For decades, the Kardashians have been haunted by O.J. Simpson’s connections to their family.
Now, Kim is opening up about how his infamous trial tore apart their obviously broken family.
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman is an interview series on Netflix.
Season 3 will drop on October 21, featuring interviews with Robert Downey Jr., Dave Chappelle, Lizzo, and Kim Kardashian.
Though we will not be able to see the full coverage until later this week, we already know what Kim discusses with the late night TV legend.
She admits to David that the O.J. Simpson trial “tore her family apart.”
Kris was good friends with the late Nicole Brown Simpson. Robert was part of O.J.’s defense team.
Naturally, this set her parents at odds in ways that impacted her and her siblings then and continue to resonate with them to this day.
“The week before that happened,” Kim says of the horrific murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, “we were all in Mexico together at a family trip, the Simpsons and us.”
“Then this happening was kind of unimaginable,” she expresses.
In 1994, O.J. was a widely beloved figure among sports fans. For many others, the first that we ever heard of him was after the murders. For Kim … the Simpsons were like family.
Kim shares that O.J. reached out to Kris from behind bars.
This split the adults in her life down the middle.
“Then having your dad take one side and your mom take the complete opposite side,” she recalls.
“I mean, I remember answering the phone,” Kim describes.
“It was dinnertime and we were all sitting down,” she shares, “and I answered the phone and it was a call from jail.”
That would be awkward for any child — and Kim would have been only 13 or 14 at the time. When the case is famous, being caught in the middle can be downright traumatic.
“It was OJ, and I handed my mom the phone because he wanted to speak to her,” Kim narrates.
“I just remember them getting into it,” she says, referring to Robert defending O.J. while Kris wanted justice for her murdered friend.
Kim adds: “My mom was extremely vocal on her feelings.”
Kim also shares that the infamous court case “kind of tore our family apart I’d say for the whole time of the trial.”
Tragically, O.J. was acquitted of all murder charges.
Kris, like everyone else with a functioning brain, was horrified at this miscarriage of justice.
“[Kris] believed that, you know, her friend was murdered by him,” Kim explains, “and that was really traumatising for her.”
She continues: “And then we’d go to my dad’s house and it was a whole other situation there.”
Kim describes: “It would be like [OJ’s lawyers] Johnnie Cochran, Bob Shapiro, my dad, like the whole team.”
At the time, being children, the Kardashian sisters felt tugged in both directions.
“So we really didn’t know what to believe or whose side to take as kids,” Kim recalls.
She continues by explaining: “because we didn’t want to hurt one of our parents’ feelings.”
“My dad took us to court one day with him and he took us out of school and didn’t tell my mom,” Kim shares.
“And,” she continues, “I remember my mom was sitting with Nicole’s parents and Kourtney and I were sitting right behind OJ.”
“And we look over at my mom and she’s like giving us this death stare like, ‘What are you doing out of school? What are you doing here?’” Kim describes.
Kim continues the anecdote: “And Kourtney and I were like, ‘Just look straight. Do not look at mom.'”
While there may be times when courtroom experience is important for children, it is wildly inappropriate for one parent to unilaterally use their children to visually endorse someone like O.J.
That said, in Kim’s case, it gave her a taste of what court is like. She is currently studying to be an attorney.