One hot mama. Maralee Nichols shared a sultry selfie in her first social media post since news broke that Tristan Thompson and Khloé Kardashian are expecting their second child via gestational carrier.
“Theo’s mom,” the fitness model, 31, wrote via Instagram on Tuesday, July 19, alongside a photo of herself in a white tank top and figure-hugging jeans. Motherhood has been Nichols’ main priority since welcoming son Theo, 7 months, with the Chicago Bulls player, 31, in December 2021 amid their ongoing child support battle. “She’s truly focused on raising Theo,” a source told Us Weekly about the former personal trainer earlier this month, adding that she is currently “navigating motherhood as a single mom.”
Nichols’ post comes one week after Us confirmed that Thompson and Kardashian, 38, who share 4-year-old daughter True, are expecting their second child, a baby boy, via surrogate. “We can confirm True will [become an older] sibling,” a rep for the Good American cofounder said in a statement on July 13. “Khloé is incredibly grateful to the extraordinary surrogate for such a beautiful blessing. We’d like to ask for kindness and privacy so that Khloé can focus on her family.” (Thompson also shares son Prince, 5, with Jordan Craig.)
The exes first planted the embryos in November 2021, when Nichols — unbeknownst to Kardashian — was already pregnant with son Theo. Us confirmed that she gave birth to her son one month later, as news broke that the model was suing Thompson for child support. The NBA player later confirmed that he was Theo’s father in January and issued an apology to Kardashian for his infidelity.
“Today, paternity test results reveal that I fathered a child with Maralee Nichols. I take full responsibility for my actions,” Thompson wrote via his Instagram Story at the time. “Now that paternity has been established I look forward to amicably raising our son.”
He continued: “Khloé, you don’t deserve this. You don’t deserve the heartache and humiliation I have caused you. You don’t deserve the way I have treated you over the years. My actions certainly have not lined up with the way I view you. I have the utmost respect and love for you. Regardless of what you may think. Again, I am so incredibly sorry.”
Thompson and Nichols’ custody battle placed a great deal of strain on his relationship with Kardashian and the pair have not communicated about anything other than True since their split. “[Tristan] went through finding a surrogate and all that while he was cheating on [Khloé] and that’s unforgivable to her,” a source told Us. “Khloé and Tristan [are] not speaking outside of coparenting, that is the only communication they have anymore. Tristan has realized that he’s a parental figure to True and the new baby and that’s he is to Khloé right now.”
Nichols, however, has not been able to amicably coparent Theo. “Tristan is very absent from Theo’s life. He hasn’t met Theo nor has he initiated any meetings,” a source revealed to Us last month. “He doesn’t have any immediate plans to meet his son face to face.”
