The Kardashian clan had history with OJ Simpson long before becoming one of the most famous families in America.
Robert Kardashian, the patriarch and late ex-husband of Kris Jenner, was famously part of the legal team that defended Simpson during his sensationalized 1994–95 murder trial.
Simpson was charged with the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. However, the former football star was controversially acquitted thanks to his legal “Dream Team,” drawing a wedge between Kardashian and Jenner.
After the attorney’s death in 2002 from esophageal cancer, the Kardashian family did their best to sever ties with the retired Buffalo Bills player before his death on April 10, 2024.
Read on for a breakdown of Simpson’s history with the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” crew.
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Robert and Simpson met in college
Robert, the son of wealthy Armenian immigrants, worked as a “glorified water boy” for the University of Southern California Trojans in the late 1960s when Simpson was a star running back at the school, according to Slate.
While the duo only had a brief encounter at school, they reunited about three years later after a mutual friend invited them over for a game of tennis and “instantly bonded,” per the outlet.
The pair became fast friends and eventually went into business together, with Robert helping the athlete delve into the entertainment industry.
Despite not being friends in college, Robert and Simpson often attended alumni events together and even opened up a shop together on campus as investment partners, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Bringing their wives into the mix
Simpson was still married to his first wife, Marguerite Whitley, when Robert started courting Jenner in 1974. The couple married four years later, with the football player acting as a member of their wedding party.
However, Whitley “seemed so unhappy” during her marriage to Simpson, according to Jenner, who was not surprised when the pair split in the late ’70s after Simpson started seeing Brown Simpson.
“I remember thinking how beautiful Nicole was and how young and how blond,” Jenner said in an interview with Sheila Weller (via Slate). “Nicole brought OJ a lot of happiness — you could see it. … She lit up his life. They were golden together.”
Simpson and Brown Simpson, who did not tie the knot until 1985, and the Kardashians became somewhat inseparable as the years went on, vacationing together and frequently going on double dates.
The Kardashian kids called Simpson ‘Uncle OJ’
Due to their parents’ close relationship with the Simpsons, Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian and Rob Kardashian grew up viewing the couple as family.
“OJ was always our Uncle OJ, Nicole was my Auntie Nicole,” Khloé said on “E! True Hollywood Story” in 2009, noting that she and her siblings were too young to know what was going on at the time of the trial.
Simpson and Brown Simpson shared daughter Sydney and son Justin, whom the Kardashians were also close with as kids.
However, the good times were short-lived, as Robert and Jenner split in 1991. A year later, she convinced Brown Simpson to leave the athlete following years of abuse and infidelity.
Simpson’s trial divided the family
After Simpson was arrested for his ex-wife’s murder, both Robert and Jenner felt the need to stand by their friends — putting them on opposing sides of the case.
“Right before the trial started, Robert sat down and wrote us a handwritten letter and just said, ‘Look, I know you don’t agree with what is going down here, but this is what I have to do for my friend,'” Jenner recalled during a 2009 interview with Dr. Phil.
“He believed in what he was doing, and he was asking us for his support.”
The matriarch said the trial and its aftermath were “devastating” for their family. She felt like she “failed as a friend” to Brown Simpson and tried her best to show support by sitting with her late friend’s family in the courtroom as her ex-husband sat across the aisle.
Kids caught in the crosshairs
Due to the divide between their parents, the Kardashian kids were left unsure of which parent to side with.
“You don’t really know what to believe or how to perceive it,” Khloé told E! “It’s sad to see your parents go through so much pain for trying to be true friends.”
However, most of the children sided with their father, unwilling to believe their “uncle” could have done such a thing.
“I definitely took my dad’s side,” Kim told Rolling Stone in 2015. “We just always thought my dad was the smartest person in the world, and he really believed in his friend.”
In fact, after Simpson was found not guilty, the kids’ stepfather, Caitlyn Jenner, had to sit them down and explain that “just because he got a not guilty verdict doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.”
“I remember the day the verdict came through, and [Kourtney, Kim and Khloé] came in, and they said, ‘I told you he didn’t do it,'” the Olympian said on “Dr. Phil.”
After that moment, Caitlyn told the kids that she didn’t “want to hear [OJ’s] name anymore” in their house.
The former decathlete also previously claimed that Brown Simpson had once told Kris she was afraid her ex-husband might murder her.
Honoring Brown Simpson
Kris was pregnant with daughter Kendall Jenner at the time of the trial and chose to honor her late friend by giving the model the middle name of Nicole.
“My middle name is after Nicole Brown Simpson because that was my mom’s best friend,” Kendall confirmed on Snapchat in 2016. “And I’m honored to have this name.”
Kendall was born exactly one month after Simpson was acquitted, though he was later found responsible for Brown Simpson’s death in a civil trial.
Emotional reunion
Although the Kardashian family distanced themselves from Simpson after the trial, Kim revealed in 2019 that she, Kourtney and Khloé ran into their former family friend in 2007.
“I think the last time I saw him was in Miami,” she said in an episode of “Foodgod: OMFG,” adding, “It was before he had gone to jail [for robbery in Las Vegas], and Khloé and — I think me, Kourtney and Khloé — were in Miami in a club, and we ran into him in the VIP section. … We all, I think, all started crying. It was emotional.”
However, the Skims founder noted that she was “still somewhat friendly” with the disgraced athlete’s children and rarely talks about the “super traumatic” situation out of respect for them.
“Their lives must be extremely hard to really go through that,” she said. “So, I always try to keep to myself on that issue and not bring anything up for them.”
Paternity drama
For years, internet trolls accused Simpson of fathering Khloé after Kris admitted to having an affair during her ill-fated marriage to Robert in her memoir, “Kris Jenner and All Things Kardashian.”
Although Kris never revealed the identity of her lover, simply referring to him as a producer named Ryan, both she and Simpson have denied rumors that they were ever romantically involved.
“Bob Kardashian, he was like a brother to me. He was a great guy,” the Super Bowl champion said in a video posted to X in 2019. “But I never — and I want to stress, never in any way, shape or form — have I ever had any interest in Kris romantically or sexually, and I never got any indication that she had any interest in me.”
“Khloe, like all the girls, I am very proud of, just like I know Bob would be if he was here,” he added. “But the simple fact of the matter is that she is not mine.”
Khloé also slammed the rumor in 2017, calling out the “a–holes” and “haters” that questioned her lineage.
In a “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” episode a year later, the reality TV star took a DNA test to prove that she is “58 percent European and 41.6 percent Middle Eastern” — seemingly proving she was not Simpson’s daughter.
‘SNL’ shocker
Although the girls have rarely shared their opinions about the case, Kim shocked “Saturday Night Live” viewers in October 2021 by making a joke about the murders in her monologue.
“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?” she quipped. “I know it’s sort of weird to remember the first black person you met, but OJ does leave a mark — or several, or none at all. I still don’t know.”
Brown Simpson’s sister, Tanya Brown, later slammed the “distasteful” joke, telling TMZ she thought it was made in “poor taste.”
In fact, Kim’s comments made Tanya question whether the famous family ever cared about her slain sister at all.
