Kris Jenner’s reputation precedes her. This ultra-famous mom is a household name because she manages her particularly entrepreneurial children — otherwise known as the Kardashian/Jenner clan. And her role as the world’s most well-known “momager” is only her latest chapter: Decades before strategically whisking her kids to the top of the pop culture ranks, Jenner seemingly lived a thousand lives.  

On the first episode of Next Question’s newest season, Katie delves into Jenner’s rich past and exciting present. The two traipse down memory lane to reminisce about Jenner’s life before becoming a multi-millionaire (she was a high school donut shop employee, a flight attendant, a L.A. housewife, and the owner of a children’s clothing shop, just to name a few gigs). They chat about family politics, including the difficult journeys to decide upon their respective grandma names. 

Katie also asks Jenner’s opinions on how the Kardashian/Jenner parents handle social media use among the younger kids in the family — after all, how do you handle logging onto Instagram when your mom has a billion followers? Plus, Jenner explains what it’s like to mix business and family on such a massive scale, and who’s responsible for settling disputes. We’ve included our favorite moments from their conversation below, but be sure to listen to catch all the juicy details.

On grandparent names

Katie Couric: When you first became a grandmother, was there a scintilla of you that thought, Holy bleep, I’m old enough to be a grandmother?

Kris Jenner: I had a child at a very early age. I got pregnant when I was 22 and had Kourtney when I was 23. So I think being a younger mom for some of my kids and a younger grandmother for all of my grandkids…when I was growing up, didn’t you think of grandmas as being kind of older, with gray hair?

I thought about Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies.

Me too. She was great, by the way. But I think what happened to me when I first heard that I was going to be a grandmother, we were filming our show, and Kourtney and I were in our store called Smooch, which is no longer there. We were working and I remember thinking, Oh my God, what is happening? And then I thought, What are they going to call me? You start thinking of what you want your grandmother name to be: Are they going to call me “grandma” like I called my grandmother? Or, do I want to pick something? 

When Mason was born, who’s now 14, he started calling me grandma and then some [of my] other kids — maybe it was Kim — got pregnant. Then, I thought, No, no, no, we need to change the name.

Kourtney and I picked my name, which is now Lovey.

Which I love, but it makes me think of Thurston Howell III’s wife on Gilligan’s Island. 

I forgot [about that]. And I watched every episode [of Gilligan’s Island] probably 12 times because we had three networks in those days. But one of my mom’s really good friends was named Lovey. I just remember when I was a little girl thinking, That is the coolest, most beautiful name I’ve ever heard. And so that just popped into my mind when Kourtney said, ‘Pick a name.’ That’s what I picked.

So now all 13 of your grandchildren — by the way, yes, Kris Jenner has 13 grandchildren — do they all call you Lovey now, Kris?

Yes they do. And their friends call me Lovey. Everybody calls me Lovey.

On Baby Boomer career women

I’m curious, too, about you as a career woman. We’re about the same age, and I think we represent a transition from women in more traditional roles. As you know, my mom volunteered for Planned Parenthood and worked in the gift department of Lord and Taylor. But she didn’t really have a career. And then my older sister, my brother, and I really wanted careers. 

Your first job was as a flight attendant for American Airlines. When you were growing up and coming of age — this was also right in the midst of second-wave feminism — was a career something that you wanted? Because initially, you were a very traditional person, right?

Yeah. Well, my first job was actually working in the donut shop up the street from my house.

That would be very dangerous for me.

My job was — early in the morning before school — I would take the scraper on a long stick, and I would scrape glaze off of the floor from the day before. 

How glamorous.

I made it look good, trust me. They would make the donuts late in the middle of the night. And then I’d come in and be part of the cleanup crew and then go to school on the bus, in Claremont. I just remember all of that. Then, after that, I was still working for my grandmother and my mom. Then, I became an airline stewardess for American Airlines. 

And then from there I got married, and I got pregnant on my honeymoon. So it was time to go raise a family. That’s kind of, I think, the entrepreneurial part. I had so many chapters in my life that led up to being 52 years old and creating our reality show for our family. 

I couldn’t wait to go be a stewardess. Now they call it [being] a flight attendant. But, in those days, it was [being] a stewardess. I couldn’t wait to be a career girl and do something that was professional like that. That was a big step for me. And from there it just kept bleeding into other things. But I think my role as a mom was a huge, career building chapter of my life, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. Because it just prepared me for everything else.

On the Kardashian/Jenner family business

Do you ever have big family feuds where you don’t talk for a few days or you have to cool down? It can’t all be flowers, lollipops, and rainbows all the time, right?

The last really big argument I think anybody had was probably Kim and Kourtney a couple years ago. But honestly, if we don’t agree, we’ll resolve it by the end of the day. I don’t think there’s ever a time when — I feel like they’re all my spouses — we go to bed angry. So we resolve things pretty quickly, and we all get on the phone. Kim is such a great negotiator. She should seriously be a professional. She’s the best mediator. So, you know, when things get really rough, we just all call Kim. 

But, as the mom, everything’s my fault. Everything in life is my fault. Sometimes that’s how you feel. And you just have to say, “OK, how am I going to deal with this being my fault today? How am I going to fix it?” But it’s great. I can honestly say I feel like the luckiest girl in the world because I get to work with them.

How the Kardashian/Jenner family restrict their children’s social media use

I worry about this next generation of children. The world is such a scary place. There’s conflict, there’s polarization, there’s global warming. And I’m curious about screen time. Is that something that you all as a family think about? Because, you know, it has a lot of negative effects on kids…It’s actually behind depression and anxiety, especially for young girls. How do you help navigate that with your children and your grandchildren? Are they not allowed to use iPhones until they get to a certain age? Is their screen time monitored? How do you teach them to be resilient when people do say such mean, ugly things? 

Well, first of all, [my grandkids] have restricted screen time. They don’t have phones until they’re a certain age…Mason has a phone. North has a phone. I don’t know if [North is] even allowed to do certain [things on it]. I know my granddaughter True has an iPad with some of her favorite cartoons on it. They’re very restricted; they’re edited so that they’re only watching what their moms and dads want them to watch. And there’s no real social media on there, obviously, yet. And I don’t know at what age they’ll be introduced to that, you know, other than Mason, North, and [Penelope]. But the other kids are too young. When I’m with them, we don’t go on social media or we’re not on a phone if we’re all out and about. But I think we just have to be really careful about the appetite that [phones] create, and I think a lot of it is habit. 

You have to decide within your own family what’s appropriate and what’s not. But for us, it can be very negative. You really have to be watchful and create boundaries for what’s appropriate for your own [family]. I know that I hear my grandkids — if they’re negotiating with their mom about something, one of them might say, ‘Please, can I have some extra screen time?’ So they have very limited, controlled amounts of screen time. They’re allowed to go on and play their games or whatever. But it’s monitored. So we’re pretty careful about it.

I think with the girls, they try to be good role models and really be good moms. 

How many grandchildren do you think you’re going to have, Kris? 

Oh, wow. Well, Kendall will hate me for saying this, but I want Kendall to have one because she’s the only one of my kids that doesn’t have a child. So that would be really exciting. But, I’m trying to think. I think if I were to guess, I think Kim and Kourtney might be done. They each have four. That’s a lot.  Kylie and Khloe have two. And Rob has one and Kendall has none. So I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine these days.