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    1. Celebrity

    Kourtney Kardashian Barker Has Nearly 500 Unread Text Messages and Has No Shame About It

    She shared her “modern rules for survival,” which apparently includes leaving everyone on read.

    Rachel Burchfield#039;s avatar
    By Rachel Burchfield
    Published 14 February 2024 In News

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    Kourtney Kardashian Barker
    (Image credit: Getty Images)
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    Kourtney Kardashian Barker seems as happy and as at peace as she’s ever been, and, in a new interview with The Cut, we’re getting a glimpse into how she got there. Think getting a good night’s sleep, prioritizing your priorities—and, apparently, leaving almost everyone on read.

    Kardashian Barker told the outlet that, when the interview was conducted, “I have 481 unread text messages right now,” she said. “I just recently started not touching my phone in the morning. I’m not on my phone at night, like when I put my kids to sleep. I’m not on my phone during meals, and I really try to leave my phone in the other room and just be present in everything that I’m doing.”

    Kourtney Kardashian Barker

    Selfies? Yes. Returning texts? No.

    (Image credit: Getty Images)

    Kardashian Barker just gave birth for the fourth time late last year to baby Rocky, her son with husband Travis Barker; she is also mom to Mason, Penelope, and Reign from her long-term relationship with ex Scott Disick. (The Barkers also have three children from Barker’s previous marriage.) Add to that filming for her family’s Hulu show The Kardashians and her various business ventures (think Poosh, Lemme, the Calma Sutra), and those unread texts pile up.

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    “I just hope people don’t take it personally that I’m not responding, but I do read most texts,” she told The Cut. “I just don’t usually reply. But there’s probably my top 20 people that I reply to. It’s my family and my kids and my top work people and friends. I don’t know, honestly, there’s no rhyme or reason. I can’t try to justify it.”

    To drive home the point further, she added “I would say texting is not a priority, especially now. I have a newborn baby, I have four kids, three stepkids, my husband, like…I just am not texting.”

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    Kourtney Kardashian Barker

    Kardashian, here with Kate Moss, makes her own rules

    (Image credit: Getty Images)

    What are Kardashian Barker’s other “modern rules for survival,” as The Cut puts it? A good night’s sleep (neither she or Barker snores, she points out, and said “I think sleeping is one of my greatest skills”), saying “no” as much as possible, leaving the house only when necessary, getting outside and getting fresh air, and flossing. “It’s so important to know what makes you feel good,” she said.

    Now, that’s not to say that Kardashian Barker never has down days, but, she said, “positive talk helps. I am a perfectionist, so when I get hard on myself, I try to think, ‘Create the life that you want.’ I’ll think that to myself all the time. Like, ‘Oh, you want to do this more? Just do it.’ I try to make time for the things that do make me feel good, like going on a walk. I make time for that pretty much every day.”

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    Kourtney Kardashian Barker

    Being in love with the right person is also a key to success, no doubt

    (Image credit: Getty Images)

    Kardashian Barker first became a mom 15 years ago this year (! How is this possible?), and said motherhood has shifted her priorities, as it is very much prone to do. “I just have to know what I want and what my priorities are,” she said. “For me, as a mother, since I had Mason [who was born in 2009], I’ve always had this strong, motherly instinct about the way I want to do things with my kids. It’s evolved over the years, like being able to say ‘no,’ as I said before. I also think recognizing what makes me feel good is important. Let’s say someone is asking me to do something, whether it’s a friend coming over or a business thing. If it didn’t feel good in the end, I’ll take a mental note that I need to protect my energy more. And then I’ll just take a break from those things.”

    She’s in a good place now (and we’re glad about it), but it wasn’t always so peaceful. (Any viewer of her family’s former reality show, E!’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians, remembers.) She didn’t get married for the first time until she was entering her mid-40s. Sometimes life happens off of society’s timeline—but it doesn’t mean it’s not right on schedule. “I would say to trust in God’s plan for them and know everything along the way is to get you where you’re meant to be,” she said. “Try not to force anything just because you think you need to be at a certain place by a certain age.”

    So, if we’re taking advice from the rulebook of Kardashian Barker—why not? She’s thriving—here’s the ultimate credo: “I make my own rules,” she said. “The rules come from knowing your priorities.”

    And, 500 unread texts later, knowing what they’re not. 

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    Kourtney Kardashian
    Rachel Burchfield
    Rachel Burchfield
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    Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor

    Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more. 

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