Lamar Odom's public battle with addiction has been tough to watch as a neutral observer, so it's hard to imagine what it would be like to experience it as a family member. The spotlight is blinding for an NBA player when things are going well, so when personal turmoil hits, the pressure is staggering.
Adding a dose of reality television probably doesn't help, either. Just ask Odom's daughter Destiny, who thinks his relationship with Khloé Kardashian was terrible for her dad. She dished on Odom's dynamic with Kardashian in a new interview with People.
Destiny described what it was like to have Kardashian come back into the picture after her father overdosed at a Las Vegas brothel in 2015. "A lot of people in our circle were confused," she said. "Their relationship is very toxic."
The 18-year-old suggested the Odom family dynamic changed drastically once Kardashian was in the picture, and it impacted the family in more ways than one. Destiny claims her own life changed because of Keeping up With The Kardashians, with the added spotlight leaving her susceptible to bullying.
“Things are so public and you don’t have a private life anymore," she said. "There were regular snide comments at school. And when his addiction became public, then it became a social media thing. Even people that I thought were my friends were saying stuff on social media. It was humiliating."
Though Destiny doesn't appear to outright blame Kardashian for her father's issues, it's a public acknowledgement of additional strain she says was put on Odom and his family. At the very least, his on-again, off-again relationship with the reality star left a negative impression on those around him, to the point that they aren't afraid to speak up about it today.
Odom has taken ownership of his problems in interviews conducted since his overdose, and Kardashian has since moved on to other relationships, so hopefully this is the last we hear about their problems. It seems pretty clear that we're well past the point where any sort of constructive relationship or dialogue can be had between the two.
