More than a year after his tense reunion with ex-wife Khloé Kardashian that was featured on the reality series “The Kardashians,” former NBA star Lamar Odom reflected on the moment.
Odom spoke on TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle on April 6 about the meeting in 2025 that marked his first conversation with Kardashian in nine years after their divorce. It was captured on film for the Season 6 premiere of “The Kardashians,” which aired in February 2025.
“It was awkward,” he said. “It wasn’t really good for me, but you once you family, you always family, so she ain’t going nowhere. I will always have love for her, but being in love? No.”
Odom and Kardashian reunited at the home of Kardashian’s best friend, Malika Haqq, with Kardashian observing during her confessional on “The Kardashians” that Odom looked “visually uncomfortable” and “nervous.”
“I don’t know what he thinks about me, like, if I’m going to go off on him,” she said on the episode. “He just seems very scared, and I don’t want anyone to be that uncomfortable. It’s just making me more uncomfortable, too.”
She gave Odom back some of his belongings, and he remarked that it was like having an “out-of-body experience.”
Their relationship is again in the spotlight with the release of the Netflix documentary “Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom.” The film traces Odom’s journey to a 14-year NBA career and two championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as his struggles with addiction that nearly took his life.
Odom was found unresponsive in a Nevada brothel in 2015 after an overdose and was hospitalized on life support. He has said in interviews that he survived 12 strokes and six heart attacks while spending three days in a coma after his overdose.
Kardashian remained by his side for four months during his recovery despite the fact that she had already filed for divorce in 2013. He was asked on TODAY if Kardashian helped save his life.
“In some ways,” he said. “I think God saved my life. My Lord saved my life, honestly.”
He expressed his gratitude for Kardashian’s support at a time when she could have distanced herself from him.
“She took care of me,” he said. “God took care of me the most. What I came back from was like a medical miracle.”
Odom, 46, says he has not watched the entire documentary yet. It also chronicles his relationship to Kardashian, whom he married in 2009 after meeting her only a month earlier.
“There was definitely a lot of love there,” he said. “We decided to get married after 30 days. Their mother (Kris Jenner) was able to put a beautiful wedding together, and I don’t regret it.”
However, Odom disputes a statement Kardashian makes in the documentary about his father, Joe Odom. She says she met with the elder Odom at the hospital after learning of Lamar’s overdose.
“So we get to the hospital. His dad was there. I assume thought he’s now the beneficiary to Lamar,” Kardashian says in the Netflix documentary. “Joe said, ‘Don’t put him on life support. Turn those machines off.’
“And I remember walking in around that time, and I kid you not, it was a scene out of a movie. And I’m like, ‘Sorry Joe, I’m still his wife, what do you need?’ And Joe wanted a pair of Nikes and $100 and a hotel room for the night, and Joe left and never came back.”
Odom, who was wearing a medallion with a photo of his parents during his appearance on TODAY, disputed that characterization of events.
“I was knocked out and asleep at that time, but if you know Joe Odom, I don’t think that’s something that would ever come out of his mouth,” Odom said. “He was my biggest fan. I don’t know where there got caught — translated. I just can’t see him ever, ever doing that.”
Odom’s two children from a previous relationship, Destiny and Lamar Jr., also appear in the documentary. They have been a source of inspiration for him as he continues to stay sober.
“All I can do is live life the right way and make up for some of that missed time,” he said. “I try to keep them close to me as much as possible.”
He hopes the raw look at his life can help others.
“I think the reason why I’m here is to help people who suffer from that brain disease of addiction to beat it,” he said. “That you can beat it.”
He now hopes to give back to the basketball world as a coach. He said he is hoping to land a job at the historically black university Winstom-Salem State in North Carolina.
“I pray a lot,” he said. “I got my kids to live for. There’s too much to live for to take steps backward.”
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