Why Lamar Odom Rarely Saw His Kids When He Was Married to Khloé Kardashian
Lamar Odom and Khloé Kardashian never had children during their seven-year marriage. However, the former Lakers player was a father before they tied the knot. Since their split, Odom shared in his 2019 memoir, Darkness To Light, how his relationship with the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star affected his relationship with his kids.
How many kids did Lamar Odom have before marrying Khloé Kardashian?
One year before he got drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers in 1999, Odom’s high school girlfriend, Liza Morales, became pregnant with their daughter, Destiny Odom, 23. Three years later, the couple welcomed a son, Lamar Odom, Jr, in 2002. After a few years of success in the NBA, Morales found out she was pregnant for the third time. In 2005, they welcomed Jayden Odom into the world. Odom wrote in his memoir that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s son, Jaden Smith, inspired the name.
“On December 15, we welcomed Jayden Joseph Odom into this world,” Odom writes. “I held him in my arms and stared directly into his huge brown eyes. The next night the Lakers had a game against the Wizards. As I chipped in fourteen points and eleven rebounds, my feet didn’t touch the ground. I thought of my beautiful boy the entire time.”
When Odom turned 27, he and Morales were settling into their life as a family. However, their lives changed after Jayden died of SIDS in 2006. Odom shared in his book that the couple couldn’t survive once they lost their son.
Lamar Odom had a distant relationship with his kids during his marriage to Khloé Kardashian
Once Odom and Morales decided to split up, the athlete started dating other women. In 2009, he briefly dated Taraji P. Henson. However, their relationship ended after Odom met Kardashian at an LA party. After locking eyes at the event, Odom and Kardashian became inseparable. Soon, they shocked the world with their engagement and star-studded wedding.
Following their nuptials, Odom and Kardashian landed their KUWTK spinoff show, Khloé and Lamar. Although the athlete mentions his kids on the show, Destiny and Lamar Jr never made an appearance on the E! series. In his memoir, Odom explained that his kids stayed in New York with their mother. He also admitted that he “rarely saw them” during his marriage to Kardashian. The relationship became even more distant when Odom moved to Las Vegas in 2015.
Was Khloé close to Lamar’s kids?
Kardashian and Odom separated in 2013. However, they remained married for three more years. The Revenge Body star took care of her estranged husband in 2015 when he overdosed at a Nevada brothel. Despite her willingness to help Odom and Kardashian finalized their divorce in 2016.
In June 2017, Odom’s daughter opened up about having Kardashian as a stepmom. Although she watched the reality star “religiously,” the fame the Khloé and Lamar stars shared became overwhelming for Destiny and Lamar Jr, per People.
“Things changed when my dad married Khloé,” Destiny declares. Things were a lot more public.”
“When your dad’s an NBA player, that’s already enough,” she continues. “But when he’s marrying a reality TV star, things are so public, and you don’t have a private life anymore.”
