Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian. Photo / Getty Images
Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian. Photo / Getty Images
Lamar Odom was officially introduced to the Kardashian universe during the fourth season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
"I've never had someone tell me so many times a day how pretty I am and talk to me like that and just make me feel like I am everything that he says I am," Khloe Kardashian told viewers during the show's season premiere.
In the episode's early scenes, Odom, who is currently reportedly in a coma after being found unconscious at a Nevada brothel, confessed that he knew the two would be married one day.
By the end of the episode, they were.
Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian. Photo / Getty Images
From the moment E! television cameras captured their extravagant black-tie wedding, Odom became an unlikely and, at times, refreshing fixture on the Kardashians' popular reality show.
Though Odom had been a successful basketball player for years, his appearances on Keeping Up with the Kardashians and subsequent spin-off, Khloe and Lamar, thrust him into a new kind of spotlight, filled with paparazzi cameras and scrutiny of his marriage.
The couple's whirlwind courtship was initially a source of contention within the Kardashian family - at least, as told by E! footage. But over multiple seasons of reality TV ventures, Odom appeared to become a genuinely well-liked member of the family he married into, bonding in particular with the youngest Kardashian sibling, Rob, who lived with the couple.
When Khloe Kardashian filed for divorce in 2013 after months of rumors about Odom's alleged drug use and infidelity, it was reportedly especially hard on Rob. Rob has withdrawn from the spotlight in recent years amid speculation about his own well-being.
In a scene during Keeping Up with the Kardashian's eighth season, Rob turned to Lamar for advice on his weight gain.
"I think it's time for Rob to regain his confidence about himself, about what he's doing, where he's going," Lamar told viewers. "Whatever he needs from me, I'll give it to him. I just want to see him happy. I don't want to see him laying here on the couch for days."
The Kardashian sisters, Kourtney , Khloe and Kim.
Odom brought a humble presence to the Kardashian homes. In a way, he seemed well-suited for Khloe, known for being the most down-to-earth of her siblings. Both Odom and Kardashian had experienced the loss of a parent at a young age; Kardashian's father, Robert, died of cancer when she was 19, while Odom lost his mother to cancer when he was 12.
Their childhoods, however, could not have been more different - a theme that played out on both shows featuring the couple. In the first episode of Khloe and Lamar that debuted in 2011, Khloe urged Lamar to reconnect with his estranged father.
"Marrying somebody so quickly, you don't realize 'oh, we are from two totally different worlds," Khloe said.
When Odom refuses to pick up a phone call from his father, he confesses: "Our relationship is completely different from a normal father-son relationship. My father's an addict."
"It's hard for me to really speak upon it and to get it through to Khloe because she grew up so different," he added.
Keeping Up with the Kardashians offered viewers a glimpse of Odom's backstory during the seventh season, when Kim and Khloe join him on a trip to Queens. Odom stops by a local playground and tells Khloe and Kim what it means to him:
Khloe Kardashian Odom and Lamar Odom from the show Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Photo / AP
"You see how when I came in, you know, all those people grew up... with my moms, my aunt and all of that. That's where they used to hustle at, right there. That's where all the drugs were sold. The park used to be the stash house. And when my moms died, I had came to the park and I slept in here for like two to three days. I mean, the whole neighborhood would basically watch out for me."
There were lighter moments throughout his appearances on the series as well - in one episode, Kim and Khloe convince a hesitatant Lamar to visit a dentist.
Even after Odom stopped appearing on the reality show, his name (and occasionally, his voice) were still heard as Khloe and the rest of her family dealt with their separation and eventual divorce, which became final in July.
In the 10th season finale, which aired Oct. 2, Khloe fields a call from Odom who tells her that his best friend, Jamie Sangouthai, had passed away unexpectedly. Sangouthai, who died in June, had appeared on episodes of Khloe and Lamar. His death was reportedly caused by his drug use.
"I'm really on high alert for Lamar because anything I think will set him to spiral and that's kind of the last thing I want for him," Khloe told viewers.
