Kim Kardashian is opening up about her close friendship with Khloé Kardashian’s controversial ex, Tristan Thompson.
Khloé and Tristan dated on and off between 2016 and 2021, and welcomed their first daughter, True, in 2018. He was caught cheating on her numerous times throughout their turbulent relationship — once being with her then-close family friend, Jordyn Woods — and has subsequently faced heaps of backlash for his actions.
While Khloé initially decided to forgive Tristan and rekindle their romance, he went on to secretly father another child outside of their relationship in 2021. What’s more, he and Khloé were quietly engaged and preparing to welcome their second child via surrogate at the time.
The news of Tristan’s paternity scandal came to light when the mother of his child, Maralee Nichols, sued him for pregnancy and child-related expenses in December 2021. Khloé ended up finding out about the court case “with the rest of the world” after legal documents leaked online, and Hulu series The Kardashians documented the very moment Kim found out about the devastating news.
“I’m not fucking lying. And I’m shaking for [Khloé]. My soul kills, dies for her,” Kim told their sister Kylie Jenner at the end of Season 1. “The whole thing that’s so sad is that she wants a baby boy. And now this girl is having a fucking baby boy? A fucking random that he sleeps with one night? Fuck him!”
Khloé was ultimately left devastated by Tristan’s “act of betrayal.” She said on the show, “Everything is a lie, everything is manipulation. It’s deceit... Did Tristan have every opportunity to tell me? Yes. Was Tristan going to tell me if there wasn’t a baby involved? Absolutely not, and that shows a lot about his character. The entire thing is despicable.”
But in spite of how hurt she was by Tristan’s paternity scandal, Khloé ultimately decided to remain amicable with him for the sake of their two kids, even recently revealing that she has “strict boundaries” in place to ensure that they never rekindle things again.
Interestingly, however, Kim has remained super close with Tristan and made several public appearances with him even after his paternity scandal left Khloé “traumatized.”
Things began last November, when Kim revealed in a gushing post that she and Tristan had attended an “inspiring Friendsgiving dinner” together at a juvenile detention camp. A few months later, the Skims mogul was photographed in attendance at a bunch of the athlete’s basketball games, even holding up a handmade “Tristan Thompson” sign with her eldest daughter, North, as they sat courtside.
Kim’s mom, Kris Jenner, was also photographed giving the Lakers player a warm hug at one of his games, while Kim took to her Instagram stories to share several posts about him. “Oh hi @realtristan13,” she captioned one, while later tagging Tristan again and writing, “YESSS GOOOO LAKERS.”
After attending one of his games in July, Kim was later pictured leaving Miami-based restaurant Gekko with Tristan. That same month, the NBA star was photographed out and about solo with Kim’s son Saint.
Kim’s persistent public support of Tristan is something that left internet users super confused given his and Khloé’s rocky history, with several fans even speculating that the Hulu show was set to feature his redemption arc — something that occurred twice in their former E! show Keeping Up With the Kardashians following two of his past cheating scandals.
But now, Kim has addressed the confusion herself and explained why she and Tristan are so close.
In this week’s episode of The Kardashians, Kim is asked by a producer off-camera, “Where is your relationship with Tristan?”
Immediately anticipating backlash from viewers at home, Kim replies, “Ugh, I know you guys are gonna hate me for this, and you’re gonna hate us, and you’re gonna think Khloé’s whatever,” before going on to describe Tristan as “such a good friend.”
“It’s so crazy because he’s such a good friend and he’s such a good dad, but he just couldn’t get it together in that area of, like, being a faithful boyfriend,” she says.
“You wanna obviously hate him for that,” she continues. “Yeah, of course his actions and who he was, like, so fucked up — I can’t deny that.”
“We’ve had our talks about it, and we’ve had our fights about it, and we’ve had our arguments about it,” she says. “But he’s also shown so many decent things and just has been a really good person and friend.”
Kim goes on to share that Tristan “stepped up” and helped her when he saw her “struggling” with her kids, namely after she split from her ex, Kanye West.
Kim filed for divorce from Ye — with whom she shares four children — in February 2021. Things initially remained amicable between them, but they eventually wound up clashing after Ye repeatedly slammed her parenting style and her new relationship with Pete Davidson, which lasted nine months. After a drawn out public battle, the divorce was eventually finalized in November 2022.
Speaking of how Tristan supported her after her split, Kim says in the Hulu show, “When he saw me struggling with my kids, he stepped up. He started showing up to the games, he picks Saint up, takes him to dinner.”
“And [he] will always come to my defense — especially if it’s stuff with me and my ex. And I just never forgot that,” she adds. “So it’s like, I’ll never really throw someone away and act like I don’t feel like they can grow and evolve.”
