Lamar Odom is reflecting on a challenging period in his life. After the release of his documentary "Untold: The Life & Death of Lamar Odom," the former NBA star is downplaying his ex-wife Khloe Kardashian's role in the aftermath of his near-fatal overdose at a Nevada brothel in 2015. During an April 6 appearance on "Today With Jenna & Sheinelle," host Jenna Bush Hager asked Lamar if he felt that Khloe had saved his life. "In some ways," the 46-year-old replied. "God saved my life. My lord saved my life, honestly."
As Jenna and co-host Sheinelle Jones noted, Khloe had filed for divorce from Lamar shortly before his health scare, after six years of marriage. However, she stayed by his side as he recovered from the six heart attacks and 12 strokes he suffered while in a coma for three days. "She took care of me," Lamar admitted, "but God took care of me the most. What I came back from is like a medical miracle."
The former Los Angeles Laker also refuted Khloe's claim in the documentary that Lamar's late father Joe Odom was already present and ready to take his son off life support when she arrived at the hospital in Nevada. "You know, I was knocked out and asleep at that time," Lamar explained. "If you know Joe Odom, I don't think that's something that would ever come out of his mouth. He was my biggest fan. I don't know where that got mistranslated." He added, "I just can't see him ever, ever doing that."
While Lamar and Khloe haven't had much of a relationship since finalizing their divorce in 2016, the former couple did reunite on "The Kardashians" in 2025 when he went to her home to retrieve some of his keepsakes. "It was awkward, and it wasn't really good for me," Lamar recalled of the meeting. "But once you're family, you're always family, so she ain't going nowhere."
Still, he didn't expect the two would ever get back together romantically. "I will always have love for her," he said, "but being in love, no." E! News has reached out to a rep for Khloe for comment but has not heard back.
In Lamar's Netflix documentary, Khloe recalled the period after his overdose during which she stepped in as his caretaker, staying at the hospital with him for nearly four months and renting him a home near hers, along with a caretaker and a chef. As the 41-year-old explained, "We were going to rehabilitate him." But the plan quickly changed when she stopped by his house in May 2016 and caught him using drugs.
"Once you know the smell of crack," Khloe said, "it's the most identifiable, disgusting smell, and there's nothing you can confuse it with." She recalled trying to "be as stealth as possible" and "see what the f--k this guy's doing."
"I remember slowly tiptoeing up the stairs," she continued. "He was in his bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, smoking crack. And I just punched him in his face. 'I just put my life on hold to f--king take care of you. How did you get this? You don't have a f--king phone. You can't talk.'"
But Lamar did have a phone, with Khloe adding, "He was better than I knew. He was playing me so I can continue this lifestyle for him. I said, 'By Monday, you need out of this house. I'm done, I'm not paying for a thing, and I never want to speak to you again.'" The duo's divorce was finalized in December of that year.
