Mourning the family patriarch. The Kardashian family has opened up over the years about the painful loss of Robert Kardashian.
The late attorney, who shared Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Rob with ex-wife Kris Jenner, died of esophageal cancer in 2003 — a devastating loss for all four of his children and his ex-wife. (Robert and the momager were married from 1978 to 1991.)
“At the funeral, when I saw my father in his casket, I completely fell apart,” Khloé recalled in her 2015 memoir, Strong Looks Better Naked. ”I don’t remember the details, but apparently I was an emotional wreck, and I’m told that I was so distraught I actually passed out. At one point I fell to the floor kicking and screaming, and I had to be sedated. It was really intense. I refused to believe my father was gone.”
Robert — who was one of O.J. Simpson’s defense attorneys in his mid-‘90s murder trial — often made home videos with his family, which the Kardashians have shared via social media in the years since his death. But in 2020, when Kim was still married to husband Kanye West, the rapper gifted the Skims founder a different kind of video from her father: a lifelike hologram of him talking about how proud he is of her and his family in honor of her 40th birthday.
“A special surprise from heaven … It is so lifelike and we watched it over and over, filled with lots [of] tears and emotion,” Kim penned via Instagram at the time. “I can’t even describe what this meant to me and my sisters, my brother, my mom and closest friends to experience together. Thank you so much Kanye for this memory that will last a lifetime.” (Kim and the “Jesus Walks” artist, who share daughters North and Chicago and sons Saint and Psalm together, settled their divorce in November 2022, less than a year after their split.)
Jenner, for her part, shared her deep regret for cheating on Robert during their marriage.
“I got married when I was very, very young. I met Robert when I was 18 years old. We dated for four years, got married at 22, sooner or later during my life when I was in my 30s, I had an affair and my biggest regret was the fact that it broke up my family,” she shared on a March 2020 episode of Diane von Furstenberg’s podcast, “InCharge With DVF.” (Kris went on to marry Caitlyn Jenner — with whom she shares daughters Kendall and Kylie — soon after her divorce from Robert was finalized. The couple divorced in 2015 amid the Olympian gold medalist coming out as transgender.)
Despite her past transgressions, Kris always held her late ex close to her heart. When asked during a 2021 interview with WSJ. Magazine, who she would have dinner with, dead or alive, she immediately responded, “Robert Kardashian.”
Keep scrolling for all of the Kardashian family’s most heart-wrenching quotes about Robert:
