What Happened To Lamar Odom And Khloé Kardashian? A Timeline Of Their Complex Relationship

Former Los Angeles Lakers star Lamar Odom is still in a coma after being found unconscious Tuesday at a Nevada brothel formerly known as the Bunny Ranch, and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” star Khloé Kardashian is at his side. They signed divorce papers in July, and are still married only because of a technicality, yet Kardashian dropped everything to be with her ailing husband. Why?

The relationship between the two, who also had their own E! reality series, “Khloé & Lamar,” is a tortured one. The 31-year-old admitted on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" that she would still be married to Odom, 35, if she had her way.

Kardashian and Odom met in 2009 at a party for his Lakers teammate Ron Artest. After dating for just weeks, they were married. Episodes of “KUWTK” showed the couple as inseparable, and Khloé was the first Kardashian sister to get married on the E! series. Family members had their doubts, but Kardashian had never been surer. Odom was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. She didn’t mind that he had a past. She was focused on their future.

In the early years of their relationship, there were never any hints on "KUWTK" of Odom's drug use. But it wasn't a secret. Odom was suspended for five games in March 2001 after he tested positive for marijuana, the Bleacher Report noted in 2013. And he was suspended for eight games in December 2001 when he failed another drug test.

The “KUWTK” cameras didn’t reveal the stark differences in the ways Kardashian and Odom grew up. She had a privileged life in the ritzy Southern California city of Calabasas. Odom’s upbringing was much different. A native of Jamaica, Queens, he lost his mother to colon cancer when he was 12, and his father, Joe Odom, was largely out of the picture due to a heroin addiction.

Instead of his rough past, "KUWTK" viewers were shown a lovable, upbeat Odom who looked at Kardashian like she was the most gorgeous woman in the world. But his personal demons and battle with addiction wouldn’t stay dormant for long.

Kardashian wanted to save him, a source told Us Weekly, but Odom would be high on cocaine for “four days at a time.” During his downward spiral he purportedly cheated on her with multiple women. Even though he did a stint in rehab, Kardashian had reached her limit after four years of marriage. She filed for divorce in December 2013.

Odom refused to sign divorce papers and would still call Kardashian his wife even though they were estranged. But the dysfunction worked both ways. Her apparent need to "save him" never left and the couple was always in contact.

Their relationship continued to be featured on "KUWTK." Odom never appeared on the show after they split, but phone conversations between the couple were filmed for the E! series. “Khloé would either ignore the texts and voice mail messages ... or she would tell him, 'You owe me this after you humiliated me by cheating with other women,' ” a source told Radar Online Thursday.

But the love she has for him is still there. Kardashian reportedly was “inconsolable” when she heard the news and flew to Las Vegas to be with Odom. He reportedly has a 50-50 chance of survival.

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