interest. Keep up with her Twitter for more.