Expert warns Khloe Kardashian to ‘walk away’ from Tristan Thompson relationship or face troubling consequences
KHLOE Kardashian isn’t brave enough to quit the relationship pattern she follows with Tristan Thompson, a psychologist has said.
In the wake of new photos of the Canadian athlete hugging a mystery woman in a car park, she warns that Khloe will still go back to him.
A potential reunion between Khloe and Tristan has seemed very much on the cards recently.
The basketball star was a guest at Khloe’s best friends Malika and Khadijah Haqq’s 40th birthday in West Hollywood earlier this month.
She also posted a gushing birthday dedication to Tristan on March 14, describing her as “truly the best father, brother & uncle.”
She added: “Your love, attention, silly dances, hugs, carpool rides, bedtime rituals, the way u show up for them,” while tellingly turning off the comment function.
At the time, fans went wild on Reddit, asking: “WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER?!!!!!! why does she make this all public?…. couldn’t she just privately message him something?”
It was only three days later, on March 17, that the photos of Tristan hugging a petite blonde emerged.
Psychologist Dr. Becky Spelman told The U.S. Sun that unless Khloe toughens up, a reunion with Tristan remains on the table.
“Here’s a repetitive cycle of pain where Khloe’s idea of what love means, is mixed up,” she says.
“Khloe’s also following her immediate feelings rather than the reality of a long-term, problematic situation.
“Her relationship with Tristan isn’t healthy and no matter what shape it takes, there’s been no positive change.
“Khloe’s putting up with bad behavior which is down to her low self-esteem.
“She doesn’t have high enough standards to fully walk away.
“Unfortunately, this behavior might be caused by childhood emotional neglect where someone’s emotions weren’t fully attended to.
“This might be a learned behavior and what people see when they are growing up.
“So they’re essentially just replaying what they’ve witnessed growing up, and that’s what’s familiar to them or don’t know any different than this.
“She needs to get out of it all now.”
Khloe and Tristan have endured a well-documented on/off relationship that has been riddled with plenty of scandals.
After getting together in 2016, by 2017 Khloe confirmed she was pregnant, with True arriving the following April.
But the pair’s time together quickly bore the hallmarks of classic celebrity drama.
Cheating allegations began to surface even around the time of True’s birth.
Another low point for Khloe followed in 2019 when Tristan reportedly hooked up with Jordyn Woods.
And by 2021, personal trainer Maralee Nichols revealed she was pregnant with the NBA star’s baby.
Following a paternity test and a public apology, by July 2022 and Khloe and Tristan welcomed their second child by surrogate.
While their relationship appears to have cooled before the death of his mother Andrea, this changed when Khloe dashed to support him in Toronto.
Also as exclusively revealed in The U.S. Sun in December, a trust associated with Tristan had signed a deed on a house a few miles from Khloe’s Hidden Hills mansion.
At the same time, Tristan was seen accompanying Kim Kardashian to North West’s basketball games in Los Angeles.
“When people have an on-off relationship, it’s a sign of some kind of attachment difficulty, ” explains Dr. Spelman, Clinical Director of Private Therapy Clinic.
“Normally, people might walk away from a bad relationship and make sure that it never happens again.
“But in Khloe and Tristan’s situation, they back to one another time and time again.
“It shows that no matter what bad behavior happens, there’s always forgiveness.
“It’s unhealthy because it’s extremely anxiety provoking and causes low moods.
“Here one or both parties are putting up with terrible behavior.
“They keep going back to the other person without showing that person that they won’t put up with that behavior anymore.”
Separate from Tristan, Khloe’s love life has seen plenty of other ups and downs.
Her four-year marriage to Lamar Odom led to controversies after they got engaged in 2009 following a whirlwind romance.
And while Odom’s substance abuse led to their downfall, by 2016 Khloe had already moved on with rapper, French Montana.
When Khloe met Tristan in 2016, he was also about to have his first child with a former girlfriend.
Meanwhile Khloe had just disentangled herself from NBA star James Harden.
“The cycle is such that Tristan obviously loves the chase, and he definitely gets that with Khloe – who leans into it all, ” adds Dr. Spelman.
“She lets him get away with things too easily, and then it gets boring for him.
“Tristan then disappears and she experiences a tremendous amount of pain.
“She might feel desperate for him to return, and stay there waiting for him.
“It must be very distracting in terms of her happiness and the rest of her life.
“He then shows a grand gesture to try and get her forgiveness, something probably very romantic.
“And Khloe accepts this hoping things will change.
“He’ll probably say all the right words, and then she accepts him back but this is short-lived because Tristan gets bored.
“Khloe’s actually quite easy to get back so he feels that he needs to chase again.
“That leads him to wander off only to crush Khloe and break her heart again.
Our expert adds: “My advice to Khloe would be to just leave this relationship once and for all.
“She can have a co-parenting relationship with Tristan without trying to rekindle it.
“Trying to rekindle this many times is causing her a lot of pain.
“What would serve her much better is going for a partner who’s consistent.
“But also, Khloe’s behavior has to change.
“She has to stand up for herself and show her partner that she’ll not be willing to be treated like this.
“So she’ll need to really lean into being very motivated to create change in her life.
“Khloe’s incredibly influential, so it’s very sad to see someone go through this amount of pain.
“But she could use this pain to help influence women so that they don’t fall into the same trap.”
