Kim Kardashian West says O.J. Simpson trial ‘tore my family apart’

She also told David Letterman that a newspaper labeled her 'Robert Kardashian's mistress.'

Oct 21, 2020

In a clip from an appearance on the Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, hosted by David Letterman, Kim Kardashian West opens up about memories of the O.J. Simpson trial.

“My mom was extremely vocal on her feelings,” Kardashian West says. “She believed that her friend was murdered by him, and that was really traumatizing for her. And then we would go to my dad’s house, and it was a whole ‘nother situation there.”

In a light moment during a serious story on “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” Kim Kardashian West told David Letterman that a newspaper labeled her “Robert Kardashian’s mistress,” her first experience with the press. (Netflix)

“We didn’t know what to believe or whose side to take,” she said.

During the contentious 1995 double murder trial, Kardashian West’s father, Robert Kardashian Sr., was one of Simpson’s attorneys. Her mother, Kris, was remarried at the time to then-Bruce Jenner and was close friends with Nicole Brown Simpson, the victim found stabbed to death in 1994 alongside her friend, Ron Goldman.

“We didn’t want to hurt one of our parents’ feelings,” Kardashian West said. She recalled that her father took her and her siblings out of school one day during the trial without telling their mother, who was in the courtroom sitting with the Brown family.

“It kind of tore our family apart during the whole time of the trial,” she said, noting that she was around 13 or 14 years old.

“I distinctly remember staying home from school to watch the verdict,” she said. She and her sister, Kourtney Kardashian, went to Simpson’s home after Simpson’s not-guilty verdict was announced.

In a light moment during the serious story, Kardashian West recalled a newspaper labeling her “Robert Kardashian’s mistress.” She said that was her first experience with the press.

Kardashian West’s father died in September of 2003 after a brief battle with esophageal cancer.

Her episode is part of Season 3 of the popular Letterman interview show. Previous guests have included former President Barack Obama and current presidential write-in hopeful Kanye West, Kardashian West’s husband.

During the same episode, Letterman said that he had “misjudged” Kardashian West and her reality-star sisters. She and Kourtney appeared on The Late Show in 2013, and many felt Letterman, then the host, was rude to the sisters.

On his new show, he says that his interactions with Kardashian West’s spouse helped him realize that he was wrong for using her as a “joke” and not “someone to be taken seriously.”

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