Lamar Odom reflects on his rise to fame, struggles with addiction and marriage to Khloé Kardashian in a Netflix docuseries
NEED TO KNOW
Khloé Kardashian revealed she kept Lamar's drug use a secret and enabled him while trying to protect his image
Lamar's near-fatal overdose led to months of rehabilitation with Khloé by his side before their eventual divorce
More than a decade following his infamous overdose at a Nevada brothel,Lamar Odomis telling the full story about his rise to superstardom, addiction and subsequent fall from grace.
After marryingKhloé Kardashianin 2009 — at the height of his professional basketball career with the Los Angeles Lakers — the world was Lamar's oyster.
His fame amplified once he became an official member of the Kardashian family, and he admitted to loving the limelight in his episode of the Netflix docuseriesUntold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom.
"Part of the deal was that, 'If I'm gonna marry you, f--- it. I want in [on the celebrity lifestyle] too," Lamar said during the special.
That was far from the only shocking revelation during the tell-all. Here are the biggest bombshells revealed about the NBA player in the Netflix docuseriesUntold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom.
Lamar's family wasn't invited to his and Khloé's wedding
Lamar's family didn't attend his wedding to Khloé. In fact, several family members thought the marriage was a joke when the former NBA player notified them that he would be tying the knot — afterdating the reality TV star for 30 days— including his first wife,Liza Morales, and aunt, Janean Mercer.
"I really thought he was joking," Morales said during an interview for the Netflix special.
Mercer recollected, "I said, 'My God, come on now. That's too soon.' I said, 'Things like that don't work out.' "
While Lamar claimed Morales didn't let their children attend the wedding, hisson LJ and daughter Destinyseemed to have opted out of their own volition.
"I just didn't wanna be a show pony or anything like that," Destiny said. "If you wanna get married in front of, like, a hundred people and all these cameras, that's totally cool, and it's on you."
LJ added, "I never even met her. I don't think he told me he was marrying her."
Mercer revealed that she and other members of Lamar's family weren't invited at all.
"He didn't invite none of us, you know. None of us," she reiterated, going on to suggest she didn't get an invitation because the athlete thought she might object during the wedding ceremony.
He married Khloé in part for the Kardashian lifestyle
Lamar's quickmarriage to Khloéwasn't just for love — he wanted to live the Kardashian lifestyle.
"I'm already Lamar Odom, and I'm just watching how she live and their lifestyle," the former Lakers player said. "I'm like, 'I know this is where I wanna be.' Like, 'This is how I wanna live.' "
He added that the celebrity status on top of his fame as a professional athlete was an intoxicating lure, saying, "I think that was like a power trip for me, 'cause you took the power I had [as an NBA player], and then Kardashian power. When you add 'em…"
Thinking back on the trajectory his life took after stepping into the limelight as an official member of the Kardashian family, Lamar added, "But I wasn't really ready for all that power."
Khloé & Lamarwas his idea
Khloé revealed her reality show with her ex-husband was not something she truly wanted to do — and Lamar confirmed that it was indeed his passion project.
"Khloé & Lamarwas very much led by Lamar," the Good American co-founder said. "I was spread really thin. I also didn't really want it to jeopardize the family brand … I thought there was so many Kardashian shows."
"But I also wanted to do what made him happy, and he was so excited about it," she explained.
"Someone was a genius," Lamar said. "Reality TV, whoever brought that up… Trickery. Foolery."
Even Lamar's daughter said he'd long had aspirations for breaking into the larger celebrity bubble. "He did love Khloé, but he'd wanted to be on reality TV for a long time," Destiny shared.
Khloé said she tried to hide his drug addiction from the public
The higher Lamar rose as an A-lister alongside Khloé, the more he was partying — eventuallybecoming addicted to cocaine. His addiction went as far as freebasing the drug, altering it into crack for a stronger high.
In the documentary, Khloe spoke about Lamar's addiction struggles and her attempts to keep it a secret from the public.
"I was either looking for him in alleys, looking for him in motels," Khloé recalled. "He would have tinfoil cutouts or spoons, and freebasing things, and leaving things everywhere. I remember needing to go to hotel rooms to clean up after him, so the housekeeping didn't sell a story."
The Kardashiansstar continued, "I was such an enabler without knowing I was an enabler. But I just felt such a responsibility to cover this up, hold it together and protect him."
Khloé revealed there was some manipulation on Lamar's end as well, which she was too young and in love to see.
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"When I really discovered that there was a problem, he was like, 'You cannot tell anyone. I'll lose it all. If I lose it, where are we gonna live? What are we gonna do?' And at the time, I was 24," she said.
"I'm still trying to figure out my life. I had the show, but we weren't, like, making money like that," Khloé said. "I remember just keeping all these secrets and feeling horrible about myself."
She continued, "He overdosed a few times, I had to pump his stomach … We had at-home detox centers. We did everything we could."
Lamar chose to divorce Khloé
Before his infamous overdose, Khloé gave Lamar an ultimatumduring an intervention: drugs or their marriage.
The NBA star chose his addiction.
"I was advised to do this intervention, and the interventionist said, 'You're gonna go in there and tell him, 'You need to go to rehab, and if you don't stay for a three-month program,' you're gonna say you're getting a divorce,' " Khloé recalled.
"Everyone around me was like, 'He'll never say he wants the divorce.' We do the intervention. I give my speech. And he was like, 'Okay, all I want is my passport, and yeah, let's get the f---ing divorce,' " she revealed.
"I was like, looking around like, 'Wait. Wait. I … I don't want the divorce. You guys told me I have to say this,' " she said of family and professionals who recommended the intervention. "Lamar left immediately, was like, 'We're getting the f---ing divorce, and I'm never coming back here again.' "
Lamar's father tried to have him taken off life support
Though both Khloé and Lamar signed a petition for divorce and Khloé filed it with the Los Angeles court, shestill raced to his sideonce news of his overdose hospitalization hit the news.
She nearly didn't make it in time to save his life — Lamar's father, an addict himself, tried to have him taken off life support.
"We get to the hospital. His dad was there. I assume, [he] thought, he's now the beneficiary to Lamar," Khloé recalled. "And Joe just 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."
"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," Khloé said.
Khloé, whose divorce from Lamar hadn't been finalized due to a backlog in the courts, explained that she wanted to help him recover because she had made a vow to him, and she felt she was the only person who was looking out for his best interests.
"This is my husband. Through sickness and health, I have to be there for him," Khloé said. "I have to show up for him. And I was gonna do everything I could to make sure that he had the best fighting chance. I just trusted myself more than I trusted anyone in his circle."
Lamar's kids said their goodbyes while he was in a coma
While Lamar was in a coma, his kids came to see him to say what they thought were their goodbyes.
"When we went into the hospital room, it was hard seeing him all tubed up and everything," Destiny said in the episode. "He was so swollen. I remember how swollen he was."
She added that she grabbed his hand and told him "everything" she was feeling.
"I was like, 'You can't leave. Like we still have memories to make,' " Destiny said.
LJ added that the doctors told him he could still hear them in a coma, so he played one of his dad's clips of the crowd going crazy for a move he made on the court on repeat.
He relapsed shortly after being released from the hospital
Khloé stayed at the hospital with Lamar for nearly four months — during which he suffered from 12 strokes, six heart attacks, a three-day coma and months of rehabilitation to reteach the former professional athlete how to walk, talk and use the restroom on his own.
"I never left the hospital," she said. "I was there for about four months with him, every single day. We were like, determined to get him walking and moving again. … He did learn how to walk again at Cedars [Sinai Hospital]. And that was really special."
When Lamar was discharged all those months later, he still had very limited speech capabilities and depended on others for help with basic tasks like showering.
To ease the transition between the hospital and everyday life, Khloé rented a house for Lamar and hired a caregiver and chef. While popping in to check on him one day, Khloé caught Lamar relapsing.
"Once you know the smell of crack, it's the most identifiable, disgusting smell," she said. "And there's nothing you can confuse it with. And I remember stopping by the house, and I smelled crack. … He was in his bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, smoking crack. And I justpunched him in his face," Khloé recalled.
She explained how angry and betrayed she felt, recalling telling Lamar, "'I just put my life on hold to f---ing take care of you. How did you get this? You don't have a f---ing phone. You can't talk.' "
"Well, lo and behold, he had a phone," Khloé continued. "He was better than I knew. He was playing me so I can continue this lifestyle for him. I said, 'By Monday, you need out of this house. I'm done. I'm not paying for a thing, and I never want to speak to you again.' "
Though she withdrew the petition she filed in 2015 before Lamar's overdose, she filed for divorce again. Their divorcewas finalizedin December 2016.
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