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Kim Kardashian, a businesswoman, has described how the OJ Simpson trial tore her family apart after her parents took opposing sides throughout his murder trial.
Kim’s father, Robert Kardashian, was one of the lawyers representing their close family friend OJ after he was accused of murdering his wife Nicole Brown Simpson in 1994, while her mother, Kris Jenner, was convinced he was innocent.
During a recent interview with GQ magazine, the reality personality, 43, commented on how the former football star’s legal struggle and her separated parents’ differing opinions divided her family.
According to the reality star, who was 13 at the time of the trial, her father pulled her and her sister Kourtney, then 14, out of school so they could ‘see a piece of history.’
Her mother, who divorced Robert in 1991 and remarried Caitlyn Jenner, who was known as Bruce at the time, one month later, was furious when she found out they were missing lessons.
‘My dad pulled Kourtney and me out of school. He said, “I want you girls to witness a piece of history and what a trial is like,”‘ Kim recalled.
‘We walked in and saw my mom sitting on the other side. She said, “You’re supposed to be in school. What are you doing here?” Kourtney and I didn’t even look at her.’
She explained that she and Kourtney opted to spend more time with their dad during the trial because they felt their mom was ‘happily remarried’ while their father was ‘by himself.’
‘Kourtney and I were drawn to our dad. We felt like Mom was happily remarried, so we would live with Dad. We didn’t want him to be by himself,’ she continued.
However, she said that the 15-month legal struggle was exceedingly painful for her and the rest of the Kardashian family, saying, ‘That was really tough for our family.’
Kim, who was nine at the time, told GQ that she was completely taken aback when her parents called a ‘family meeting’ and told her and her siblings they were ending their marriage after Kris admitted to having an affair with a soccer player 10-years her junior named Todd Waterman.
‘I didn’t foresee any of it,’ she shared. ‘I was in the bath and they called a family meeting.
I remember thinking, “Please, Lord, don’t let them be getting a divorce.” I never had an inkling that it would happen, but I knew that was what they were going to tell us. I felt it.’
Kourtney, being slightly older, admitted that she had noticed a few clues leading up to the divorce.
‘Just being the oldest, I would overhear things,’ she explained. ‘I remember one night hearing them whisper-arguing.
‘My parents never fought my whole life, so it was traumatizing when they did.’
Kim also discussed how going through that as a child helped her negotiate her own divorce from ex-husband Kanye West.
She added her parents made her and her siblings feel ‘loved and heard’ throughout their divorce, which she made a point of doing with her children when she and Kanye divorced in 2021.
‘I did think about how my parents handled it with us,’ she said of her decision to end her own marriage.
‘I just remember them being open… Ultimately, what matters is that kids feel loved and heard.
‘You want to be sensitive because they’re just kids, and it’s hard to go through no matter what age.
‘You have to make sure that you only go to a level that they can understand. It’s OK to show a vulnerable side. You never go to a negative side.’
