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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Amber Raiken

Khloe Kardashian says Tristan Thompson ‘encouraged’ her embryo transfer before news of paternity scandal broke

The Kardashians / Hulu

Khloe Kardashian has revealed that, right before news broke about ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson’s paternity scandal, he had “encouraged” her to undergo an embryo transfer, as they were in the process of trying for a second baby via surrogate.

In the season two premiere of The Kardashians, Kardashian spoke on the phone with her older sister, Kim Kardashian, about court documents released in December 2021, which revealed that Thompson had cheated on the reality star and fathered a baby with personal trainer Maralee Nichols.

During a confessional interview in the new episode, which was filmed at the end of last year, Kardashian said that she told her sister that she “did an embryo transfer a couple of days ago” in order to have her and Thompson’s second child via surrogate. The former couple also share a four-year-old daughter, True.

“We did an embryo transfer like days before Thanksgiving, and I found out about Tristan’s situation the first week of December,” she explained.

The Good American founder also claimed that Thompson “encouraged” her to go through with the embryo transfer despite finding out about Nichols’ pregnancy in July 2021.

“All I know is I was being encouraged to do it by a certain date,” she said. “In hindsight, he always knew when the other baby was being born, especially getting the paperwork that we saw. He found out July 2nd, so he did know.”

However, she also acknowledged that, when she and Thompson first talked about surrogacy, the idea of growing her family sounded “healthy”.

“It was just a great thing, I thought, to expand our family,” she said. “Thinking it was like this real, healthy, loving, protective type of family.”

She also expressed her worry that people would make false judgments about her due to the timing of the embryo transfer and Thompson’s paternity scandal, before criticising her ex.

“It’s just so close I wouldn’t want anyone to think I did this after the fact. Why would I want to have a baby with someone who is having a baby with somebody else? I’m not that much of a sociopath. I’m a lunatic, but not that f***ing deranged,” she said.

Kardashian and Thompson’s off-and-on relationship first began in 2016, with the basketball star accused of infidelity multiple times.

According to court documents released in December 2021, Thompson admitted to having sexual intercorse with Nichol in March of that year, while he was still dating Kardashian. He took a paternity test in January, which confirmed that he was the father to Nichols’ son.

Elsewhere in The Kardashians episode, Kardashian acknowledged that, at the time, she was “very scared” about how people would respond to the news that she was expecting another child with Thompson.

“I’m very scared,” she added. “It’s very scary. I think I’m probably emotionally equipped but I’m also like: ‘Okay, I have to brace myself, I know what’s going to come when this goes public because everyone is so mean.’”

She went on to emphasise the importance of keeping her children safe from the media, explaining: “You just want to protect this innocent being that had nothing to do with this. I just don’t want any of that energy around my kids, I don’t want that.”

Kardashian’s son was born a couple weeks early on 28 July, with the season two premiere showing the moment the Good American founder FaceTimed her daughter to introduce her to her new baby brother. While she did not reveal the baby’s name, she did note that she planned to give her son a name starting with “T,” so that he would match his older sister.

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