Millionaire businesswoman who said working from home was 'career killer for women' explains her stance

Millionaire businesswoman Emma Grede has clarified comments she made about women working from home earlier this year which she was criticised for.

The 43-year-old British entrepreneur has appeared on BBC programme Dragons’ Den and also co-founded the denim brand Good American with Khloe Kardashian in 2016. She is married to Swedish businessman Jens Grede, who launched Skims shapewear with Kim Kardashian (Emma is also a co-founder of the brand), and her net worth is estimated to be approximately $400 million (£297 million).

If her name rings a bell elsewhere, it’s because in April this year her comments while a guest on Keke Palmer’s podcast, Baby, This is Keke Palmer, made headlines.

She told Palmer: “What I think is that work from home culture is a career killer for women.”

She added: “We talk about all of this sort of upside of Zoom culture, but none of the rigidity of it. And no one will really tell you, but careers require proximity and visibility. You want a pay rise, you want the next promotion, you want the big corner office. Guess what? You need to be there.”

George Pimentel/Getty Images

During a BBC interview in July she said she had ‘never shot down flexibility’ and added that she runs ‘huge companies’ with ‘hundreds and hundreds of female employees’.

She added: “Nobody’s saying that it’s a bad idea to work from home but what you can’t do is have ambition that is sky high and keep yourself out of visibility.“

Now she’s spoken about and reflected on the criticism she got for past comments while on BBC’s Desert Island Discs with Lauren Laverne on 2 August.

She told Laverne: “What’s worked for me is visibility, being in an office where people could see how I move.”

She has four children with husband Jens, who she married in 2012, and also spoke about how she would have been successful regardless of who she married.

“When someone says, ‘She married well’ or ‘She took an elevator to the top’, I absolutely won’t have it,“ she explained.

“We definitely became successful in parallel to each other but there’s no shortcut in this life. I would have been successful regardless of who I married, or if I ever married.”

Emma Grede is also a co-founder of Kim Kardashian's Skims, alongside her husband. Picture: Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images

In 2016 while promoting her new book titled Start With Yourself: A Vision for Work and Life she faced criticism after she described herself as a ‘max three-hour mum’ in a Wall Street Journal profile.

She told Laverne: “I love my children. I also didn’t pop out kids and turn into some other version of myself.

“You don’t become me and then say, ‘You know what, I want to stay at home and tradwife it’. I don’t. I love my kids but I don’t love Legos.

“Because I go out and work really hard and really love what I do, that doesn’t mean that I’m not equally a fantastic parent.”

She also hosts the podcast Aspire with Emma Grede, with guests including Kristin Cavallari and most recently, high-profile divorce lawyer Laura Wasser, whose celebrity clients have apparently included Johnny Depp, Kim Kardashian, Angelina Jolie, Heidi Klum and more.