Khloé Kardashian consulted a therapist for advice on how to address her split from ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson with their two children.
“True just turned 7 in April, and maybe, like, two years ago, True would say something like, ‘your husband’ or whatever,” Kardashian, 41, revealed on the latest episode of her “Khloé In Wonder Land” podcast. “I’m like, ‘Who’s my husband?’ She’s like, ‘My Daddy!’ I just didn’t know what her thought process was because, from where she would have the memory of it, she’s never seen us kiss before or anything like that.”
The Kardashians star was discussing her coparenting partnership with Thompson following their separation in 2021 when she brought up True’s confusion. Kardashian and Thompson, 34, were together on and off from 2016 to 2021, and while they share daughter True, 7, and son Tatum, 2, they never tied the knot. (Kardashian was previously married to Lamar Odom from 2009 to 2016.)
“I didn’t want to say, ‘No he’s not [my husband],’ I didn’t know what to do,” Kardashian recalled. “I asked my therapist and she said, ‘[True is] so young. This is how they associate things. If it gets to be a problem, we’ll talk about it, but right now, she’ll figure it out or ask more questions.’”
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Kardashian was surprised that True never brought the subject up again, so she hasn’t yet had to explain that she and Thompson “are not together.” When asked by a listener if her kids ever wonder why they don’t live with their dad, Kardashian insisted they’d “never asked.”
“I don’t know if that’s weird or not,” she said. “They sort of think it’s cool, like, ‘Oh my gosh, we have two houses in L.A.’ They’re like, ‘Wow, my Daddy has a house and my mommy has a house.’”
Another viewer asked about how Kardashian has been able to approach coparenting with Thompson following their tumultuous split. (The former couple initially split in 2019. Kardashian and the NBA star reconciled while quarantining together in 2020, though they went their separate ways for good the following year.)
“For Tristan and myself, there’s really no drama when it comes to coparenting,” Kardashian insisted on her podcast. “There’s drama in other areas of our relationship, friendship, whatever it’s called. Him and I are seamless coparents, I will say that.”
She credited Thompson with “trusting” her as a mother and not giving her “a lot of pushback” on her parenting decisions. Although Thompson’s lifestyle as an NBA athlete poses challenges for the family, Kardashian said she’s determined to keep everyone on the same page.
“I don’t talk to my kids about coparenting. I try to keep adult conversations to adults,” she noted. “If me and Tristan are fighting, if we’re not getting along, my kids don’t know about that. … All they need to know is Daddy shows up, Mommy shows up, we’re here.”
She went on, “[The kids] know their dad isn’t around eight to nine months out of the year because of the NBA season. … But, then he’s around all summer. But, no, I haven’t sat them down and explained, ‘Me and your dad, we coparent you two.’ They just know this is their lifestyle.”
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Khloé mentioned wanting to emulate the amicable coparenting relationship that her mother, Kris Jenner, and late father, Robert Kardashian, had following their 1991 divorce.
“I am not saying that my mom and my dad got along perfectly from the very beginning,” she said. “I just don’t remember it being that bad. I think my older sisters remember more tension, I don’t. What I remember is my dad and my [step-parent Caitlyn Jenner], years after their divorce, they started … playing golf once a week. My dad would come over to my mom’s once a week for family dinner, would have dinner with all of us.”
Khloé reflected on “how hard” it must have been for Robert to see his ex-wife married again and having children with someone else. (Kris and Caitlyn share daughters Kylie Jenner and Kendall Jenner.)
“What a great example for us all,” she said. “What a great dad that I had, that he put his feelings aside just to be around us. … For me, to have that as my example, I just always knew that, as much as I could control it, I was going to do the best thing I could to coparent the same way. So, I’m proud of myself that I have done such a good job coparenting.”
Another listener asked Kardashian about the differences in welcoming True via pregnancy to using a surrogate for Tatum’s birth. Kardashian candidly acknowledged that she bonded with True once she gave birth in 2018, while it took her several months to connect with Tatum after he arrived in 2022.
True’s birth in April 2018 coincided with Thompson being accused of cheating on his then-pregnant girlfriend with multiple women. Kardashian and Thompson initially stayed together, though they split again in 2019 amid allegations that Thompson kissed Kardashian family friend Jordyn Woods. He later apologized to the family over various cheating rumors during a 2023 episode of The Kardashians, saying he’d made “poor decisions” and acted like a “f***ing idiot” because he was “young and stupid.”)
“I just think that I trauma-bonded with [True]. She saved me out of this really dark place,” she said. “There were so many layers … to mine and True’s connection.”
When Kardashian and Thompson were pursuing a second child via surrogacy, she learned that he was also expecting a child with fitness model Maralee Nichols.
“I did not know how to process any of this,” Kardashian admitted. “I definitely admit that I buried my head in the sand and I also wanted to protect my surrogate … I wasn’t with her as much. I wasn’t going to the doctor’s appointments because I was being followed everywhere.”
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As a result of the stress surrounding Tatum’s birth, Kardashian said she simply didn’t feel the same “connection” with her son that she “had with True.”
“I remember when I got Tatum for the first time, and I hugged him, it still wasn’t the same feeling that I had to compare with True,” she admitted. “Because I was being so honest on [The Kardashians], I got a lot of heat for this but all I’m doing is saying my truth.”
Kardashian assured listeners that she did eventually develop a maternal bond with her son and now feels he is “truly the best thing” that’s ever happened in her life.
“I cannot imagine my life with him,” she said. “He reminds me of my dad and my brother every single day. He is so funny, and in a way that only my dad and brother have this humor.”
“Khloe in Wonderland” releases new episodes Wednesdays via X.