Yes, we’re still talking about that Pepsi commercial. On Sunday night’s episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kendall Jenner finally opened up about the backlash she received because of her protest-themed Pepsi commercial in April. The ad, which showed Jenner solving a conflict by handing a police officer a can of Pepsi, was pulled almost immediately.
In a confessional-style interview, Kendall explained why she took the job in the first place. “When I first got this offer, I mean, it’s a huge company … the people I was following were so iconic and amazing,” she said. “Michael Jackson has done it, Britney Spears has done it, Beyoncé has done it, Pink. The list goes on. So to get something like that, it was so exciting.”
However, hindsight is 20/20. Once Kendall saw how people were reacting, she didn’t know how to make the situation better. “I trusted everyone, I trusted the teams,” she explained. “But after I saw the reaction and I read what people had to say about it, I most definitely saw what went wrong. I was so stuck and I really didn’t know what to do that I completely shut down.”
Kendall’s sisters, Khloé and Kim Kardashian, also offered their takes on the backlash. “It sucks, because she’s been taking the blame for it all,” Khloé said. “Kendall tries really hard to be socially conscious and aware of the jobs that she takes … so it weighs really heavy on her heart. Her intent is never to disrespect or offend anybody.”
When the negativity surrounding the ad exploded, Kendall turned to Kim—who has experienced her share of controversy—for advice on how to handle it. “Someone calls me with more bad news every five minutes,” Kendall said. “It’s so stressful.”
“This is your first real experience with something like this,” Kim told her younger sister. “It should affect you in a way where you grow from it…I just wish that you could see that there’s light at the end of the tunnel and that it will be okay if you’re just honest and open.”
To make matters worse, Caitlyn Jenner—while on a book tour to promote her memoir—said she thought the commercial was “cute” and told reporters Kendall had approved the script, which Kendall denies, PEOPLE reports.
“What upsets me the most is that Dad brought up the commercial,” Kendall continued. “She doesn’t actually know what happened. She just like, word-vomits.”
In the end, it’s clear that Kendall regrets the commercial and the hurt it caused. Sobbing on camera, she emphasized, “I just feel really, really bad.”
“I would never purposely hurt someone, ever…if I knew that this was gonna be the outcome, I would have never done something like this,” she said. “But you don’t know when you’re in the moment…I just felt so f–king stupid. The fact that I would offend other people or hurt other people was definitely not the intent. And that’s what got me the most. Is that I would have ever made anyone else upset.”
I hope Kendall will learn and grow from this experience.