Mixed reactions. Khloé Kardashian’s family rallied around her after Tristan Thompson confirmed that he fathered a son with Maralee Nichols, but they did not necessarily cut ties with her ex-boyfriend amid the scandal.
News broke in December 2021 that Nichols was suing Thompson for child support amid her claim that she was pregnant with his third child. Us Weekly subsequently confirmed that she gave birth to a baby boy on December 1, 2021.
One month later, the NBA star announced that he is the father of Nichols’ son. “Today, paternity test results reveal that I fathered a child with Maralee Nichols. I take full responsibility for my actions,” he wrote via his Instagram Story on January 3. “Now that paternity has been established I look forward to amicably raising our son. I sincerely apologize to everyone I’ve hurt or disappointed throughout this ordeal both publicly and privately.”
In a second Instagram Story post, Thompson publicly apologized to Kardashian. “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,” he continued. “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.”
The reality star and the athlete dated on and off from 2016 to 2021 and weathered multiple cheating scandals during their relationship. Amid their ups and downs, they welcomed daughter True in April 2018. (Thompson also shares son Prince — born in December 2016 — with ex Jordan Craig.)
While Kardashian has yet to comment on the ordeal, a source revealed in January that she is done with the basketball player for good. “Tristan wants to make everything right with Khloé,” the insider exclusively told Us. “He wants to win her back, but she will never take him back romantically after learning about his cheating. This was the final straw.”
As for the Kardashian-Jenner family as a whole, the source noted that they are “finding a way to move forward” but “aren’t taking the news lightly.”
The insider shared that Thompson “can’t just disappear from [the family’s] lives” because he is True’s father. While they are “on the road to accepting what he’s done,” the source told Us, “It will take some time.”
Scroll through the gallery below to see all the reactions to Thompson’s latest scandal:
