On Friday night, Kim Kardashian and her daughter, North West, were spotted sitting court side at the Lakers game in Los Angeles, rooting for their home team but cheering on one player in particular: Tristan Thompson, Kim’s sister Khloé’s ex-boyfriend.
Thompson was signed to the Lakers in April, so one could interpret Kim and North’s show of support, which mother and daughter demonstrated loud and clear with a homemade sign spelling out TRISTAN THOMPSON in bubble letters, as simply a sweet gesture, given that Thompson shares two children with Khloé and will therefore always be “part of the family” in a technical way.
But Thompson’s seemingly off-again relationship with Khloé Kardashian, notably, has been extensibly documented through several seasons of Keeping Up With the Kardashians and The Kardashians, their more-recently-launched show on Hulu.
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The strangeness of Kim Kardashian’s public cheerleading for Tristan stems from the fact that Thompson’s flagrantly poor track record is indisputable: He is a serial cheater who conceived a child, Theo, with fitness model Maralee Nichols behind Khloé’s back while a surrogate was pregnant with their second child, a boy named Tatum, who’s now 9 months old.
But that wasn’t even the first time Thompson had broken Kardashian’s trust while the two had awaited a baby. While Khloé herself was pregnant with the couple’s daughter, True, in 2018, numerous women came forward via social media with alleged texts and alleged sex tapes with Thompson.
Just days before Khloé gave birth to True, the Daily Mail and TMZ published photos and video of Thompson kissing women in clubs and hookah lounges.
As documented on the family’s omnipresent reality programs, Khloé has always allowed Thompson back into her life following his repeated betrayals—he also kissed Jordyn Woods, ex-best friend of Kylie Jenner, at a party in 2019—in some capacity, whether re-accepting him as a romantic partner or as a platonic family member.
Although a source reportedly told Us in January that Khloé has “no intention of getting back with Tristan,” she wrote a flowery Instagram caption for his birthday in March.
Another conflicting narrative clue arrived two weeks ago in the form of the trailer for season 3 of The Kardashians on Hulu, which premieres March 25th.
In the trailer, Khloé is shown recovering from surgery to remove melanoma on her face. She’s also asked where she stands with Tristan, who himself makes an appearance: “I think he thinks, ‘Let’s just ride this out,’ but no,” Kardashian says. “No chances.”
As much as fans of the show may want that sentiment to be true, Tristan Thompson has proven that for whatever reason, he’s been extremely difficult to get rid of—and a public show of support from Kim Kardashian could potentially be prepping audiences for the reality that Khloé and Tristan are indeed a couple once more.
As one YouTube commenter put it: “Girl will cut melanoma but not Tristan…he kinda IS the melanoma in your life.”
A source close to the family told The Daily Beast that Khloé and Tristan are not dating again, but that Khloé’s family will continue to be supportive of Tristan, regardless of their relationship status.
The Daily Beast reached out to Khloé Kardashian, Kim Kardashian and Tristan Thompson for comment.
