Tristan Thompson Apologizes To Khloe Kardashian As Paternity Test Confirms He Fathered A Baby With Maralee Nichols
Text messages allegedly from Tristan also leaked threatening the mother about child support.
Instagram Tristan Thompson has confirmed that he fathered a baby with Maralee Nichols via his Instagram Story on Monday night after a paternity test supported claims made by Nichols late last year.
Nichols gave birth to a baby, which is NBA player Thompson's third child on Thursday, Dec. 2.
“Today, paternity test results reveal that I fathered a child with Maralee Nichols,” Thompson, 30, wrote “I take full responsibility for my actions. Now that paternity has been established I look forward to amicably raising our son.”
He also addressed his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his daughter True, Khloé Kardashian.
“Khloé, you don’t deserve this. You don’t deserve the heartache and humiliation I have caused you,” he wrote. “You don’t deserve the way I have treated you over the years.”
The child was allegedly conceived in Houston, Texas at one of Thompson’s 30th birthday parties in March.
Who is Maralee Nichols, Tristan Thompson's alleged baby mama?
Nichols, 31, is a personal trainer based out of Houston, but has since moved to Los Angeles after becoming pregnant.
She is suing Thompson for child support, according to court documents obtained by the Daily Mail.
In the child support filing, Thompson admitted to having sex with Nichols several times at a hotel after they attended his Bel-Air party together.
Nichols, who is described as a former friend of Thompson, allegedly “drove him to the event in her Maserati sports car.”
Thompson claims that night was the only time he had been intimate with Nichols, despite her lawyers saying the affair had begun at least “five months” before his 30th birthday.
Nichols claims the affair involved her flying to California to be with Thompson, and even continued even after she had gotten pregnant.
Tristan Thompson is rumored to have cheated on Khloe Kardashian with Maralee Nichols.
Thompson had famously been in a relationship with the reality TV, and the Good American founder even spent his 30th birthday with him.
Kardashian had shared a loving message for Thompson on social media, calling him her “best friend” and praising his relationship with their daughter, True, who is 3.
"The ones that are meant to be are the ones who go through everything that is designed to tear them apart and they came out even stronger than they were before," she wrote alongside a slideshow of several images of the family of the three.
Thompson also shares his son Prince, 4, with his ex-girlfriend Jordan Craig.
Tristan Thompson and Maralee Nichols are locked in a child support battle.
In the paternity suit, Nichols is asking for child support as well as reimbursement of medical expenses and pregnancy-related costs such as Lamaze classes, a doula, and prenatal vitamins.
Nichols also wants Thompson to foot the bill for their son’s costs such as newborn clothing, formula, and diapers.
Thompson reportedly wants the case moved to Texas to limit the amount of child support Nichols can receive, and is also insisting on a paternity test once the baby is born.
He is also fighting on whether the California court system has jurisdiction over this suit, claiming Nichols is a resident of Texas and is accusing her of “venue shopping.”
Thompson is also complaining about the way the court papers were served to him, claiming Nichols’ legal team had been “lying in wait” and “slipped through the gates” of his Encino home in front of his children to hand him the papers.
Text messages allegedly from Tristan Thompson threatening Maralee Nichols were leaked
Text messages reportedly from Thompson to Nichols were also released that were allegedly a part of the lawsuit in which it appears Thompson offers Nichols $75,000.
In the text, the person reported to be Thompson says:
"You know how I feel. My feelings haven't changed at all. Won't be involved at all. BTW if you think having this baby is gonna make you some money. It's completely wrong. You were aware that I'm retiring after this season. So in terms of support it will be whatever is required monthly for someone who's unemployed. It's Texas so it will be only a couple hundred dollars. So you better off taking this 75k I'm offering cause you won't get nothing near that with having a kid with a father who's unemployed. All you will have is a baby with a father who has zero involvement with the child and a few hundred dollars of child support a month."
Thompson denies sending the message, but admits his "contact information is present in the messages".
Tristan Thompson has cheated on Khloe Kardashian several times.
The most recent cheating scandal between the pair happened earlier this year after model Sydney Chase claimed she had hooked up with Thompson.
During an April 2021 appearance on the No Jumper podcast, Chase claimed Thompson said he was single even though that wasn’t the case.
"He told me he was not in a relationship anymore, so I said OK," she said. "We talked, we hung out multiple times, we went out together, everything."
Thompson repeatedly denied the claims, even taking legal action against Chase by filing a cease-and-desist.
The NBA star claimed the comments Chase made were “false and defamatory statements.”
Though Thompson denied the claims, he and Kardashian still split once the rumors had started circulating online.
Despite their breakup, Kardashian and Thompson were still in communication and were committed to co-parenting their daughter.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Follow her on Instagram.