Revisit Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom's 2009 Wedding Episode With Us
09/27/2024 09:06 AM
Before Kim Kardashian's 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries, there was Khloé Kardashian's nine-day engagement to Lamar Odom.
In November 2009, season 4 of Keeping Up With the Kardashians premiered with a very special episode titled "The Wedding," which squeezed almost all of Khloé and Lamar's courtship into a tight 90 minutes. Khloé introduced Lamar to viewers as her "boyfriend" at the beginning of episode, and he already had marriage on his mind.
The twosome exchanged vows on September 27, 2009, exactly one month after they met. They eventually earned their own show, Khloé & Lamar, which aired for two seasons from 2011 to 2012 and gave fans an even closer look at the couple's relationship behind closed doors. The end of their relationship, however, came not long after cameras stopped rolling on their spinoff.
Following months of speculation — and after Lamar's DUI arrest — Khloé filed for divorce in December 2013. Ahead of their split, multiple sources confirmed to Us Weekly that Lamar's battle with substance abuse came between him and Khloé.
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By July 2015, it was clear the fairy-tale romance was over. Both Khloé and Lamar signed their divorce paperwork, leaving only a judge to approve the proceedings, but it would be more than a year before their marriage chapter was officially closed. Lamar was hospitalized in October 2015 and placed on life support after being found unconscious at a brothel in Las Vegas, and Khloé temporarily withdrew the duo's divorce in order to make medical decisions on behalf of her estranged husband.
Lamar made a full recovery, and Khloé resubmitted her paperwork in May 2016. Their divorce was finalized that December.
While their story didn't get the happiest of endings, Khloé and Lamar's wedding day was a reality TV moment Us will never forget. Revisit their on-camera engagement and nuptials 15 years later:
The Infatuation Phase
Khloé and Lamar only knew each other for a few weeks before their relationship took a serious turn. The wedding episode opened 10 days before the pair said "I do," and Khloé told the cameras exactly what set Lamar apart from her exes.
"I've never had someone tell me so many times a day how pretty I am and talk to me like that and just make me feel like I am everything he says I am," she gushed before revealing that the duo connected over personal losses. "Lamar's mom passed away when he was 12 of cancer and my dad passed away when I was 19 of cancer, and that's something we have in common. I've never had somebody be so honest with me about their life and about their past."
Lamar brought up marriage when the twosome sat down for dinner no more than five minutes into the episode. "I wanna get married right now," he said. "I would do it right now."
He already had an idea for the perfect day, too. "We met on the 27th, your birthday's on the 27th, so we should get married on the 27th … this month," he told Khloé, who saw no flaws in the plan.
Family Doubts
Kim and Kourtney Kardashian, then pregnant with son Mason, dropped by Khloé's house to surprise her, but she was nowhere to be found. "She usually answers my BBMs, like, the second I write her," Kourtney told Malika Haqq, who greeted the sisters in her BFFs place.
Malika explained that Khloé and Lamar were shacking up together at his hotel, which gave Kim and Kourtney pause because they didn't know much about their sister's new man. While Kim and Kourtney's surprise didn't pan out, Khloé and Lamar had an even bigger one in store for Kris Jenner.
The couple joined Khloé's mom at dinner, where Lamar revealed that they want to get married. What she didn't realize, however, was how quickly the wedding was coming.
The next day, Khloé broke the news to Kim and Kourtney, who don't do a great job of concealing their skepticism. Khloé's lack of an engagement ring had her sisters confused — as did the nine-day countdown to the wedding. Even Kris felt blindsided.
"I just found out that Lamar wanted to propose to Khloé and now she's telling me that she wants a wedding in nine days?" she said in a confessional. "I don't even know how to wrap my head around this."
Given how her sisters reacted, Khloé was hesitant to tell Caitlyn Jenner the news until she had a ring on her finger. "[She]'s never really been a fan of any of the men I've dated," Khloé told the cameras. "I know [she] won't take any of this whole wedding stuff seriously unless Lamar proves himself."
After being hounded with questions about her and Lamar's timeline, Khloé hit a breaking point. "You guys are not being supportive. Whenever you and Reggie [Bush] go through something, I'm there for you. I don't ask you questions," she told Kim, who had been in an on-again, off-again relationship with the football player for years, before turning her attention to Kourtney. "You, I'm there, holding you, helping you throw up. … Be there. You guys are making this not fun anymore."
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Other Relationships at Play
While Khloé seemingly found The One in Lamar, Kim was working through her breakup from Reggie — but she swore she wasn't jealous. Kim, who thought she would be getting ready to walk down the aisle before her sister, even offered to share the extensive plans she had for own wedding because Khloé didn't have much time before her big day. At one point, Kim called a friend on the phone and said she'd probably need a Xanax during the wedding.
Kourtney, meanwhile, took on the role of "the voice of reason" but still found a way to make Khloé's wedding about her and Scott Disick. "Khloé getting married definitely makes me think about my future with Scott and marriage, and we are holding off until after the baby comes and we see what our relationship evolves to and how we feel at the time," she said in an interview. (Us knows how that story ended, and it wasn't with a wedding.)
Even Rob Kardashian was going through his own relationship woes. While he tried his hardest to be excited for his sister, things got complicated when Khloé wanted to invite his ex Adrienne Bailon to the wedding.
"Everybody's gotta get a grip," said Kris, the real voice of reason in the family.
The Vera Wang of It All
Just one week before her wedding day, Khloé flew to New York City for a dress fitting with Vera Wang — who, of course, is a family friend. "This whole thing is like a dream come true," Khloé gushed. "I never really thought I was the marrying type, so I never really knew the significance of what a wedding dress means, but finally having one on, I feel like this is amazing, this is what a wedding's about. You have to find the perfect dress."
Khloé's perfect dress was a strapless mermaid design with a purple sash and a veil she later said made her look like she was "going to go bee hunting."
Caitlyn Finds Out
Despite nearly walking in on Kris' wedding planning meeting at their home, Caitlyn was in the dark about Khloé's engagement — until she turned on the evening news just days before the ceremony. She called Kris, who then tried to come up with a game plan for Khloé in the least covert way possible. Khloé, for her part, argued that she wasn't really engaged yet because she didn't have a ring.
Following a blowout argument, Caitlyn took a moment to speak with Khloé one-on-one. "I know I'm not your genetic dad but I've pretty much raised you since you were 5 years old. … Wouldn't I be one of your first phone calls?" she said, telling Khloé that she hoped it would be "a very long engagement." (Oh, don't let Us forget: Khloé asked Rob to walk her down the aisle instead of Caitlyn, mostly because Rob looks like their late father, Robert Sr.)
Things were still tense when the family gathered for a big dinner, which marked Lamar's first introduction to Caitlyn. By the end of the night, Caitlyn and Lamar appeared to have bonded — and Khloé finally got her ring.
"I feel very at peace, very comfortable in my own skin, very secure. … That's just not what I've ever had before," she gushed.
Almost Wedding Day
Who else would invite their mom to a bachelorette party but a Kardashian? It was all fun and games for Kris until the stripper showed up. "No mom should have to look at all these penises," she said, and truer words may never have been spoken.
When it comes time for the rehearsal, Khloé and Caitlyn still aren't quite on the same page. Even Kim told the cameras she thought letting Rob take such an important role in the ceremony wasn't the best idea.
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At dinner that night, Caitlyn gets up to give a speech — but she's cut off by dramatic music and a cliffhanger commercial break. Instead of causing havoc, however, Caitlyn offered her blessing and shared an emotional memory of the late Robert Sr.
"I told him I would always be there for you kids, and I hope I have," she said.
It's then that Khloé realized how important Caitlyn is as a father figure in her and her siblings' lives. Outside after the celebration, she finally asked Caitlyn to walk her down the aisle — and the Olympian happily accepted.
A Kardashian No More
The night before her wedding, Khloé and her sisters have a sleepover, during which she reminded them it was the last time they'd be going to bed with her as Khloé Kardashian. (Seems like a technicality to Us — Kardashian was still part of her married name.)
Khloé is calm, cool and collected on the morning of her big day, which seems to drive Kim crazy. "I feel like this would be your dream, [but] I really don't care," Khloé told her sister, who wanted to know how it felt to be treated like the "queen of the day."
The bride is also seen touching up her own glam, which no Kardashian would deign to do in the 2020s. "I'm about to walk down the aisle and my heart is racing," Khloé said in a confessional, the nerves finally setting in. "The last three weeks have gone by so fast, I mean, now I'm getting married, I just can't believe I'm actually doing this."
All drama aside, Khloé and Lamar (and let's be honest, Kris) pulled off a fairy-tale wedding in less than two weeks. When Kourtney and Kim took the mic at the reception, they reminded Lamar that "when you date one of us, you date the whole family." Kim even caught the bouquet at the end of the night — and two years later, she was briefly married to Kris Humphries. Manifestation works … kind of.
