Lamar Odom Calls Out Khloe Kardashian’s Claim That She Saved His Life
Lamar Odom didn’t take Khloe Kardashian’s words lightly.
After The Kardashians star slammed the former NBA player for downplaying her role following his drug overdose, a source close to Lamar addressed the “mischaracterization of his recent comments” while also calling out her suggestion that his father Joe Odom was ready to take him off life support before she arrived at the hospital.
“Regarding comments about his father, those were deeply hurtful to Lamar,” the insider told E! News in an April 15 statement referring to what she alleged in Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom. “Suggesting that his late father would have made decisions based on money doesn’t align with reality and understandably affected him on a personal level.”
Since the release of the documentary on March 31, the former couple, whose divorce was finalized in 2016, have both reminisced about his near-fatal 2015 overdose at a Nevada brothel, leading to a fiery back and forth.
During an April 6 appearance on Today With Jenna & Sheinelle, Lamar, 46, indicated that Khloe had exaggerated her role in his care following the near-death experience, prompting her to criticize him for “insinuating that I'm a liar” on the April 15 episode of her Khloe in Wonder Land podcast.
However, the insider noted to E! that Lamar was well aware of how Khloe, who postponed the pair’s divorce amid his recovery, provided support during his health scare.
Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
“Lamar never called Khloé dishonest, nor did he deny her role,” the source explained. “His expression of faith saying ‘God saved me’ is a reflection of his personal beliefs, not a dismissal of the medical care he received or the people who supported him.”
“Doctors saved his life; Khloé was there for him,” they added, “and he has acknowledged both.”
In fact, that’s a point he has long emphasized.
“For years, he’s been consistent in acknowledging Khloé’s support during one of the hardest periods he’s faced,” the insider continued. “He has said repeatedly that she showed up for him, took care of him, and played a meaningful role in his recovery.”
E! News has reached out to a rep for Khloe but has not heard back.
Khloe, meanwhile, didn’t hold back in sharing exactly what she thinks about his recollection of that time.
Lester Cohen/WireImage
“What is so annoying to me,” Khloe Malika Haqq in her April 15 podcast episode, “number one, do people think I just like talking about this all day long? No, it's traumatic. I have to relive things. I have to talk about things that weren't fun in my life, right? So, I'm like, no, I don't just feel like doing this.”
“I think what's pissing me off is we did this, all good, I was done with this,” she added. “I'm like I'm never going to do another Lamar thing again because I'm all good. It's finished. But now Lamar is doing press, annoyed with me.”
Noting that she wasn’t necessarily looking for Lamar’s gratitude after the situation, she wasn’t expecting him to “discredit” her either.
“I don't even need you to sing my praises,” she continued. “But you're not now going to s--t on me or now play in my face because you don't like the reaction and the response from the ‘public.’”
For the biggest bombshells dropped in Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom, read on…
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Lamar Odom Admits He Was "Trying to F--k" Khloe Kardashian the First Night They Met
Khloe and Lamar famously met in 2009 when she agreed to host a party being thrown by his Los Angeles Lakers teammate Ron Artest (later known as Metta World Peace).
"Prior to this party, I did not know who Lamar was," Khloe said in The Death & Life of Lamar Odom, part of the sixth volume of Netflix's sports documentary series Untold. She noted that she probably agreed to the gig because her brother (and avid Lakers fan) Rob Kardashian was "so excited."
Lamar, fresh from winning his first championship with the Lakers, said in the doc that he didn't know who Khloe was either. But, he admitted, "the first night, I'll be honest, I was trying to f--k her. She's like, 'Nah, it ain't that type of party.' Got with her the next day, and then the next day turned into the next day, and then…"
He proposed just weeks later with a nine-carat diamond ring, and they got married Sept. 27, 2009, a month after they met.
"I do like to consider myself pretty levelheaded," Khloe reflected in the doc. "But the cynicism of people judging and 'is this a real relationship or not,' I totally understand. We were getting married in 30 days. That is insane."
As Lamar put it, "You gotta have a gut feeling" and "some big balls."
Mark Sullivan/WireImage
Lamar Odom Says Ex-Fiancée Liza Morales Wouldn't Let Their Kids Attend His Wedding
Lamar shares daughter Destiny Odom and son Lamar "L.J." Odom Jr. with his ex-fiancée Liza Morales. Together since high school in Queens, N.Y., they split up after their 6-month-old son Jayden died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) on June 29, 2006.
When Lamar informed Liza via text that he was marrying Khloe, she recalled in Untold, "I really thought he was joking."
Lamar said in the doc that people were trying to "steer me away" from the altar. "My babies' mother wouldn't let them come to my wedding."
Though later L.J. would admittedly look forward to Christmas gifts from Khloe and her mom Kris Jenner, at the time, "I never even met her," the 23-year-old said in the doc of his dad's bride. "I don't think he told me he was marrying her."
Destiny, 27, said in the doc, "If you want to get married in front of, like, a hundred people and all these cameras, that's totally cool, and it's on you."
Amanda Schwab/Starpix/Shutterstock
Khloe Kardashian Had Doubts About Having Her Own Show With Lamar Odom
Khloe & Lamar premiered April 10, 2011, on E!, seemingly a natural spin-off of the mothership Keeping Up With the Kardashians, which had already spawned Khloe & Kourtney Take Miami and Kourtney & Kim Take New York.
But that was not Khloe's idea, according to the now 41-year-old.
"Khloe & Lamar was led very much by Lamar," she said in the doc. "I was spread really thin. I also didn't really want it to jeopardize the family brand, which was Keeping Up at the time. I thought there were so many Kardashian shows, and I reminded him about his main career—uh, the Lakers—and just said, 'Are you sure you want to do it?'"
Noting that shooting KUWTK allowed her to "bounce around to different homes" and not be "under a microscope," Khloe admitted she was "a little concerned" about a show that was going to be in in their home all the time. "But I also wanted to make him happy," she said, "and he was so excited about it."
Destiny said of her dad, "He did love Khloe, but he'd wanted to be on reality TV for a long time."
Or as Lamar put it in the doc, "Well, part of the deal was that, 'If I'm gonna marry you, f--k it, I want in too.'"
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images
Lamar Odom Flaked on His Kids During Lakers Championship Parade
After the Lakers won their second straight NBA title in 2010, his kids missed school to attend the championship parade in downtown L.A., Liza recalled in the doc.
But when they got to his place, she said, they called her to relay that their dad wasn't answering the door, though they knew he was in there.
"We were knocking on the door and there was nothing," Destiny said, "it was just silence."
A friend of Lamar's called to say he'd been partying the night before and "doesn’t' want the kids to see him like this," so he'd probably skip the parade, Liza said. However, his trainer told him he had to go, and his kids ended up watching on TV.
"They were so devastated," Liza said. Added Destiny, "Rejection from a parent is extremely hard and hurtful, and it definitely pains your development growing up. There's some moments you never forget. Now I know he was partying and using."
Denise Truscello/WireImage
How Khloe Kardashian Found Out Lamar Odom Was Cheating on Her
"As silly as this sounds, it seemed responsibly done," Khloe said in the doc of Lamar's "recreational party use" of cocaine early in their marriage.
"I think it was two years in, around June, he disappeared," she recalled. "I really thought maybe something happened to him."
He attributed his behavior to June being such a hard month because it was the anniversary of Jayden's death, Khloe said, "and that was the first time I was like, 'OK, this is something I've never experienced. This is a dark situation and I don't know what to do.'"
Lamar, now 46, said in the doc, "I'm pretty sure that's a lot more stories that I can't really remember because of where I was at, at that time in my life."
"When I think about it, cheating on my wife, like how sick would your brain have to be?" he continued. "You're gonna marry this woman on TV and then go have affairs?"
Khloe recalled the night she got confirmation that Lamar was cheating—"Of course I had suspicions, but I never had anything tangible"—when a woman called her and said, "'Hi, I've been f--king your husband. He is so f--ked up and he just keeps wanting money and drugs, and I've got to get off this ride. So, will you come and pick him up?'"
Jason Binn/WireImage
Khloe Kardashian Would Clean Up After Lamar Odom's Drug Binges
"Lamar would go for 12 hours or two days, and escape rehab and go on a drug bender," Khloe recalled. "I was either looking for him in alleys, looking for him in motels. He would have tinfoil cutouts, or spoons, and freebasing things and leaving things everywhere."
She said that she would need to "clean up after him" in hotel rooms "so the housekeeping didn't sell a story. I was such an enabler without knowing I was an enable, but I just felt such a responsibility to cover this up, hold it together and protect him."
After Lamar was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in December 2011, "the drug use that transpired," she said, "was monstrous."
Courtey of Netflix
Khloe Kardashian Says She Pumped Lamar Odom's Stomach After an Overdose
Lamar was traded back to the L.A. Clippers, the team that drafted him in 1999, the following summer.
After the 2012-2013 season ended, "he spiraled again and did crazy drugs," Khloe said. "He overdosed a few times, I had to pump his stomach—all privately. We had at-home detox centers. We did everything we could."
GONZALO/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Divorcing Lamar Odom Wasn't Khloe Kardashian's Idea
Khloe said that she was directed by an interventionist to give Lamar an ultimatum: Either he go to rehab and stay for three months, or she would divorce him.
"Everyone around me was like, 'He'll never say he wants the divorce,'" Khloe recalled. "We do the intervention. I give my speech. He was like, 'OK [shrug], all I want is my passport and, yeah, let's get the f--king divorce.'"
Almost two years went by, but Lamar said in the doc that, after he signed his divorce papers in 2015, immediately "I'm like, 'I'm gonna get it in...But I don't have any coke to take, f--k.'"
Living in Las Vegas at the time, he ended up at the Love Ranch, a legal brothel in Crystal, Nev.
"It's crazy when you think about one decision so big, or so minor, could be so pivotal," Lamar said, "to you and to the people that you really love."
Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Why Khloe Kardashian Took Charge of Lamar Odom's Medical Care After Near-Fatal Overdose
On Oct. 13, 2015, Lamar was found unconscious in a room at the Love Ranch. The Nye County sheriff said at the time that he was seen using cocaine several days beforehand and taking 10 doses of a sexual performance-enhancing drug since he'd arrived.
Lamar told Sports Illustrated ahead of the Untold premiere that, while he had cocaine in his system afterward, he didn't have "a cocaine connection" in Vegas yet and "didn't take cocaine that night, that day."
He reiterated to USA Today, “I didn't have any cocaine to take to the brothel that day. And I was kind of f-----g heated that I just signed these divorce papers and I thought I was going to live out a young addict mind’s dream and go to this brothel with some cocaine...And that just wasn't the case."
Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images
When Khloe first heard from sister Kim Kardashian that Lamar had overdosed, she recalled, "I just remember screaming."
When she got to the hospital, Khloe said, Lamar's father Joe Odom, who died in 2021, was ready to take him off life support. "And I'm like, 'Sorry, Joe, I'm still his wife. What do you need?' And Joe wanted a pair of Nikes and $100, and a hotel room for the night. And Joe left and never came back."
Meanwhile, Khloe said, "I was going to do everything I could to make sure that he had the best fighting change. And I just trusted myself more than I trusted anyone in his circle."
She ended up putting visitation on "lockdown," as in, "whoever wants to come, I need to authorize them being here."
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Yeezy Season 3
Khloe Kardashian Cut Lamar Odom Off After Catching Him Smoking Crack Post-Coma
Lamar was flown from Vegas to L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Khloe "never left the hospital," she said in Untold. "I was there for about four months with him every single day."
When he was discharged in 2016, Khloe rented a house close to her own for Lamar and hired staff to care for him.
And one day, she said in the doc, she showed up and smelled the "identifiable, disgusting smell" of crack. He was in the bedroom smoking crack, Khloe said, and "I just punched him in the face."
He'd somehow acquired a phone and was apparently doing "better than I knew," she continued. "He was playing me so I can continue this lifestyle for him. I said, 'By Monday, you need out of this house. I'm done, I'm not paying for a thing, and I never want to speak to you again.'"
While Lamar told Khloe when they saw each other in person for the first time in nine years toward the end of 2024 that he didn't remember what happened, he added, "I'm not dismissing that."
In the doc, he called it "f--ked up" that someone would have given him cocaine after what he'd just been through.
"I can depend on my family," he reflected, "but most people leave you to f--king rot in the wind."
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