With the death of O.J. Simpson, Kris Jenner and other members of the family of the late Robert Kardashian were reminded of their deep and sometimes troubling connection to the disgraced former football star.
This was especially for Khloe Kardashian, who has long been the subject of a persistent but unsubstantiated rumor that she secretly was the biological daughter of Simpson, who was controversially acquitted in the double murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.
Soon after news broke Thursday that Simpson had died of prostate cancer, Khloe Kardashian’s social media accounts were inundated with messages from people expressing sympathy, no doubt in a joking, mean-spirited way.
“My condolences,” wrote one person in reply to her recent Instagram post, showing her walking on a white-sand beach on a family vacation in Turks and Caicos. “Sorry Khloe for ur loss,” said another. Someone else said, “My most heartfelt sympathies on the loss of your father OJ.” On her X, account, someone also said, “So sorry to hear about your dad. Praying for you and your family in these times.”
The rumors that Khloe Kardashian was Simpson’s secret daughter go back to at least 2011, when her mother, Kris Jenner, revealed in her memoir, “All Things Kardashian,” that she had an affair while married to attorney Robert Kardashian, the father of Khloe, Kim, Kourtney and Rob Kardashian, according to Us Weekly.
Robert Kardashian was a long-time friend of Simpson, and people latched onto the idea that Kris Jenner’s affair could have involved the fallen football hero, Us Weekly reported. That’s largely because Robert Kardashian’s second wife, Jan Ashley, alleged in an interview, after his 2003 death, that Khloe Kardashian was not his biological daughter, according to Us Weekly.
Ashley married Robert Kardashian after his 1991 divorce from Kris Jenner. In 2012, Ashley said in the interview: “Khloé is not his kid — he told me that after we got married. He just kind of looked at me and said (it) like it was a matter of fact. He said, ‘Well, you know that Khloé’s not really a Kardashian, don’t you?’ And I said … ‘OK,’ and that was it.”
From that point on, the public ran “wild” with the rumor that Simpson was Khloe Kardashian’s real father, Us Weekly said. Simpson himself may have fueled the rumor when he supposedly claimed he had sex with Jenner in a hot tub sometime in the early 1990s, the New York Post reported.
This claim was recounted by Simpson’s former manager Norman Pardo in a clip from his documentary, “Who Killed Nicole?” The clip was obtained by Page Six, which quoted Pardo as saying that Simpson boasted about the hot tub encounter, saying he “broke” Jenner with his sexual prowess.
However, Simpson and Khloe Kardashian denied the rumor that he was her father, Us Weekly said.
Khloe Kardashian even addressed the rumor during a 2012 episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” which was aptly titled “Who’s Your Daddy,” according to Us Weekly.
The episode showed Kris Jenner visiting Khloe Kardashian in Texas, where she was living with then-husband Lamar Odom at the time.
“I know all the rumors are absolutely ridiculous,” Jenner said, while trying to convince her daughter to take a DNA test. “But I know this is something she needs in order to feel complete.”
Jenner managed to convince her other children, Kim, Kourtney and Rob, to take DNA tests as a comparison. Khloé Kardashian, however, declined.
“Mom, I don’t care what they’re saying,” Khloé Kardashian said on the show. “Seriously, my dad is Robert Kardashian. My other dad is (Caitlyn) Jenner. I don’t need someone to tell me who my family is. I have had the blessing of having two phenomenal fathers. I don’t need a DNA test to prove who my father is.”
Khloe Kardashian was referring to Caitlyn Jenner, who became her stepparent after the former Olympian married Kris Jenner in 1991. Kris and Caitlyn Jenner divorced in 2015.
Kris Jenner also furiously denied any suggestions that she had an affair with Simpson, saying in a 2019 episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” that she was particularly upset that reports of the affair were coming up again on the 25th anniversary of the 1994 murder of Nicole Brown Simpson, who was her good friend.
‘It’s really kind of pathetic that when rumors get started, the media gives it life and breath and on the anniversary of Nicole’s death. It’s so tasteless and disgusting,” Kris Jenner said.
Aside from Khloe Kardashian and her mother having to deal with the Simpson paternity rumor, following the news of his death, Robert Kardashian’s friendship with Simpson has had other lasting consequences on the family — and on America — for better, and many would say, for worse.
It could be said that America first got acquainted with the future realty TV show family and social media behemoths through Robert Kardashian’s participation in Simpson’s legal “Dream Team,” when Simpson was tried for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
Shortly before the murders, Kris Jenner and her children were a major presence in Simpson’s life, largely because of her friendship with Nicole Brown Simpson. In fact, Jenner, her then-spouse, Caitlyn Jenner, and her children vacationed with O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson and their children in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, a couple months before the murders.
A throwback photo of the luxury spring-break getaway in 1994 was resurfaced Thursday and circulating on social media. According to The Sun, the photo shows the two families posing on a patio, with a beach in the background. The photo shows a young Khloe, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, in swimsuits, smiling happily, while Kris and Caitlyn Jenner and O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson stand in the background. Also in the photo of O.J. and Nicole Simpson’s children, Justin and Sydney, who were preteens at the time.
This story has been updated.