While they may be thought of as "famous for being famous," along with living extraordinarily
privileged lives, it appears that money doesn't always buy happiness for the Kardashian-Jenner
clan. From cheating scandals to devastating losses, these are the tragic details about
the Kardashians.
Robert Kardashian Senior, father of Kourtney, Rob, Kim and Khloe, died of cancer in September,
2003. The late entrepreneur, who was best known as one of the lawyers on O.J. Simpson's
defense team in the '90s, was 59 when he died — just eight weeks after he was diagnosed
with throat cancer. Kris later shared with E!'s Giuliana Rancic,
"It was so surreal, the knowledge he had cancer was one thing, but to think it would actually
take his life, I never in a million years thought that would happen to him."
"I believe all of our blessings that we have now are because we have a guardian angel,
which is my dad, by our sides."
Meanwhile, Khloé shared her theory on how the O.J. trial may have factored into her
father's illness. She said on her show, Kocktails With Khloé,
"He never spoke about it. My dad also died of throat cancer which does not run in my
family. My dad doesn't smoke, doesn't drink. I think holding in secrets [and] stress kills
you."
Kanye West gifted wife Kim a hologram of her late father for her birthday in 2020.
Anyone who watched The People v. O. J. Simpson knows that former couple Robert Kardashian
and Kris Jenner fell on opposite sides when O.J. Simpson was on trial for the killings
of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. Kim revealed just how divided her family's loyalty
really was, explaining on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, in 2020,
"We'd go to my dad's house and it was a whole other situation there. And it would be like
Johnnie Cochran, Bob Shapiro, my dad, like the whole team. […] [We] really didn't know
what to believe or whose side to take. […] It kind of tore our family apart, I'd say, for
the whole time of the trial."
Back in 1994, during an interview with Inside Edition, Kris admitted,
"I think this has been a really tough year, a really tough 15 months for all of us. Not
only have we lost Nicole, we've lost O.J., too."
Kris has publicly discussed cheating on Robert Kardashian with soccer player Todd Waterman,
often noting the negative impact the affair had on their family. She revealed to Oprah
in 2012,
"You say in your book that one of the lowest points in your life was your divorce. Probably
the lowest point and biggest regret."
When Kris released her book, Kris Jenner...And All Things Kardashian, she further dished
on the affair, which upset daughter Kourtney, who then told her mom on Keeping Up With The
Kardashians,
"I don't understand how you can do that to your family."
"We all have different experiences with my mom. And I think it's not something, really,
that my mom can fix."
Meanwhile, Khloé explained on her talk show that that experience was exactly why she could
never cheat on a partner, recalling,
"I saw how it destroyed my dad. […] I also saw the regret from my mom."
In 2016, Kanye stopped a performance mid-way, telling the crowd,
"I'm sorry. Family emergency, I have to stop the show."
At the time, wife Kim had been robbed, tied up, and held at gunpoint in her Paris hotel
room. The following January, Entertainment Tonight translated the police report from
a local French newspaper, which revealed that Kim had told the authorities,
"I was wearing a bathrobe. […] They pushed me on the bed and strapped me with plastic
cables, taping my hands, mouth and legs. They carried me into the bathroom, more specifically,
the bathtub."
"We were all so traumatized, that we left Paris even before the sun came up."
At the time, Kim estimated that $5 million worth of jewelry was stolen. She revealed
more details about the incident, telling David Letterman that when one of the assailants
pulled out a gun, Kim thought of her sister, Kourtney, telling herself,
"She's gonna come home, and I'm gonna to be dead in the room. She's gonna be traumatized
for the rest of her life if she sees me."
"I just prayed that Kourtney's gonna have a normal life after she sees my dead body
on the bed."
Thankfully, Kim survived the incident, and the perpetrators were later arrested.
In 2017, former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, angered the entire Kardashian family with claims she
made about ex-wife Kris Jenner in her book, The Secrets of My Life. Caitlyn alleged that
Kris knew more about Caitlyn's true gender identity than she let on, for the public.
Caitlyn wrote,
"[Kris] insists that she was taken by surprise by my ultimate transition to Caitlyn, which
obviously means in her mind that she did not know enough. On Keeping Up With The Kardashians
she shed copious tears in coming to grips with it. Given what she saw, the whole reaction
seemed a little puzzling then and seems puzzling now."
Noting that their marriage had allegedly become, quote, "misery," Caitlyn also admitted to
intentionally excluding the Kardashian side of the family from her Diane Sawyer interview,
in which she came out as a transgender woman, adding,
"[It was] because of research showing that anytime a Kardashian is on television, many
in the public tend to think it is a publicity stunt to make money."
"She just literally started three different families with three different people and f-----
everyone over."
"One hundred percent."
As the family visibly struggled on the show with the release of the book, Kim remarked,
"Caitlyn has every right to feel however she feels, but why bring my mom into it one more
time? I just feel so bad for my mom."
It's no secret that Khloé's marriage to former NBA star Lamar Odom was full of drama. To
recap, Lamar admitted cheating on Khloe in 2013, saying in a video, via TMZ,
"Khloé's out of town. I guess I still be on the DL."
On the show, Khloé revealed that she once claimed she spent her birthday with her husband
when she was actually alone while he was with another woman.
"The way I was living is not a way to live. I kept in hiding. Every time there was something
going on, I would have to lie or conceal or cover up."
Lamar later told Us Weekly that he'd been keeping his drug use a secret from Khloé
during this time, adding,
"If there is one thing I regret when I was married, it was having multiple affairs with
different women."
Even after the couple split in 2013, their relationship remained tumultuous. Two years
later, Lamar suffered 12 strokes, six heart attacks, and slipped into a coma at a Las
Vegas-area brothel. Khloé initially called off the divorce while she helped Lamar recover,
but by October 2016, the on-and-off couple were officially done.
"Like, there are two lines."
"Yeah. Clear as day. I am pregnant."
When Khloé announced that she and NBA star Tristan Thompson were expecting a child together,
it seemed as though she'd finally found her happily ever after. But it all appeared to
come crashing down on April 10th, 2018, when TMZ published footage of Tristan walking into
a hotel with another woman. Despite more cheating allegations quickly coming to light, Tristan
was in the delivery room with Khloé, as they welcomed their daughter, True, just two days
after the news first broke.
The new parents managed to quietly stay together throughout the scandal, but Tristan reportedly
slipped up again less than a year later, this time with Kylie Jenner's then-BFF, Jordyn
Woods. Jordyn later claimed on Red Table Talk that the two only shared a peck on the lips.
Regardless, Khloé and Tristan split in February 2019.
"And in all of this, I'm now all of the sudden getting death threats threatening my child,
like the craziest things."
But, by August 2020, Us Weekly reported the pair was on again. That October, E! showed
the couple getting cozy at Kim's birthday celebration. And the two basically confirmed
their reconciliation with coordinating Halloween costumes later that month.
Caitlyn shares six children with three women: Burt Jenner and Cassandra Marino with Chrystie
Crownover, Brody and Brandon Jenner with Linda Thompson, and, of course, Kendall and Kylie
Jenner with Kris. But in more recent years, the former Olympian has admitted to having
some regrets about her parenting. Noting that she was struggling with her own issues throughout
her children's early lives, she told Woman's Hour,
"I can't use that as an excuse. […] No matter what your problems are, you gotta be there
for your kids. And I really wasn't."
Further affirming the situation, Brandon Jenner claimed in the 2020 book, To Me, He Was Just
Dad,
"I didn't see my father more than half a dozen times between ages eight and twenty-five."
Similarly, on The Hills reboot, Brandon's brother Brody explained,
"Bruce was just never really around. […] So, yeah, it really wasn't any relationship."
"I'm used to not having a great relationship my entire life with my dad."
But it appears things may have taken a turn for the better, in recent years. Daughter
Cassandra told People,
"My relationship with Caitlyn is much better than with Bruce, but we still have a lot of
work to do. We didn't talk for years, and now we see each other every couple of weeks
and talk on the phone."
In 2015, the Daily Mail published photos of Scott Disick in Monte Carlo with his ex-girlfriend,
Chloe Bartoli. Meanwhile, an insider alleged to Us Weekly,
"Scott and Chloe flirt all the time. Kourtney does not want her around Scott."
Even though a source close to Bartoli told E! that the pair were just friends, the damage
was already done. Soon after the photos leaked, yet another person close to the situation
told the outlet,
"Kourtney dumped him after she saw the pics and he hasn't been home after a month-long
party binge."
Keeping Up With the Kardashians documented the aftermath that September, with Kourtney
tearfully lamenting,
"I worked so hard to keep this family together."
But it appears the family is now thriving in their new normal. And Kourtney and Scott
have become devoted co-parents to their kids.
In February 2015, Caitlyn was involved in a fatal multi-car crash in Malibu. According
to CNN, her car rear-ended a Lexus driven by a woman named Kim Howe, sending Howe's
vehicle into oncoming traffic, where she was struck and killed. Five children and two adults
were also hospitalized following the incident. Caitlyn said in a statement, via E! News,
"My heartfelt and deepest sympathies go out to the family and loved ones, and to all of
those who were involved or injured in this terrible accident. It is a devastating tragedy
and I cannot pretend to imagine what this family is going through at this time. I am
praying for them. I will continue to cooperate in every way possible."
"What do you remember about the accident? Very little. I remember it happening, that's
about it."
Radar Online reported that Caitlyn didn't appear to be on the phone before the crash,
but was allegedly smoking a cigarette. Jenner told the court that paparazzi played a role
in the accident, according to USA Today. Prosecutors did not charge the star, but ABC News reported
that Caitlyn paid $800,000 in 2018 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the
crash.
Kim shares four kids with Kanye, but it certainly wasn't easy for her to become a mom. In 2019,
she opened up about her fertility struggles, which involved a miscarriage scare during
her first pregnancy due to heavy bleeding. She revealed on Instagram,
"When I was pregnant with my daughter North, I had a condition called preeclampsia or toxemia,
which is basically when the mom's organs start to shut down. The only way to get rid of that
is to deliver the baby."
But after Kim delivered North, her placenta remained inside her body, specifically in
her uterus . Kim told Elle,
"That’s what women usually die from in childbirth — you hemorrhage and bleed to death and
they can’t stop it."
Unfortunately, Kim suffered from the same condition during her second pregnancy with
her son Saint. Considering the extreme complications, she and Kanye then welcomed daughter Chicago
and son Psalm via gestational carrier.
"I am just so thankful for my beautiful kids. You know, no matter how they came to me."
Kanye has long been open about living with bipolar disorder, and once referred to his
mental illness as his, quote, "superpower" when tapping into his creativity, according
to Forbes. But a series of events during the summer of 2020 caused growing concern for
his well-being among the KarJenner clan.
After announcing his ill-fated run for president, Kanye launched a series of now-deleted tweets
about the family, particularly Kim and Kris. He wrote,
"Kim was trying to fly to Wyoming with a doctor to lock me up like [in] the movie Get Out
because I cried about saving my daughter's life yesterday."
Kanye was reportedly referring to initially wanting Kim to get an abortion when she was
pregnant with their daughter North, according to People. He made a similar claim against
Kris, whom he'd nicknamed "Kris Jong-Un" — after the North Korean dictator — claiming that
she was banned from seeing his kids, and adding that he'd been trying to negotiate a divorce
from Kim since November 2018. Addressing her husband's alarming social media activity,
Kim said in a statement, via TMZ,
"As many of you know, Kanye has bipolar disorder. Anyone who has this or has a loved one in
their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand."
"I mean, like, that's not stuff we put on social media."
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