Kardashians still just a family affair

Kourtney, Khloe and Kim have become pop culture icons.

On this week's Keeping Up With the Kardashians 10th Anniversary Special on E!, the Kardashian-Jenners reflected on how their lives have changed in the past decade, going from your everyday quirky blended family to a pop culture force.

As the 90-minute retrospective started, a caption at the bottom of the screen ran E! News trending headlines. One read, "Kylie Jenner is pregnant: reports."

It was the perfect encapsulation of how the family has cultivated such fame. On Saturday, rumours "leaked" of Kylie's pregnancy. And thanks to some coy not-denials from the family, it ensured that the 20-year-old stayed in the news all weekend.

Besides the family's PR savvy, it was ringleader and momager Kris Jenner who offered a theory about why the show has such staying power, running 10 seasons and 310 episodes. Although ratings have declined, it's the "longest running celebrity docu-soap in the history of television," as host Ryan Seacrest said.

"Just thinking back to the beginning," Seacrest asked Kris, "What are your thoughts now, now that the whole universe knows you so well?"

"It's very difficult to go anywhere without somebody talking about the show," Kris said. "Our show's in over 160 countries around the world. When we started our show, there wasn't really another huge family. There was a 7-year-old and there was a 60-year-old. So no matter what age you were, somehow you got sucked in."

This is one frequently overlooked reason why the Kardashians have built up such a loyal fanbase over the past 10 years. Sure, they're unbelievably wealthy and famous and ridiculous. However, if you take that away, they are - at the core - family members with lots of messiness and drama, but people who genuinely love each other.

Most of the special focused on the unattainable aspects of Kardashian-Jenner life, such as what it's like to marry Kanye West or the problems that only a celebrity could have, including being forced to wake up at 7am and then film your life on camera.

But also, in a very Kardashian way, they managed to make it sound somewhat relatable.

"We love what we do. We could not be more lucky," Kim Kardashian said.