After Lauren Sánchez returned from her 11-minute trip to space on the controversial Blue Origin flight, she revealed that she received a lavish gift from the Kardashians. While Lauren, 55, seemed to love the $7,000 gift, the internet was not particularly impressed. Many critics of the reality TV family saw it as another “disgusting” example of rich people flaunting their wealth.
Lauren Sánchez shared a photo of the gift.
According to a photo Lauren shared to her Instagram Stories, the Kardashian family opted for a space-themed gift: a Judith Leiber UFO Orbiter bag. Lauren described the spaceship-inspired bag as “out of this world” and tagged Kris Jenner, Khloé Kardashian, and Kim Kardashian in her post.
The Kardashians didn’t stop at giving their friend an extravagant gift. To show their support for their friend Lauren, Kris and Khloé also traveled to the Texas launch site on Monday, April 14. Kris said she’s “so proud” of Lauren for the 11-minute trip to space.
“This is a really unique experience and we’re just so honored to be here to support them and watch this amazing part of history, and I’m so proud of her,” Kris said, per Page Six.
But a lot of critics thought it was too much.
Lauren seemed to appreciate the gift from her pals, but a lot of social media users saw it as a tasteless display of wealth. One critic on Reddit said the all-woman flight crew that took a trip to space merely “took a ride.” To that person and many others, the trip didn’t seem worthy of praise. It accomplished “absolutely nothing,” according to the Redditor.
“The rich are truly on a Marie Antoinette speed run,” another Redditor wrote, with several others commenting, “Eat the rich.”
One Redditor also questioned the Kardashian-Jenner family’s priorities. “But all they could afford for the firefighters in CA was a $200 lunch,” the commenter wrote.
Several celebrities have also spoken out against the Blue Origin space flight.
Blue Origin is a private space technology company owned by Jeff Bezos, who is also Lauren’s fiancé. Several celebrities have criticized the recent trip, arguing that it harmed the planet and did not actually achieve anything. Ahead of the trip, actress Olivia Munn spoke out against it during a Today With Jenna and Friends appearance. “What’s the point?” she questioned. “Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride? I think it’s a bit gluttonous.”
Olivia continued, “space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind. What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here?” She added that there are a lot of people who “can’t even afford eggs” right now.
Then, after the controversial space excursion, model and actress Emily Ratajkowski took to TikTok to share her thoughts. Similar to Olivia, Emily wondered what the point of the trip was.
“Saying that you care about Mother Earth, and it’s about Mother Earth, and going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s single-handedly destroying the planet?” she said. “Look at the state of the world, and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space, and for what?”
