Lamar Odom Says Khloe Kardashian Didn't Deserve Tristan Thompson Cheating Scandal (FULL INTERVIEW)

What did it mean to be married to Chloe? And what does Chloe still mean to you today? Oh, um, a lot, you know. You still love her? Yeah, I still got a lot of love for her. Yeah? Yeah. Was she the love of your life? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Would you or could you have stayed with her? Yeah, but you know, um, when you're an addict and you're fighting those demons, you can't even really, you're not loving yourself. Yeah. So you can't even spread the love to someone that's loving you as much as she loved me. She was loving you, but there were other women. Yeah. Lots of other women? What was it like? Well, if you're married, one is too, you know what I'm saying? You got one at home. If you're dealing with another one that's waiting, that's one too many. You know what I mean? Yeah, but NBA lifestyle is amazing. On top of being a woman who all these other women look up to, you know what I'm saying? So it was difficult. How much do you think you hurt her? I mean, a lot. Yeah? Yeah, a lot. I'm blessed just for her evenness to pick up my phone call. Have you guys kind of made amends now? Has it come full circle? I mean, I wouldn't call it amends. I've spoken to her recently. If you call that amends, I don't know. What do you think about her and Tristan and the baby? I mean, it's a bad situation. She doesn't deserve that. She's a beautiful person from the inside out. Yeah. You know, just a man, I guess, being as stupid as I was. I mean, it's not like Tristan pulled it together. I mean, what did you think when those stories broke of him out in the streets and they had videos? Just a bad decision, yeah. How was your relationship with the rest of the Kardashian family, especially Chris? How was it or how is it now? I mean, we don't really have much of a relationship now. How is it now? We don't really have much of a relationship now. Do you think Chris had your best interest at heart? I think she did. Yeah? Yeah. And even in Vegas? No, even in Vegas. Yeah? Yeah, I think she did. I think she did. Or was she protecting the brand? I mean, well, she's always going to protect the brand. You know, she's great at that. She's always going to do that, and I'm not mad at her for doing that. But she did once. You once were called down here to L.A. You hopped in a car to come see Khloe. You drove down with the best intentions because you thought you were going to see your wife. Yeah, that was crazy, and I never really got to speak to her about that or even Khloe about that. I mean, it was crazy. And then the headline is, Lamar's acting crazy. Yeah. Yeah, it was crazy. I would love to have a conversation about that. Because there was a point, as you walked away, you said, listen, leave me alone or I'm going to tell you the truth. That was just in my feelings. You know what I'm saying? Okay, all right. The truth was that they loved me. You know what I'm saying? It was just a bad moment. That was it. That's all I'm going to chalk it up as, just a bad moment. You would love to address it, though, with them, wouldn't you? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Just to see what happened. Yeah. If you could say one thing to Khloe right now, what would you say? I love you, and thank you for being there for me when I couldn't walk or talk. You know, when you marry someone after knowing them for 30 days, I don't think that love will go away. You know what I'm saying? A piece of paper that says that we're not together no more, that love will never go away. How did you know you love her? How did I know? How did you know? I mean, y'all, listen, you met. Next thing you know, you're walking down the street holding hands. Well, that's how I knew, because I never thought I would get married. So once my heart, once my soul told me that that was the woman for me, I knew it. What is it about her that made you know? I just had love, man. It's, like, unconditional, like a mother's love. We have this amazing video of after Lakers won a championship and Khloe and Kim are on the court. Those were the good days between y'all, weren't they? Yeah. Did the reality show hurt your marriage or your relationship? Nah, man. Mm-mm. No? Mm-mm. I mean, for me, I don't know, Khloe might tell you different, but it just made everything. It was pure ecstasy with the reality show. It just made everything better. I mean, we were winning. Yeah. I mean, I was shooting a reality show. I won six men of the year when I shot the reality show. Yeah. I don't think that's ever been done. No. Or ever will be done. I don't think another one of these basketball players will ever even attempt to do that again. Do you miss it? Yeah. I was getting ready to say it. Don't sit there and say you don't miss it. I would love to have another reality show. I don't know what I would base it on or what I could base it on. Well, did they come to you, the production company come to you and say they wanted to do one with you? No, if they would want to do one, I would do one yesterday. When you look back on your career as a Laker, and, you know, I think people would divide it in two senses. One, pre-Kardashian and post-Kardashian. What do you remember most? What was the greatest part about being a Laker? Well, winning. Pre-Kardashian. Pre-Kardashian, so before the Kardashian, just being affiliated with the Laker brand. I always wanted to be a Laker. Manny Johnson was my favorite player growing up, so for me it was like a dream come true. And then, you know, when you get married to a Kardashian, it's like the icing on the cake. You know what I'm saying? Being from L.A., the red carpet rolled out everywhere you go. I want to read a quote from your book. I want to read a quote from your book, all right? All right. I know you, so that's why I want to read you this quote. Kevin Frazier from Entertainment Tonight tried to win family members over with free fried chicken in hopes of getting an exclusive. And look, look, look, explain that to me. I'm going to let you explain that. It's in your book. It's the bottom. It's the bottom quote. I can't really remember saying that, Kyle. Okay. I'm double-checking. Kevin Frazier from Entertainment Tonight tried to win family members over with free chicken. Come on, L.O., you know. I mean, that would have to be offensive, too. Right. Would I? And I'm sorry for that. Yeah, no, I just want to – because we go back. Yeah. We go back and we did have chicken while we were there. We went out. Yeah. I went out. I took everybody out, you know? Yeah, you took everybody out. I took – when we were sitting downstairs in the hospital, they didn't have any food. Oh. And so I took them out. Sorry, I think it was written offensively. I don't think it was meant to be offensive. No, no, no, no, no. I'll say it. But who said that? That came out of my mouth? Yeah, that's said in the book. But I was asleep. Let's talk about this book. All right. Because you put stuff out there. I tried to. You held nothing back, did you? I tried to keep it real. I want to talk about Vegas, the hospital. And, you know, when you got there, they didn't think you were going to make it. Yeah. I was a goner. Did you realize you were a goner when you were sitting at that ranch? Nah. It was just another day of, you know what I'm saying, being freaky, I guess. Or trying to be freaky. You managed to do that. I mean, honestly, I was fooled. For years, I was like, this dude is playing some of the best basketball in the league. Yeah, well, you know, when you're at it, of course, you learn how to hide it. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? From your closest. Yeah, yeah, yeah. From your enemies. From everybody. From the public. When did it start? When did it really, like, when is the first time you remember that you really became an at, and you were like, okay. I think that kind of thing, like, happens, like, overnight. I don't know if you can really, I would say probably the first time I tried cocaine. Yeah? Because my father, you know, had an addiction problem. So maybe the gene was, you know, passed to me. But you played at a high, high level, Lamar. Yeah. How did it change your game? Well, I mean, it changed my habits, my dedication. I think, you know, those summers, you know what I'm saying, just running wild. I think I could have been just dedicating myself to the game a lot more. Yeah, well, there was a point where you won a championship, and really you were helping to carry that team with Kobe. Yeah. I mean, I had a gift. I was naturally good. So if you put me in the environment where I'm playing every day. Do you think that your teammates ever had any idea? No. No? No. I tell you. Because I didn't want to, you know, like, the one thing with writing this book, like, I hope I didn't really, like, offend anybody or anybody's efforts towards me, like Kobe's efforts towards me, Phil's or the Lakers. You know what I'm saying? They didn't have anything to do with it. I think you did. I think it was very honest and open when you talked about Kobe coming to see you in the hospital. Yeah. And what did that mean to you? I mean, of course it meant a lot. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? From a person of his caliber. Yeah. Just seeing you, you know, and your downness to time for him to be there for you. You know, right now we're dealing with Operation Varsity Blues, the college scandal. You paid someone to take your SAT. Yeah. I mean, I didn't pay him myself, but he probably was paid. Yeah. That was a stupid decision. Because I could have probably done it work myself. But I think when my mother passed, I just said, you know, forget school. You see what's going on now with all these stars paying for their children's SATs to be taken and stuff like that. Yeah. What do you think of that? I mean, it's crazy. Because I'm pretty sure these stars have the connections to meet these presidents themselves. And if they wanted to make a donation to get their children into school, they could make it happen that way. And the one lady, like, paid $500,000. Oh, yeah. That's extreme. You didn't have to pay $500,000, did you? Nah. You said in the book that you had sex with more than 2,000 women. I never really kept a count. 2,000's a lot. It's a lot. It's been a lot. But I never counted over. That's the first one. That's the second one. It's been a lot, though. How do you have sex with that many women? I mean, there's people out there who are like, that's like— I mean, that's a lot. That's a lot. I might have over-exaggerated a little bit. Okay. You know what I mean? I mean, 1,000's a lot. 1,000 is a lot. Yeah. 1,000 is a lot. 2,000 is like— I might have over-exaggerated a little bit. Okay. I might have been feeling myself. And thrown something out there? Mm-hmm. Was it always safe sex? No. No? No. Do you worry about that ever? Of course. Yeah. Of course. When you see what the results could be. Yeah. I mean, you know, we all have seen what happened to her and everything. We all know how real that is. Being in L.A., being on the Lakers, knowing what happened to him, did that ever cross your mind? A lot of times. But, you know, in the heat of the moment, you know, make that bad decision is playing in the devil's den. Here's what I want to know. And maybe people don't understand. What's it like being in the spotlight in the NBA where women are coming up to you? What's that like? So, the average person who can't understand that, what's it like? It's probably like really hard to explain when you've got your pick of the litter, any woman that you want, city to city. Every man's dream is like a gift and a curse, I would say. Because bad decisions, it's easy to make bad decisions when you put a man in that realm. I saw you in New York City not long after the passing of your son, Jade. We saw each other in the street, gave you a hug, and people didn't understand how much you were struggling with that, did they? Nah. But I don't really expect everyone and anyone to. The only one I think I could really even depend on at that point was just my close family members. It was Lord's family at that point in time. But that was probably the hardest part of my life, I would say. On the outside, though, it looked like the Lakers, y'all are flying high. You're winning championships. Everything's got to be so good, and then this happens. Nobody understands. What happened with you? What did you do when that happened? I just dug deep. You know what I'm saying? Got on God's coattail and just rode him. Like I'm doing now. Yeah? Yeah, that's it. Have you come into the light? Yeah, I think emotionally and spiritually I have. I don't know if it was the accident I had or if it was just part of my personality. My glass has always been half full, and I feel like I can just do anything right now. I'm like Superman after 12 strokes, six heart attacks or whatever I had. I don't know if it goes to see the sign. I want to go by there today and just tell them thank you. Those are my people forever, and the people in San Diego, Casa Del Mar, the rehab that I went to, I love them forever. Do you ever wonder how you're walking around here? Literally, they were like, he's not going to make it through. Yeah, I mean the walking and the talking part was the scariest part of it for me. Because, I mean, I'm a big, you know what I'm saying, athlete. Walking and talking, I mean, because imagine if you just got up and you couldn't walk and talk. How scary was that? That was probably like the scariest moment. That was the scariest moment. But Chloe held me down. That's what I'm saying, she helped you through all that? Yeah, yeah, she was bringing pictures up of my mother and my grandmother making me say their names. Oh, really? Yeah. And that helped you? Yeah. Do you wish you could rewind? Yeah, yeah. But there are no regrets, we got to learn to live with regrets. Yeah. Because they make us who we are, right? After that ordeal, after your heart had stopped twice and you had the seizures and everything, you said you stared at God and God stared back at you. What did he say to you? What was that moment like? Well, the feeling that I got was he was just saying, go live, man. Were you trying to kill yourself? Hell no. Have you? Hell no. No. That ain't never been, hell no. And you have never? Hell no. At my darkest moment, my darkest, deepest thought, hell no. There's no coming back from that. Right. You know what I mean? Hell no. I couldn't even help but to laugh because it was almost funny for you to ask me that. I could see, if you read the book, I could probably see how people probably, but no. Right. There would be that narrative where people would be like, oh, he hit rock bottom. No. Never. How could I? I could kill myself or my kids. I could, no. Yeah. That'd be the worst way to go, I would think. How do your kids feel now? Because one thing that your ex said when she came to the hospital is the only thing she was thinking about was like, we want him better. The kids want him better. Yeah. Let me be honest with you. I got some really beautiful and strong kids. Having children, that's the definition of unconditional love because they have every reason to be like, he's just like his pops. Fuck him. You know what I'm saying? The love that they give me, that's the reason why I woke up from the coma. They woke you up. They had visited. Then they had left and then I woke up like three minutes later or something like that after they had visited me. I mean, their love is the reason why I don't even really think about getting high or doing drugs now. How hard is it? I mean, sobriety is a hard thing every day, isn't it? It's a fight. Yeah. I mean, especially if you think about where we live. Seems like the better you do, the easier it gets, you know what I'm saying? Surrounds you everywhere. I want to ask you about Taraji. You really cared about her, didn't you? Yeah. She's doing her thing right now too. Are you surprised? No. Y'all went on a double date with Brad and Angelina once? Yeah, we were at another HBO event. We had some kind of an awards event and we were sitting at the table with Brad and Angelina Jolie and Forrest Whitaker. And that was one of the nights where I was like, oh, I'm in here. You know what I'm saying? I'm part of the in crowd now. Yeah. I think that's the night that we seen Prince perform at his house, which was an incredible night as well. We met at an HBO party and we hit it off. And you hit it off? Yeah. What happened to that relationship? I hate to say it, but what happened to a lot of relationships I was in at the time, Khloe. Khloe came along? Yeah. And you were just like, I'm out. And you know what? I wasn't even a man about it. I didn't even really... No? You just didn't call her? I don't even know how I did it, but I wasn't a man about it. No? Nah. Not at all. Have you talked since then? No. No? Uh-uh. She'd probably curse my name. Come on. I actually should, though. I wouldn't be mad at her. Is there something you would want to say to her? Always got love for you. Love that you're doing your thing. Keep doing it. You're making black women proud everywhere. What's the goal in the next five years? What are you going to do next? Play a little basketball. You're going to play ball? Maybe play in the big three. Yeah. Maybe play overseas or something in the Philippines. You're back in shape? You ready to go? Hell, yeah, I'm in shape. Yeah? Yeah. 40's going to be the best year of my life. Is it? Mm-hmm.