The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Damaged Goods

Posted on | March 30, 2020 | Comments Off on Damaged Goods

Whatever happened to Kendra Wilkinson?

Here we are in the middle of a deadly pandemic, and that question probably hasn’t crossed your mind. In fact, I suspect, the question on your mind now is, “Who the heck is Kendra Wilkinson?”

Well, “reality TV star” might be one way to describe her, but you probably never watched any of the shows she was on: The Girls Next Door (2004-2009), Kendra (2009-2012) and Kendra on Top (2012-2017).

Any of that ring a bell? OK, enough with the hints: In The Girls Next Door, Wilkinson starred as one of three live-in girlfriends of Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner. Wilkinson was only 19 when she became involved with Hefner, who was then 78.

 

Yuck. Some girls have “daddy issues.” Some girls have granddaddy issues. That a mere teenager, fresh out of high school, should become a TV star on the basis of this kind of creepy “relationship” tells you everything you need to know about the value system in Hollywood.

 

Can you imagine how embarrassed you would be if one of your daughters became famous for engaging in such shameful behavior? Your entire family would be disgraced by this public evidence of your failure as a parent. Of course, the failure really began before Kendra was born. Her father is a successful businessman who made the mistake of marrying a former NFL cheerleader in 1983. Kendra was born in 1985, and her parents divorced when she was 8 years old. She didn’t see her father for about 20 years, and evidently got her values — such as they are — from her aging bimbo mother. People use the phrase “single mom” so blithely, and often in such a way as to suggest there is something inherently praiseworthy and heroic in being a “single mom,” without acknowledging the psychiatric damage that fatherlessness inflicts on children.

The social-science data is indisputable on this subject. For example, having divorced parents increases the likelihood that your own marriage will end in divorce, and not by an insignificant margin: “[T]he risk of divorce is 50 percent higher when one spouse comes from a divorced home and 200 percent higher when both partners do.” So what do you think happened to Hugh Hefner’s ex-girlfriend Kendra Wilkinson after she got married in 2009 to former NFL wide receiver Hank Baskett?

 

In 2014, while she was eight months pregnant with their second child, Baskett hooked up with a tranny YouTuber! All the sordid details became public, which ultimately ended Kendra’s marriage and threw a wrench into her reality-show gig, where her husband was part of the deal.

There was also a lot of drama where Kendra’s efforts to reunite with her “estranged” father caused a rift between Kendra and her mother:

Those two [Kendra and Hank] are so caught up in the show. It’s all Kendra thinks about. It’s disgusting, especially when you are hurting your own mother. I’m there for you when you need me the most, and this is how you pay me back? … I can’t do this anymore. I love my kids more than anything, but when a television show becomes more important than your relationship with your mom, it’s time to realize that your priorities are messed up. . . .
She did tell me she hated me, she called me all kinds of names. She ended it with “I hope you die.” I wouldn’t tell my worst enemy I hope you die. Much less your mother. . . .
After news of Hank’s affair broke, I was there for Kendra the second she needed me. I drove up to her place and got to spend time with my grandchildren. It felt like old times, but then things took a turn for the worse. She just stopped talking to me … Kendra and Hank are all about the ratings … Just days before, I was picking her up off the floor, and now she can’t even tell me that she’s going to see her father, who left us — not to mention that she went with a guy who just cheated on her with a tranny.

 

So, estranged from her father, and telling her mother “I hope you die,” eventually Kendra got divorced from her tranny-chasing husband.

 

Do you see how this was all foreshadowed? Like, maybe bad judgment is a hereditary trait? And what are the chances that a woman who moves in with a 78-year-old pervert when she’s 19 is later going to find a fairy-tale happily-ever-after marriage? Kendra Wilkinson was doomed from birth, really, but she doesn’t seem to understand this.

Kendra Wilkinson Is Looking
for a ‘Family Man’ After Divorce
Eligible suitors only, please! Kendra Wilkinson has certain standards for her next significant other following her divorce from Hank Baskett.
“I want to see her with a family man because that’s all that she wants. She doesn’t want the spotlight or the crazy success,” Wilkinson’s friend Jessica Hall told Us Weekly exclusively at a luncheon to celebrate BB Lifestyle earlier this month. “She wants a guy that just wants to go camping and wants to take her and barbecue. She’s so simple and I think a lot of people don’t realize that about her, but she really wants the ultimate family guy and it’s what she’s always dreamed of and what she’s going to continue to want, so I like that it has not changed and she has not changed.” . . .
A source revealed to Us in August that Wilkinson was casually dating philanthropist Donald “DJ” Friese. “They are not exclusive,” the insider said at the time. “Kendra is having fun and not taking him too seriously.”

Oh, the former Playboy centerfold wants “the ultimately family guy.” Perhaps it doesn’t occur to Kendra to ask why such a guy would be interested in her. Like, you’re an eligible bachelor, you’ve worked hard to succeed and now you’re looking for “wife material.” Are you going date the ex-girlfriend of Hugh Hefner, who has posed nude and recently divorced her NFL athlete husband with whom she’s got joint custody of their two children? Did I mention she’s now 34? But wait, you say she was “casually dating” DJ Friese? Yeah, that ended badly.

 

Maybe this billionaire wasn’t “the ultimate family guy,” but Kendra is sure that guy is out there and looking for a woman like her.

My point is that when men refer to a woman as “damaged goods” — a category of which Kendra Wilkinson is a prime example — this raises the question of how she got so damaged. According to her mother, she and Kendra were abandoned by Kendra’s father, but was that really what happened? There are generally two sides to such a story, and I have no idea what actually happened to Eric and Patti Wilkinson’s marriage. The consequences, however, are rather indisputable. The damage Kendra Wilkinson suffered in childhood has left her with personality issues. How is a girl supposed to learn what it takes to make a marriage work without any role models for a such a relationship? How does she learn how to be “wife material” under the tutelage of a mother who failed that test? And how does she learn to judge men’s character — to assess their qualifications as “husband material” — if there is no such man in her own household to use as a reference point? Perhaps more importantly, we see that Kendra Wilkinson lacks self-awareness about her own situation.

Her career in show business — she became a reality TV star before she was old enough to buy a beer legally — has left her with a strange disconnect from the world outside Hollywood. She allegedly wants to find the “ultimate family guy” and yet doesn’t grasp why it’s unlikely such a man would be interested in her. There may be “family guys” in Southern California, but they’re already happily married and not interested in hooking up with silicon-enhanced former Playmates. (OK, I checked Kendra’s photos, but strictly as journalistic research.) However desirable a commodity she was 10 or 15 years ago, Kendra Wilkinson is past her sell-by date. Her youth was spent in shameful behavior, then she spent another 10 years with a guy who ended up cheating — with a tranny! — and now? Now she decides to start looking for a “family guy”?

It’s a cautionary tale for the 21st century. There are many women like Kendra, less famous, but plagued with the same basic problem — they spent their youth running wild with the Bad Boys, and then belatedly decided it was time to settle down, but the fairy-tale ending eludes them, because Prince Charming just ain’t interested.




 

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