Lamar Odom‘s ex Liza Morales made a rare comment about their relationship — and recalled the moment she discovered 6-month-old son dead.
“Jayden was just so curious. He had big eyes and he would look around the room. I do remember I was just exhausted because he’d be up every two hours,” Morales, 46, who shares kids Destiny, 27, and Lamar Jr., 23, with Odom, 46, shared in Netflix’s The Death & Life of Lamar Odom special.
“I did think he’d be my last child and I remember saying to myself, ‘Appreciate this,’” she continued. ” Because something was telling me to enjoy that moment.”
Morales was asked about Jayden’s sudden death in 2006 in the documentary, which aired on Tuesday, March 31.
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“We went to New York for a funeral for Lamar’s aunt. I remember oversleeping and I didn’t hear Jayden waking up. So we just went upstairs and I just remember turning him over and his lips were blue,” Morales said of Jayden’s death from sudden infant death syndrome.. “The firemen just grabbed him up like a football and we ran to the ambulance.”
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is described as the unexplained death of an infant, per the Mayo Clinic. These deaths occur usually within one year of a healthy child’s birth. The syndrome is sometimes referred to as “crib death,” as the infants often die in their cribs.
“When you get the death certificate, it just says — not undisclosed or not undescribed — another that doesn’t really answer any questions,” Odom said of his baby’s death. “I really cried too much when he passed away.”
He continued, “The night that he passed away, I was out all night partying with my man. Then the baby just passed while asleep. No scars, no hemorrhages and no luck. We went to go identify his body the next day. … They say that people that go through that — it either brings them together and makes them extremely strong. Or it brings them apart.”
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Odom and Morales started dating when they were in high school. They ultimately called it quits in the aftermath of Jayden’s death, before Odom got married to Khloe Kardashian in 2009 after one month of dating.
In the years since, Odom has opened up about how navigating the loss of his son contributed to his substance abuse. (Odom struggled with addiction before and after his near-fatal overdose in 2015.)
“Even [when my son was] six months old I was saying that we had a really great relationship because whenever I would come into the room, his eyes would just follow me wherever I went until I picked him up,” the former professional basketball player said on the February 2022 episode of Celebrity Big Brother, calling his late son a “special” baby.
“2006 would’ve made him, right now, I think 15 or 14 years old,” he added. “There’s just something I don’t think I’d ever get over. But him coming to me in a dream lets me know that he’s not too far away. And I know I’ll see him in an afterlife.”
Untold: The Death & Life of Lamar Odom is streaming now on Netflix.
