Lamar Odom now is living clean.
The former NBA star and reality television personality discussed his past drug use, failed marriage with Khloe Kardashian, the end of his basketball career and his brush with death in an enthralling interview with US Weekly’s Ian Drew published Wednesday. Now sober, Odom details his litany of regrets, many of which centered around his cocaine use.
Odom hid his drug abuse from Kardashian for years, and their relationship moved in a new direction once she discovered it in 2009.
“I’m not going to say she accepted it because that would be the wrong word,” Odom said. “Tolerated would be a better word.”
Odom was a basketball star for years, but his reality-tv-driven fame created temptations to which he now is ashamed of having succumbed.
“If there is one thing I regret when I was married, it was having multiple affairs with different women. That wasn’t the stand-up thing to do,” he said.
He used cocaine more heavily after separating from Kardashian and he explains the effect it had on his final years as a player.
“It probably helped the end of my career come along a little faster because drugs killed my drive to want to train and be in shape,” he said.
But he insists he wasn’t using drugs the night the he fell into a coma at a brothel.
“Looking back, I might have had a drink to get the mood started, but was I drunk or on drugs? Not at all,” he said. “I remember lying in bed. Two women were in bed and then I fell asleep. That’s all. When I woke up four days later, I was trying to pull the tubes out of my mouth.”
Odom’s children were instrumental in his seeking help to battle his addiction. He completed a month-long stay at a San Diego rehab clinic in January and is working on a docuseries and an autobiography due out later this year.
“Of Living sober, meaning no drugs, is a great feeling,” he said. “Being in the moment is important — how you react, respond, create.”
Odom will continue down the road to recovery for the rest of his days, and he seems grateful to have the chance to do so.
Thumbnail photo via Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports Images
