There were her rebellious teenage years growing up in the southern Californian beachside city of San Diego and five years as one of Hugh Hefner's live-in girlfriends at the Playboy Mansion. She's also had to deal with the dramas of being exposed as the star of a sex tape- a tape, she insists, that was made public without her blessing. Last year her life took a giant U-turn, moving out of Hefner's Bel Air lair, marrying gridiron star Hank Baskett and in December giving birth to son Hank Jr.
You would think Wilkinson would be struggling with her new life in suburban Los Angeles, but no, apparently her wild days in San Diego and the Playboy Mansion were perfect preparation for 4am feeding times and nappy changing."Before having a baby I would stay up every night until 4am partying my butt off," the blonde Wilkinson says. "Guess what? I stay up until 4am taking care of my baby. It's easy because of those party days.
"If I can party I can take care of my baby." When she left the Playboy Mansion last year, Wilkinson's fan base was so huge US cable TV channel E! offered her a series of her own, titled Kendra. Season one aired last year and followed Wilkinson as she met her future husband and announced her pregnancy. The second season begins with the arrival of baby Hank. With her new domestic life come new rules. Though her days of posing nude are over, don't expect her to dress conservatively now she is a mother.
"I'm 24 years old and, yeah, I'm a different person and I'm definitely more mature, but these are the tops that I'm going to keep on wearing," she says, pointing to a top that doesn't hide her curves. "I'm not going to wear any skimpy stuff. I definitely want to be the mature mum for my son, but I don't want to lose myself and give that up.
"For some reason society wants mums to quit their lives and just be stuck at home with nothing to do and every minute dedicated to their kids. "I agree every minute should be dedicated, but you should also keep being yourself." Wilkinson also shoots down any thoughts that she follows the lead of other Hollywood mums and hands the baby duties over to a team of nannies. Wilkinson makes it clear she is a hands-on mother.
"Every minute of the day and night he's mine," Wilkinson says. "Yes, we get some help sometimes, but I tell that nanny, 'He is my son and you are going to have a lot of free time on your hands'. If I need to have a shower I say, 'Can you watch him for 10 minutes?' I love it.
"I always dreamed about having a baby and I dreamed about raising a baby. I never dreamed about someone else raising my baby for me." Wilkinson's colourful life will be detailed in a book she is writing called Sliding Into Home.
The confessed tomboy and sports lover says her book's baseball-inspired title is perfect for describing her new life as a wife and mother and the other less stable years. "First base was my childhood," she says. "My childhood was amazing. I had the greatest family surrounding me, but my dad left me at an early age. "Second base was my teenage years. My hard years. My drug years. Third base was my Playboy years. "Sliding into home means I'm home. I'm safe. I'm a mum. I am a mature woman with a baby and I'm a wife. "It's something I always wanted to be."