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12 April 2024, 12:09 | Updated: 12 April 2024, 12:56
With OJ Simpson’s passing, all eyes have turned to the Kardashians to see their reactions. But why is Khloe Kardashian’s name trending in particular?
The Kardashian name has been tied to OJ Simpson’s since before their fame. The two families were good friends for decades before the late Robert Kardashian decided to be OJ’s lawyer during his murder trial.
With OJ's passing in April 2024, most of the family have not made any public statements except Caitlyn Jenner who simply tweeted two words, ‘Good Riddance’.
Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Rob Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian are all the children of Robert Kardashian. But it’s Khloe’s paternity that’s been questioned over and over again and it has led fans to flood her inbox with ‘condolence’ messages after the death of OJ.
So is that why Khloe’s name is trending alongside OJ's? What has Khloe said about the rumours that OJ is her father and are they true? Here’s what we know.
The wild rumours that OJ was Khloe’s father began when Kris Jenner published her memoir in 2011 called ‘Kris Jenner… And All Things Kardashian,’ in which she admitted to having an affair during her marriage with Robert.
Naturally, fans looked to the Kardashian’s close inner circle to find the guilty culprit and all eyes turned to OJ. Kris and Robert met when she was only 18 years old and the pair married when she was 22. However, Kris had known OJ and his wife Nicole Brown Simpson since she was 17 and the two couples spent two decades as close friends.
Kris and Robert got divorced in 1991, three years before Nicole’s murder, for which OJ was accused and tried with Robert as his defence attorney. A choice that divided the Kardashian family at the time.
Online detectives have convinced themselves that OJ was Khloe’s biological father because of her physical appearance. When compared to her sisters, Khloe’s features are in stark contrast, especially when you look at the girls when they were young.
In fact, fans took it a step further and began to compare Khloe’s looks with OJ and Nicole’s biological daughter Sydney Simpson and their similarities were strikingly similar.
But the rumours weren’t just fed with speculation, Robert's two ex-wives Jan Ashley and Ellen Pierson came forward almost a decade after his passing to say that Robert had allegedly confessed to both of them that Khloé was not his biological daughter.
In 2012, Jan Ashley was interviewed by Star Magazine where she claimed, "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."
These claims started all sorts of legal battles between Khloe and Robert's two ex-wives. Meanwhile, it may have all been for nothing as Kris used the name ‘Ryan’ to reference her illicit affair in her memoir and the real 'Ryan' finally came forward.
The real man, soccer player Todd Waterman eventually came forward and claimed he was the man she had had an affair with in 1989.
Despite the affair timestamp not lining up with Khloe’s birth, online fans speculated that if Kris cheated once, she could have done it multiple times, one of which may have resulted in Khloe’s birth.
Both Khloe and OJ have denied all claims of their apparent relations multiple times, with it even becoming a major plot line in Keeping Up with the Kardashians. In the episode named ‘Who’s Your Daddy’, Kris brought up the idea that Khloe should take a DNA test to put the rumours to bed.
“Wouldn’t it make you feel better if you had a DNA test?” Kris asked Khloe on the show. “There has to be a part of you that wants resolution in your heart.”
However, Kris’s persistence to keep bringing up the DNA test left a bad taste in fans' mouths as they felt like she was fuelling flames for publicity rather than for her family’s well-being.
In the same episode, Khloe firmly stated, “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.”
All the way back in 2016, Khloe made light of the theory after a fan on Instagram told her she “looked white” in a photo she had posted of herself. In response, the reality star replied, “I don’t know… Some days I’m OJs daughter. Others I’m Roberts's daughter,” as she made light of the situation.
OJ himself spoke on the Full Send podcast in 2022 as he attempted to put the rumours to bed, “The rumour ain’t true. It’s not even anywhere close to being true,” he stated and then revealed that “I always thought Kris was a cute girl. She was really nice. But, you know, I was dating supermodels!”
In 2019, he posted a video on X (Formerly known as Twitter) where he said, “Never - and I want to stress, never, in any shape or form - have I ever had any interest in Kris, romantically or sexually, and I never got any indication that she had any interest in me.”
So all of these stories are bogus, bad, tasteless… Khloe, like all the girls, I'm very proud of, like Bob would be… but the simple fact of the matter is she’s not mine.”
O.J. Simpson denies being the father of Khloe Kardashian
Khloe made the ultimate decision not to do the DNA test, so there was no publicly-shared confirmation of who her father was to put any of the rumours to rest.
However, despite being quite pushy for Khloe to do a test in the past, Kris has changed her tune after the birth of Khloe’s son Tatum. Tatum was born via surrogate in July 2022 and his father is Tristan Thompson.
But according to the Kardashians, there is absolutely no doubt who his uncle and grandfather are. According to family, friends and fans alike, Tatum shares an incredible likeness with Rob Kardashian Jr. and Robert Kardashian.
Kris, in particular, has brought it up on the show multiple times, in one scene she spoke to her daughter saying, “Khloé, this is the spitting image of your dad and brother, it’s freaking me out!”
Kris has given Tatum the nickname ‘Little Rob’ and in a confessional, she revealed, “Ugh, Tatum? Tatum is Robert Kardashian Sr, he is my ex-husband in baby form.”
“Even his little mannerisms, his little smile, the way he looks at me. I look through these eyes and I see his little soul and I’m just… Yep, there he is. The DNA is real.”
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