Being honest. Actress Taraji P. Henson trended on social media after Lamar Odom admitted that he left her for his ex-wife, Khloé Kardashian, in a recently resurfaced video.
“Things ended with Taraji because [of] me being an immature punk,” Lamar, 42, said during his 2019 TVOne documentary, Uncensored. “I didn’t know how to tell her that I was falling in love with another woman named Khloé Kardashian.”
Lamar and Taraji, 51, met at an HBO party, where they quickly hit it off. The former NBA star said he “really started” to like the Empire actress, but wishes he had “done things different” during their relationship.
He spoke fondly of Taraji during his on-camera interview. “I learned a lot from her because that was the most significant relationship as a grown up that I had with a black woman,” Lamar said. “I used to carry her picture on the road with me. Don’t nobody know that.”
“She gave me inspiration, you know what I’m saying?” he continued, gushing over the Hidden Figures star. “A black woman working like that, that’s just as good at her craft that I’m as good at my craft. I remember, we were on the road for our longest road trip and we were playing Cleveland and I went off on they ass. But what I’m getting at, one of my inspirations, that’s part of the inspiration for me going back to see her, going back to L.A. was one of the reasons why I kicked their ass that day. I remember though, how I was feeling during that game and after that game. Like, just, she inspired me.”
Fans took to social media on Sunday, January 2, to react to the recently viral clip. “Lamar leaving Taraji P. Henson for Khloé Kardashian is the hardest story I’ll every try to understand. Like WTF!!! Thank goodness you called [yourself] ‘an immature p**k’ already,” one fan tweeted. Another wrote, “Lamar Odom talking about how he left Taraji P. Henson for Khloé Kardashian, and look at where that Kardashian curse led him tsk tsk tsk … Taraji [is] more successful than the both of them, whew I’m so happy she dodge that bullet.”
The former Los Angeles Lakers player and Khloé, 37, started dating in August 2009. They tied the knot on September 27, 2009, after just a month of dating. Their marriage was rife with cheating scandals on Lamar’s part and his addiction also strained their relationship. They eventually split in 2013 and Khloé filed for divorce. In 2015, Lamar suffered a near-fatal overdose and their divorce was put on hold as Khloé was committed to help him in his recovery. She refiled for divorce in May 2016 and it was finalized that October.
Despite their ups and downs, Lamar also looked back fondly on his romance with the former Keeping Up With the Kardashians star. “I’ll never forget that day because them eyes,” the former athlete gushed about the day he met the Good American cofounder. “Her eyes are the same shape as my mother’s eyes, Khloé’s. I didn’t know who she was. I was Lamar Odom, you know what I mean? I didn’t give a f–k about no Kardashians. But it’s crazy because that night changed my life.”