Lamar Odom Said His 2015 Overdose Was ‘Harder’ on Khloé Kardashian Than Him
In 2015, basketball player Lamar Odom overdosed, prompting estranged wife Khloé Kardashian to put their divorce proceedings on hold. Kardashian worked to support her former husband during the months he spent in the hospital. While Odom had a long road to recovery, he said he thinks that this period might have been harder on Kardashian than it was on him.
Lamar Odom spoke about the impact his overdose had on Khloé Kardashian
In 2015, Odom overdosed at a Nevada brothel. He suffered 12 strokes and six heart attacks and was in the hospital for months afterward. At the time, he and Kardashian had nearly finalized their divorce, but she put the proceedings on hold to support him.
“I never left the hospital,” Kardashian said in Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom. “I was there for about four months, with him every single day. We were determined to get him walking and moving again.”
Odom acknowledged that this period was extremely difficult for his estranged wife.
“It probably was harder [for Kardashian],” he said, “cause I couldn’t say ‘thank you,’ or ‘I appreciate you,’ or couldn’t show any — I wouldn’t even cry.”
She said she struggled for years
Kardashian said that Odom’s drug use was hard on her for years. She said she exhausted herself trying to help him hide his drug use. She described herself as an “enabler” without realizing it.
“Lamar would go for 12 hours or two days, and escape rehab and go on a drug bender,” she said. “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 she cleaned up his hotel rooms to prevent housekeeping employees from selling a story about him. Helping him cover up his drug use nearly became a full-time job for her.
“I was fighting every single day either to protect him or to not let him get caught — which sounds insane — to make sure his image, how he looked, how he presented himself to the outwardly world, was still that Lamar Odom,” she said. “I didn’t sleep for years.”
Khloé Kardashian eventually cut off Lamar Odom
After Odom left the hospital, Kardashian rented him a home near hers. She wanted to “rehabilitate” him. Ultimately, this plan fell apart when she entered the home and smelled drugs.
“Once you know the smell of crack, it’s the most identifiable, disgusting smell, and there’s nothing you can confuse it with,” she said.
She crept through the home and found him smoking in the bedroom.
“I remember slowly tiptoeing up the stairs,” she said. “He was in his bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, smoking crack. And I just punched him in his face. ‘I just put my life on hold to f***ing take care of you. How did you get this? You don’t have a f***ing phone. You can’t talk.'”
Kardashian realized he was “playing” her, so she kicked him out of the house.
“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.’”
After this incident, the former couple went nearly a decade without meeting in person.
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
