The Death & Life of Lamar Odom pulls back curtain on Khloé Kardashian marriage: ‘He was playing m...

The NBA champion and his famous exwife get real about their relationship in his &34;Untold&34; Netflix documentary. The Death & Life of Lamar Odom pulls back curtain on Khloé Kardashian marriage: 'He was playing me so I can continue this lifestyle for him' The NBA champion and his famous exwife get real about their relationship in his &34;Untold&34; Netflix documentary. By Kathleen Perricone March 30, 2026 4:10 p.m. ET Leave a Comment :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/LamarOdomKhloeKardashian033026b348214b5a1b4943af44779a250cc6ef.jpg) Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian in 'Untold' on Netflix.

The NBA champion and his famous ex-wife get real about their relationship in his "Untold" Netflix documentary.

The Death & Life of Lamar Odom pulls back curtain on Khloé Kardashian marriage: 'He was playing me so I can continue this lifestyle for him'

The NBA champion and his famous ex-wife get real about their relationship in his "Untold" Netflix documentary.

By Kathleen Perricone

March 30, 2026 4:10 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian in 'Untold' on Netflix. Credit:

*Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom*, premiering Tuesday on Netflix, is a remarkable telling of the NBA champion's rise to fame — and immediate plummet into addiction, culminating in his 2015 near-fatal overdose at a Nevada brothel.

It's also a rollercoaster for viewers, retracing Odom's traumas that triggered his drug benders and seeing how his then-wife, Khloé Kardashian, did everything in her power to help him.

So by the end of *Untold*, one can hardly blame Kardashian for telling Odom: "I never want to speak to you again." (And for nearly a decade, she didn't.)

The documentary starts at the beginning, when Odom's young mother had to raise him by herself in Queens, N.Y., because "Dad gave in to drugs," he reveals. When Odom was 10, she died of colon cancer, but he continued to chase his dreams.

"Basketball," he says, "I always knew would be my way."

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And it was, as Odom became nationally recognized in high school and was a standout at the University of Rhode Island. In 1999, he went fourth in the NBA Draft, selected by the Los Angeles Clippers.

Odom headed west with his then-fiancée Liza Morales and baby daughter Destiny for support — but the bright lights of Hollywood were too seductive.

After violating the NBA's anti-drug policy in back-to-back seasons, he left the Clippers for the Miami Heat. But after just one year, he was part of a blockbuster trade that sent Shaquille O'Neal to Miami and Odom right back to LA, this time playing for the Lakers.

On the court, he battled injuries and inconsistent numbers. Off the court, Odom endured an unimaginable loss.

During the NBA off-season in the summer of 2006, he and Morales returned to Queens with their three kids to attend a family funeral. One night, Odom went out partying with friends and still wasn't home the next morning when Morales discovered their 6-month-old son Jayden unresponsive in his crib.

The coroner ruled it Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, an undetermined loss that offered no closure. "I didn't really cry too much when he passed away," Odom admits. "The baby just looked like he was asleep."

Lamar Odom won two NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty

At the end of the summer, Odom headed back to L.A. for his third season with the Lakers, while Morales stayed in New York with the kids. "And that was that," he shrugs.

*Untold* skips over several years, picking up in 2009 when Odom's new teammate, Ron Artest, celebrated his Lakers signing with a party that Khloé Kardashian was paid $5,000 to host. The 24-year-old reality star and Odom hit it off — and 30 days later, they were married.

The quickie wedding, says Odom's childhood friend "Pumpkin," was "to better his future."

And he doesn't disagree. "I'm already Lamar Odom. I'm kinda watching how she live, [the Kardashians'] lifestyle, and I'm like, 'I know this is where I want to be. This is how I wanna live'… I wasn't really ready for that power."

Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom in 2009.

Lester Cohen/WireImage

The newlyweds even got their own E! reality spinoff, *Khloe and Lamar*, an idea pitched by the NBA superstar. "Part of the deal was that if I'm gonna marry you, 'f--- it. I want in too.'"

Two years into the marriage, Odom's drug use was becoming "a dark situation," Kardashian recalls, as her husband regularly disappeared, oftentimes with other women.

During one bender, he ended up a hundred miles away in Big Bear, Calif., which Kardashian only learned when she got a phone call: "Hi, I've been f---ing your husband," said the female voice. "He is so f---ed up… and I gotta get off this ride. Will you come pick him up?"

Worried the tabloids would learn about his drug use, Kardashian did all she could to hide it.

"I was either looking for him in alleys, looking for him in motels," she recalls. "I remember needing to go to hotel rooms to clean up after him so housekeeping didn't sell a story… I felt such a responsibility to cover this up, hold it together, and protect him."

Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian in 2012.

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Despite his drug use, Odom had one of his most successful NBA seasons in 2011, winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award. But months later, he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks — and that's when his addiction grew "monstrous," describes Kardashian. "I've never seen so many drugs, such a dark aura around us."

That Christmas, he spent four days in a hotel bathroom "just doing drugs."

Booted from the Mavericks four months later, Odom ended right back in the lion's den of Los Angeles, once again playing for the Clippers. After several more overdoses — requiring Kardashian to pump his stomach — she staged an intervention in 2013.

If he didn't get help, she said, they were done. "Ok yeah," Odom replied, "let's get the f---ing divorce."

Kardashian filed the paperwork, and it was awaiting final legal approval in October 2015, she got the call he had overdosed "and I just remember screaming."

She rushed to the hospital in Las Vegas, but Odom's estranged father Joe had beat her there — and, unbelievably, he intended to pull the plug on his unconscious son.

"I assume, [he] thought he's now the beneficiary to Lamar," she opines. "And Joe just said, 'Don't put him on life support. Turn those machines off.'"

Ultimately, he agreed to stand down if Kardashian gave him $100 and a new pair of Nikes. "And Joe left and never came back."

Odom, who had ingested cocaine and large doses of sexual performance supplements during his stay at the Love Ranch in Crystal, Nev., suffered brain damage and slipped into a coma, during which he had 12 strokes and six heart attacks.

Miraculously, days later, he woke up, and the harsh reality hit.

"I couldn't hold my bowels," Odom confesses. "Yeah, I won two championships. I'm Lamar Odom, can't walk, can't talk. They come in to check my diaper. My wife, she helped wipe some of the s--- up."

That was one of the many selfless things Kardashian did for her estranged husband as she spent four months by his side in the hospital. And it didn't end with his release. In January 2016, Kardashian rented Odom a home near hers in Calabasas and hired a caretaker and chef — until one day she stopped by, "and I smelled crack."

Tiptoeing up the stairs, she entered Odom's bedroom and confirmed her suspicions. "I just punched him in the face," she confesses in *Untold*. "I just put my life on hold to f---ing take care of you."

Lamar Odom, following his overdose, with Kendall Jenner and Khloe Kardashian in February 2016.

Kevin Mazur/Getty

It was then that Kardashian realized, "He was better than I knew. He was playing me so I can continue this lifestyle for him."

Fed up with Odom's behavior, she kicked him out of the home she had rented for him. "I'm done, I'm not paying a thing," she told him. "And I never want to speak to you again."

In May 2016, Kardashian filed for divorce a second and final time.

Over the years, Odom attempted to repair his relationship with his two kids, Destiny and Lamar Jr., which was also broken by his addiction.

Destiny, now 28, recalls his public "redemption tour," going to events in L.A. like Kobe Bryant's retirement game, "but he never went to rehab. He just acted like the coma thing never really happened."

In another scene with his son, the two play video games. "It seems like you're the parent and he's the son, or he's like the little kid," admits Lamar Jr., 24. "He has a lot of growing up to do."

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

Looking ahead, 46-year-old Odom says he'd like to coach college basketball and maybe one day, for an NBA team.

But looking back, he wonders: "Did basketball solve my problems or create my problems? I would say both." Although it was a "refuge" at times, "all this fame and fortune came to me that obviously I wasn't ready for."

*Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom *streams on Netflix on Tuesday, March 31.

- Documentary Movies

Original Article on Source

Source: "EW Documentary"

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Source: Documentary

Published: March 30, 2026 at 05:00PM on Source: PRIME TIME

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