Khloe Kardashian has opened up about struggling to connect with her son after he was born via surrogate.
In the latest episode of The Kardashians season three, the 38-year-old reality star spoke candidly about her parenting struggles to her own mother, Kris Jenner. Kardashian – who welcomed son Tatum via surrogate in July 2022 – admitted feeling less bonded to her son born via surrogacy than her daughter True, whom she birthed.
“With True, it took me a couple of days to be like, OK, this is my daughter,” Kardashian said in episode three. “With him, it’s taken me months. I love him and I love kids but, I still don’t have that complete bond.”
Kardashian added that she sometimes feels “guilty” that she hasn’t bonded with her son in the same way as her five-year-old daughter.
“I’m like, why isn’t it the same? But I know it will be and I know, like, I don’t treat him differently. I just question myself sometimes.”
Despite her struggles, Kris Jenner assured her daughter that she’s “mother of the year” to her two children and praised her as the “most attentive person” to everyone in the famous family.
“I wish I wasn’t so critical of myself because I’m very kind to everyone else,” Kardashian said in her confessional. “I’m just not very kind to myself.”
“But being a mom is truly one of the most magical experiences ever,” she maintained.
Khloe Kardashian shares daughter True and son Tatum with ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson. In the season three premiere of The Kardashians, which dropped on Hulu on 25 May, Kardashian first admitted that relying on a surrogate to welcome son Tatum was a “mindf***”.
The Good American founder described surrogacy as a “transactional process”, adding that she had been in a “state of shock from the entire experience”.
“I buried my head in the sand during that pregnancy,” Kardashian shared during her confessional. “When I went to the hospital, that was the first time it really registered, and it has nothing to do with the baby.”
She continued: “I felt really guilty that this woman just had my baby, and then I take the baby and I go to another room and you’re separated. It’s such a transactional experience because it’s not about him.”
“I wish someone was honest about surrogacy and the difference of it. That doesn’t mean it’s bad – it’s great, but it’s very different.”
The reality star previously admitted that her connection with her now-nine-month-old son has been more difficult to forge, compared to the one she has with her eldest child. “I do think there is a difference when your baby is in your belly, the baby actually feels your real heart,” Kardashian shared. “Think about it. There’s no one else on this planet that will feel you from the inside like that, your heart.”
Before calling it quits in 2021, Khloe Kardashian and NBA star Tristan Thompson have had an on-again, off-again relationship since 2016. Just days before their daughter’s birth in 2018, it was revealed that Thompson had cheated on Kardashian in an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
In January 2022, Thompson confirmed he fathered a son with fitness instructor Maralee Nichols after she had issued a paternity lawsuit against the 32-year-old basketball star. The scandal emerged just a month after Kardashian and Thompson’s son was reportedly conceived.
