Why Lamar Odom Barely Saw His Children While Married To Khloé Kardashian
Lamar's relationship with his children has always been rocky.
Instagram / Tinseltown / Jaguar PS / Shutterstock It's been almost a decade since Khloé Kardashian ended her marriage to Lamar Odom.
The couple, who married in 2009 after dating for a month before their divorce was eventually finalized in 2016, never had children during their relationship.
Odom, on the other hand, had children from a previous relationship but fans of the high-profile couple were largely kept in the dark about them.
Odom's kids never appeared in the couple's reality show "Khloé & Lamar" or any of the "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" spin-offs and his 2019 memoir may reveal why.
Lamar Odom's relationship with his kids suffered during his marriage to Khloé Kardashian.
A year before Odom was drafted to the Los Angeles Clippers in 1999, his high school girlfriend, Liza Morales fell pregnant with their daughter, Destiny Odom.
Three years later Odom and Morales welcomed their son, Lamar Odom Jr. in 2002.
The pair went on to welcome their third child, son Jayden Odom. However, in 2006, Jayden passed away from SIDS.
In Odom's 2019 memoir, "Darkness To Light," the former NBA player wrote about his late son, detailing that his relationship with Morales didn't survive after that.
Odom, in his book, also opened up about how his marriage to Kardashian affected his relationship with his children.
Lamar Odom rarely spent time with his children while married to Khloé Kardashian.
The basketball player admitted that he "rarely saw them" while he was with Kardashian.
He explained that his two children stayed with their mother in New York, and his relationship with them continued to deteriorate when Odom moved to Las Vegas in 2015.
It was in Las Vegas when Odom's personal struggles and his battle with addiction began to surface.
Lamar Odom's ex says his addiction was 'tough' on their kids.
In September 2019, Odom's ex-girlfriend, Morales, told Us Weekly her son was struggling while his father's health battle unfolded.
“It has been a little tough on my son,” Morales said, referring to Odom's 2015 hospitalization after being found unconscious in a Las Vegas brothel. “He shares his father’s name and he has to have that pride in himself and confidence in himself.
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"I’m trying to instill in him that, ‘Yes, you carry your father’s name and you carry it proudly, regardless of how the world views your father. That’s not you. You carry his name, but that’s not you, that’s not your journey.’”
Morales continued, pointing out that despite the hardships, Odom still "loves his kids" and "they love him."
In 2017, Odom's daughter opened up about having Kardashian as a stepmother.
In a joint interview with PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly, Destiny Odom spoke about her time being Kardashian's stepdaughter and revealed that her father and Kardashian didn't have a healthy marriage.
She voiced her surprise after Kardashian flew to be by Odom's side after the Las Vegas incident in 2015 that left him unconscious and in a coma for several days.
“A lot of people in our circle were confused,” Destiny said of Kardashian’s decision to be with Odom during that time. “Their relationship is very toxic.”
Destiny claimed that Odom's struggles intensified after becoming a part of the Kardashian family.
"I wouldn’t say it was a matter of my dad loves Khloé more than me,” Destiny said. “I think that my dad has an addictive personality, so my dad was addicted to the attention he got with Khloé more than me.”
It wasn't until Odom and Kardashian divorced that Destiny's relationship with her father began to improve.
"You have to [forgive] in order to move on,” she said. “Just for yourself, you have to forgive. I would say every day is a step at a time. Every day is a new struggle, new chapter.”
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.