Kim Kardashian found a way to sidestep O.J. Simpson‘s high-profile trial while speaking with her daughter about her late father’s friend.
During the Thursday, November 20, episode of The Kardashians, Kim, 45, revealed that she purchased a bible Robert Kardashian gifted to Simpson in an auction from Simpson’s estate.
“My daddy gave this book to his best friend to give him some motivation from Jesus,” she told her 7-year-old daughter, Chicago. “Motivation is when you help to inspire someone to do positive things.”
Kim looked through the book and added, “This is not my dad’s writing so it must be O.J. ‘s. He went to jail. It’s a long story, I’ll tell you when you’re older.”
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Simpson was arrested and subsequently charged in 1994 with the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. One of the attorneys on O.J’s legal team was Kim’s father.
“Chicago is, obviously ,so little and she doesn’t really understand what this means or really what this even is,” Kim said in the show. “But I still wanted to share this moment with her.”
Robert welcomed four kids with Jenner during their marriage from 1978 to 1991: Kourtney Kardashian, Kim, Khloé Kardashian and Rob Kardashian. After their divorce, Kris, 70, found love with Caitlyn Jenner, and they were together until 2013. (Robert died at age 59 in 2003 after a battle with esophageal cancer.)
In one of the most talked-about verdicts of all time, O.J. was famously acquitted of the murders in 1995, but he was found liable for Ron and Nicole’s deaths in a civil trial three years later. The Kardashians have made rare comments over the years about how seeing their parents on different sides of the trial affected them.
“O.J. was always our Uncle O.J., Nicole was my Auntie Nicole,” Khloé, 41, told E! True Hollywood Story in 2009. “You don’t really know what to believe or how to perceive it. … It’s sad to see your parents go through so much pain for trying to be true friends.”
Kim, meanwhile, said she sided with her father because she trusted him so much. “I definitely took my dad’s side,” she told Rolling Stone in July 2015. “We just always thought my dad was the smartest person in the world, and he really believed in his friend.”
According to Kim, the situation “tore” her family apart at the time.
“My mom was extremely vocal on her feelings — she believed that her friend was murdered by him and that was really traumatizing for her,” she shared with David Letterman in October 2020. “And then we’d go to my dad’s house and it was a whole other situation there.”
Kim didn’t want to comment on the case as she got older because of O.J. and Nicole’s kids: Sydney and Justin. “I just respect his children, so if I were to say something that would hurt someone’s feelings publicly — unless they’re coming for me and I have to defend myself or a family member — then I’m aware,” she added.
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Despite largely remaining tight-lipped on the subject, Kim poked fun at her history with O.J. while hosting Saturday Night Live in 2021, joking, “It’s because of [my father] that I met my first Black person. Want to take a stab in the dark at who it was? I know it’s sort of weird to remember the first Black person you met, but O.J. does leave a mark or several, or none at all. I still don’t know.”
Nicole’s sister Tanya Brown later slammed the joke, telling TMZ that she and her family found the monologue “beyond inappropriate and insensitive,” claiming that it was in “poor taste” to joke at her late sister’s expense.
O.J. died at age 76 in 2024 following a private cancer battle. While Kim hasn’t spoken about O.J. often, she previously poked fun at their connection.
“It is my birthday week and I have been called to jury duty,” she told the cameras during a May 2024 episode of The Kardashians. “I feel like there’s some kind of O.J connection that will get me out of jury duty.”
Kim clarified that she wasn’t serious, adding, “I’m just kidding.”
Hulu releases new episodes of The Kardashians every Thursday.
