In the late ’80s and early ’90s, the Kardashians and the Simpsons were inseparable, boosting their young children alongside one another, paying time at each other’s houses and jetting off on tropical family members holidays. But in 1994, just after O.J. Simpson was arrested for the murder of his ex-spouse Nicole Brown Simpson and her buddy Ron Goldman, almost everything changed. “It tore my spouse and children apart,” Kim Kardashian recalled in a 2020 interview, explaining that her mother, Kris Jenner, “believed” that Simpson murdered Nicole. “And then we’d go to my dad’s property,” stated Kim, whose late father, Robert Kardashian, represented Simpson in his superior-profile murder demo, “and it was a complete other scenario there.”
In a verdict that stopped The us in its tracks, Simpson was in the long run located not guilty of murdering Nicole and Goldman. But the Kardashians’ lives ended up for good modified. “O.J. solid a pall of panic and unhappiness about the complete family,” a previous close friend of the Kardashians reveals in the latest situation of Us Weekly, introducing that prior to his loss of life on Wednesday, April 10 (Simpson experienced been battling prostate cancer), the “threat” that the 76-year-outdated posed to the fact stars “was anything that they dealt with daily.”
A long time after Nicole’s murder, Kim, 43, was approached by a media outlet to discuss about her “Uncle O.J.” The former pal claims Kim reluctantly agreed to do it — until eventually term obtained back again to Simpson, who was behind bars for stealing athletics memorabilia. (In 2008, he was convicted on fees of armed robbery and launched from jail in 2017.) “O.J. had termed her from jail, leaving a very simple but menacing voice mail. It said, ‘Kim, it is Uncle O.J. Hope you are undertaking perfectly. I’ll get in touch with you before long,’” recalls the previous buddy. “His tone was neutral but firm — the edge was there. It was a warning, and Kim was terrified.”
She wasn’t the only a person. In accordance to the former good friend, at that time, Jenner, 68, was however in speak to with several of the crucial gamers in the murder demo. “[It seemed like] they have been all terrified of Simpson and were united in retaining monitor of him for their individual basic safety,” claims the close friend, incorporating that even immediately after Kim resolved not to communicate about Simpson, it was clear that many “still thought of O.J. a definite, unpredictable threat to the safety of them and their family members.”
Simpson’s affiliation with the Kardashians endured extensive immediately after the demo ended, with rumors swirling that he may possibly have been Khloé Kardashian‘s organic father. The Kardashians resolved the theories in a 2012 episode of their long-working reality exhibit — aptly titled “Who’s Your Daddy?” — wherever Jenner encouraged her daughter to take a DNA take a look at, however Khloé, 39, finally resolved versus it. Simpson went on to deny the rumors in a 2019 Father’s Working day video posted on Twitter, saying, “The uncomplicated details of the make any difference is, she’s not mine.”
Robert, a close close friend of Simpson’s considering the fact that college or university, in the beginning thought in the former NFL player’s innocence — and asked the rest of the Kardashians for their assistance in his selection to represent him in the murder demo. “He wrote us a handwritten letter,” recalled Jenner, “and just mentioned, ‘Look, I know you never concur with what is going down in this article, but this is what I have to do for my buddy.…’ It was pretty difficult because my ex-spouse was on a person side… I was sort of on the other, the little ones were in the middle.”
Robert, states the previous mate, inevitably recognized that Simpson had lied to him. “He [felt] betrayed and tricked into defending [O.J.] at the most publicized trial in historical past. He was disgusted by the truth that O.J. could have murdered two men and women so brutally,” suggests the good friend. “Robert may have won a not guilty verdict for a killer. He was by no means the exact same once again following that day.”
Next the demo, Simpson saved tabs on anyone concerned and would phone them if they spoke to a information outlet. “He didn’t overlook a tale [and would] resurface in the lifestyle of any former associate who dared to discuss about him to the push,” claims the former mate. “At this level, O.J. was a free of charge person, and everybody was deeply frightened of incurring his wrath.”
Now that Simpson’s long gone, the Kardashians can breathe a sigh of aid, but it will hardly ever improve the uneasiness they lived with for many years. “The loss of Nicole [has] by no means [been] much away,” says the friend, revealing that images of Nicole and the little ones — Sydney, 38, and Justin, 35, — she shared with Simpson remained on the walls of Jenner’s business for years. “The household is still… haunted by the horrible close she had faced,” adds the previous relatives good friend. “But they’re cost-free from O.J.’s threats now.”
For extra on O.J. and the Kardashians, observe the exceptional video clip higher than — and decide up the hottest challenge of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.
