Former lawyer, businessman, father, apprentice cameraman for his family videos, husband, friend… For 60 years, Robert Kardashian proudly wore these multiple caps.
This petite man, with dark hair streaked through with a few white streaks down the front, is known today for his incredible family: the Kardashians.
Deceased in 2003, he remains this father respected and adored by his children, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Robert as well as his ex-wife, Kris Jenner.
Robert Kardashian at the OJ Simpson trial.
(December 2, 1994.)
Getty images
For several years, Kim, the youngest in the family, has been passionate about law.
Following in her father's footsteps, she resumed her studies to become a lawyer.
And Monday, December 13, announced on Instagram his success in a first Los Angeles bar exam, after four tries.
Full of convictions, she wishes to defend the detainees who have been judged too harshly and "to fight for the people who have paid their debts to society", she explained in an interview for the magazine
Vogue.
A subject that touched his father closely when he defended his friend OJ Simpson in 1994.
Kim Kardashian has notably visited the White House several times to discuss the subject with former President Donald Trump.
These talks culminated in the presidential pardon of Alice Marie Johnson in 2018, sentenced to life imprisonment following a drug trafficking case.
The young woman, who worked in the office of her father before his death, explained that she had "learned a lot from him", during an interview with David Letterman in 2020, available on Netflix.
When the journalist asked him where this desire to do law came from, the reality TV star had made no secret of the fact that "the link with his father was obvious".
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Robert was born on February 22, 1944 in a family of Armenian genocide survivors. He grew up in Los Angeles in a well-to-do home alongside his parents, Arthur and Helen, who were highly respected by the Armenian community, and attended Dorsey High School, where many sportsmen studied, such as James Wilkes, a former basketball player for the Chicagos. Bulls, but also singer Mike Love, founding member of the
Beach Boys
. Robert Kardashian then obtained his law degree from the University of San Diego, and launched into professional life. Against all expectations, he does not become a lawyer, but invests in business. In 1973, he co-founded
Radio & Records
, a professional journal on the radio and music industry, with which he made a fortune.
A year later, Robert meets Kris Houghton and falls under his spell of the 19-year-old. In an interview for
Slate
in 2016, the one who would become Kris Jenner told journalist Sheila Weller that the first time she entered the luxurious house of the businessman, she "rushed into the bedroom. 'friends, I closed the door, I called my mom and I whispered to her: "This place is amazing, you can't even imagine!" ". Robert Kardashian falls in love with this stewardess, 10 years his junior, who wishes many children. The couple married in 1978 and welcomed 4 children: Kourtney (1979), Kim (1980), Khloé (1984) and Robert (1987).
Robert Kardashian in the middle speaks with Alvin Michelson, left and OJ Simpson, right, during the trial of the famous American football player.
(Los Angeles, May 3, 1995.)
AFP Forum
Reversal of fortune
Happy in his family cocoon, Robert Kardashian meets American football star OJ Simpson.
This great sportsman, star of the Buffalo Bills and the NFL (National Football League), is famous throughout the United States for being one of the best runners in the history of this sport.
After a career spent on the football fields, he became a sports commentator, but also an actor, and played in many detective films.
Between the two men, it's love at first sight.
Their wives, Kris Kardashian and Nicole Brown, also become inseparable and do not hesitate to organize a vacation in the mountains or the sea, with the whole family.
The Kardashian children become attached to the football player who then becomes "uncle OJ".
But shortly after the birth of their fourth child, Kris and Robert began divorce proceedings in 1991. The businessman had indeed heard, for several months, of his wife's infidelities.
When they separate, he decides to cut her off.
A month later, she married the one who would become Caitlyn Jenner.
The Kardashian clan
The Kardashian Clan - Khloe Kardashian
Between Khloe and basketball player Lamar Odom, it was love at first sight.
The two get married after a month of relationship in September 2009 and then divorce in 2013. Since then, the athlete has experienced a real descent into hell.
On October 13, he was found unconscious in a room at a brothel after using drugs.
(Los Angeles, October 31, 2009.)
Photo Abaca
The Kardashian Clan - Kris Jenner
The mother of the clan, who is also his manager, was married for 23 years to Bruce Jenner, before their divorce in 2013 (New York, April 30, 2012.)
Photo Abaca
The Kardashian Clan - Caitlyn Jenner
Today Bruce, with whom Kris Jenner had two daughters, Kendall and Kylie, became a wife, Caitlyn.
The latter confided in the columns of Vanity Fair in July 2015 that his ex-wife had abused her.
(New York, June 30, 2015.)
Photo Abaca
The Kardashian clan
Lamar Odom (left) and Kris Humphries (right) are no longer part of the Kardashian family.
Kourtney and Kim have divorced with the approval of Kris, the mother (center).
(Las Vegas, October 23, 2011.)
Photo Abaca
The Kardashian clan
The Kardashian clan
The Kardashian clan
The Kardashian clan
The Kardashian clan
The Kardashian clan
See the slideshow
10 photos
"My life will never be the same"
4 years later, a tragedy propels the young businessman and his family to the forefront of the media scene.
In 1994, the lifeless bodies of Nicole Brown and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were discovered.
It is OJ, divorced from Nicole, who becomes the first suspect.
Accused of the murder, he claims his innocence.
An army of lawyers is summoned to participate in this high-tension trial: of course, the athlete asks his best friend to come and defend him.
Robert Kardashian then resumed practicing law.
Defense attorneys for OJ Simpson at his trial.
(Left to right) Robert Shapiro, Johnny Cochran Jr, Robert Kardashian, F. Lee Bailey and Gerald Uelmen.
(Los Angeles, January 5, 1995.)
AFP Forum
Once again a lawyer, Robert Kardashian becomes a key member of OJ's defense team, but the OJ Simpson case will be a real ordeal for him. Every detail is broadcast on television. American citizens will always remember this chase filmed by a helicopter, on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles, during which the sportsman, rushing behind the wheel of his Ford Bronco to escape arrest, threatens to commit suicide. The affair, ultra-publicized in the United States, rekindled the racial tensions of the time. It divides not only America, but also the Kardashian clan.
Kris, who has just lost her best friend, is convinced that OJ is guilty. For his part, Robert has decided to believe this friend whom he defends, and who claims his innocence: “OJ Simpson has never lied to me. He told me that he did not commit these horrible crimes and I have no reason not to believe him. It is with this in mind that I came to stand by his side during his trial, ”he wrote in a letter to his ex-wife and their children, reproduced in Kris Jenner's autobiography:
Kris Jenner … And all things Kardashian
(2011). Indeed, according to the statements of sources close to the defense to The
Times
in 1995, repeated in an article in the
Los Angeles Times
, the leader of the Kardashian clan, loyal to his friends and family, was chosen to, literally, stand next to OJ during the trial.
A closeness that would allow OJ to remain calm while the gruesome photos of the victims are shown to the jury.
Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran (right) and Robert Kardashian, assaulted by the media during OJ Simpson's trial.
(Los Angeles, January 24, 1995.)
AFP Forum
But despite his absolute devotion to his friend, Robert Kardashian begins to question the innocence of OJ Simpson, at the end of his trial. "I have doubts", he had declared to Barbara Walters during an interview in 1994. "The proof by blood (
a glove covered with the blood of OJ was indeed found on the scene of crime, Editor's note
) is the biggest thorn in my side; that's what gives me the most problems ”. In an interview with The
Times
in 1994, quoted by the
Los Angeles Times
, he confides on the stress caused by the affair, and on his family, whom he wishes to protect from all the media mixing he has undergone.
“The past seven months have had such an emotional impact on my life - you have no idea.
The other day someone asked me a simple question and for no reason I started to cry.
My life will never be the same.
I'm sorry for what happened, but I was only helping my friend, like any of you would.
Please don't let what is going to happen in this matter affect our family ”.
To listen to: the editorial podcast
"Memories of dad"
Family is at the heart of Robert Kardashian's life. As his children grow older, he takes to camcording every important moment: their first day of school, a trip to the pool, a birthday. "He came to my room every night for prayer," says his son in the episode "Memories of Dad" season 1 of
Keeping up with the Kardashians
. “We watched old movies together. I was really interested in it, but he always forgot to record the ending, ”adds Kourtney. Very close to his children, Robert Kardashian transmits his values to them: the importance of supporting and protecting the people we care about is one of his priorities. Even her divorce will not have succeeded in destroying her family.
Robert Kardashian, Kris Jenner and their children: Kourtney, Kim, Khloe and Robert.
Instagram screenshot / @ kardashians_jenners_fam
After his separation from Kris and the end of OJ's horrific trial, Robert Kardashian resumes his life with added fame and glamor.
After an express marriage with a certain Jan Ashley from 1998 to 1999, he married a real estate agent, Ellen Pearson, the one who will always be portrayed by the daughters of the family as their "bad mother-in-law", in 2003. The same year, he learns that he has esophageal cancer and dies a few weeks later.
A tragedy that leaves a huge scar in the hearts of Kris and her children.
"Knowing he had cancer was one thing, but to think he was actually going to die of it .... I never thought, even in a million years, that it would happen to him," Kris Jenner told Giuliana Rancic in an interview for
E!
in October 2004, taken over by the
Los Angeles Times
.
Between a few tears, she adds: "It still stings so much, as if it were all fresh".
In video, the Kardashians-Jenner, a golden family
Today the children and the ex-wife of Rob Kardashian do not hesitate to pay tribute to him on social networks, in their reality TV show or on television sets. Beyond the glamorous side, Robert's soul is still there. If Kim has become a billionaire today, it is because her father taught her that if she needed money she would have to work to get it. And even pop culture is interested in him: in 2016, Ryan Murphy paid homage to him in his series
American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson
, in which he is played by David Schwimmer, the ex Ross of
Friends
.
This little lawyer, humble, discreet, in love with his family and friends, has won the hearts of many Americans.
With a daughter soon to be a lawyer, her legacy has not ended.
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