Lamar Odom has been professing his admiration for ex-wife Khloé Kardashian while appearing on season 3 of Celebrity Big Brother, which may have you asking: why did Khloé and Lamar split?
Keep reading for details about their divorce, cheating allegations, his near-fatal overdose and more.
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians alum and former NBA player got married in September 2009, just one month after they met. They showed parts of their relationship on the Kardashian-Jenner’s reality show and even starred in their own spinoff, Khloé & Lamar, which ran for two seasons in 2011 and 2012.
The California native has since said that she “never wanted” to do the show with her ex. “He sold it to E!, and I let it happen because I wanted him to be happy. I was the one who canceled it. It was way too much,” she previously told THR.
While this appeared to be a point of contention in their marriage, the cracks in their relationship didn’t publicly show until Lamar was arrested in 2013 for driving under the influence. The New York native pleaded no contest and was given three years of probation. He entered rehab shortly after the incident but checked out one day later.
During their marriage, the couple also weathered multiple cheating rumors involving Lamar, allegations that Khloé and the athlete have since confirmed.
“Lamar was so great at making me feel like I was the only one and I’m this princess. I never speculated cheating … so I didn’t know about cheating … until before the DUI,” the Good American founder said during an interview with Howard Stern in 2016. “It is humiliating on any level, but I found out he was cheating on me the majority of our marriage, I just didn’t know.”
The former Los Angeles Laker reflected on his infidelity as one of his biggest regrets. “I would probably say it was the first time I decided to cheat on Khloé,” Lamar said on The Morning Hustle in February 2021. “I would rewind that back and take those things back and never let that happen.”
In December 2013, Khloé filed for divorce from Lamar. However, their proceedings were put on hold when the athlete was found unresponsive at a brothel in Nevada following a near-fatal overdose in 2015. Lamar has credited Khloé with helping him recover, calling her his “angel.”
“When I woke up out of the coma, my memory was terrible and I couldn’t walk or talk,” he previously told Buzzfeed News. “Just her spirit, always being there, her bringing pictures of my mother, my grandmother, just to help me bring my memory back.”
Khloé has seemingly moved on from her ex-husband for good. She shares her daughter, True Thompson, with ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson, whom she dated on-and-off from 2016 to 2021.
As for Lamar, he was previously engaged to Sabrina Parr, but they called it quits in 2020. He raised eyebrows on Big Brother, which began airing in February 2022, when he openly gushed about Khloé.
“I miss her so much. I wish I could take that time back,” he said on the reality show, calling her his “one and only.”