Being Kendra_ Cribs, Cocktails, and Getting My Sexy Back - Kendra Wilkinson [1]
My good friend, rapper Too $hort (he sings the “Go Kendra” title track on my show), has a song called “Gettin’ It,” and the lyrics are: “You should be gettin’ it. Get it while the gettin’ is good.” I live by these lyrics to this day. I live by the mantra of “work, work, work” and do whatever I can to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way. In this industry, you are only good for so long. I’m not just doing it for myself anymore; I’m doing it for the family.
The whole “getting it” mentality has been with me since day one and stayed with me on my crazy journey to where I am today. I started stripping to make money and give myself a little financial freedom. Stripping got me discovered by Hugh Hefner. So I kept on stripping but took it to a bigger level: Playboy. Playboy got me recognition, on a reality show, and a guy like Hank Baskett to know who I was. We fell in love and we had a baby. I got it then, and I’m getting it now.
I still try to live by that. It’s just the way I go about it that’s changed. Instead of stripping to get it, now I’m a mom and that’s what I’m famous for. I’ve let cameras capture my birth, my meltdowns, and my most private of family moments. But I did it all in the name of gettin’ it. Right now is my time, so I’m getting it while the getting is good.
Luckily for me, I’ve had more success post-stripping, and it’s likely I’ll never have to go back to doing it (except for my husband). Where so many other reality stars party for a living, I have left the Hollywood party scene and struggled through the first few years of motherhood and marriage. I dealt with some crazy things as a new mom, including suffering through a dark depression and an uphill battle to lose weight after Hank Jr. was born. But I conquered it all—and, for the most part, I did so under the bright lights of my reality show cameras.
A lot of my success is because of my husband. I try to keep my marriage exciting and make sure Hank is happy, because he’s my support system. I wish I could say that I was his too, but I’m not too sure about that! The first football game I went to after Hank and I started dating was when Hank was on the Philadelphia Eagles and playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. He had the most amazing game; he had a lot of good games early on in his career. In fact, in the three years before Hank got married, he had seventy-one catches and was on his way to a pretty promising future. Then we got married, and all of a sudden his statistics plummeted. In the two seasons since being married (and now having a son), Hank has caught only six passes. We are keeping our heads up, but I can’t help but wonder if maybe being married and having a baby was the curse to his football career. Am I the curse?
Regardless of Hank’s on-the-field struggles and my off-the-field struggles, we’ve somehow managed to get our act together. Being a first-time mom, balancing my work and personal life (which in my career have somehow merged together), and dodging divorce rumors (both false and occasionally slightly, possibly, just a smidge true), Hank and I still managed to find time for dates, sex, and quick cups of morning coffee. I don’t know how we do it. But I danced my way out of all my struggles and to the center stage of America’s primetime TV sets. Being a mom and a wife has changed me in ways I never thought imaginable.
I’ve got a car seat sitting behind my driver’s seat, I’ve got wipes in every bag I own, and just the sound of a kid screaming or crying sends my heart into a sprint. In my perfect world, I would put my son to sleep with a kiss on his forehead, share a bottle of wine with my husband, make love, and drift off into eight restful hours of deep sleep. But in my reality, usually the only thing on that list I do is kiss my son on his forehead. And that’s just fine with me.
I’m the person I never even knew I could be. And I love it.