Kris Jenner and O.J. Simpson Were Close Friends, but Was There Anything More?

For almost 30 years, O.J. Simpson’s story and trial are still deeply fascinating, even to people who weren’t actually alive for it. Although the trial itself has long demanded plenty of attention, the way the trial connects to other areas of popular culture has also received plenty of attention over the years.

One of Simpson's most notable friendships was with lawyer Robert Kardashian, who is of course the patriarch of the Kardashian family. While Simpson and Robert's now ex-wife Kris Jenner were always friends, many want to know whether there was anything more romantic going on between the two. Here's what we know about Simpson and Kris's relationship.

Although Simpson and Kris were close friends before his trial, it doesn’t seem like things ever moved past the friendship stage. Simpson and Kris were close friends, and Kris was also close with his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson. Nicole’s death and Simpson's trial caused a rift in the Kardashian family. Kris came to believe that Simpson was guilty, whereas Robert worked on behalf of his friend as one of his defense attorneys.

There has long been speculation that there was some sort of sexual relationship between Kris and Simpson and that he might even be Khloé Kardashian’s real father. Kris has long denied that speculation and Simpson also weighed in on it in 2019. Simpson said that he and Kris never had any sort of sexual relationship or romantic interest in one another.

"But never — and I want to stress never — in any way, shape, or form have I ever had any interest in Kris — romantically, or sexually — and I never got any indication that she had any interest in me," Simpson said in a video. "So all of these stories are just bogus, bad, tasteless."

In a Rolling Stone, Kim Kardashian said that she and her sisters were more inclined to trust their father than their mother at the time.

"I definitely took my dad's side," Kim explained. "We just always thought my dad was the smartest person in the world, and he really believed in his friend." As far as what Kim believes now, she says, "It's weird. I just try not to think about it."

Although Simpson was initially acquitted in the trial over the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, he was later found culpable in a civil trial.

Simpson's trial was an important moment in the history of American celebrity and race relations. The ways that the tendrils of the case relate to American pop culture 30 years later are vast and genuinely interesting.

While it doesn’t seem like Simpson was Khloe’s real father (unless both Simpson and Kris are lying), the connection he had to the Kardashians, who have become one of the most famous families on the planet, is striking nonetheless. Robert didn’t live to see his children create their successful careers. He died from esophageal cancer on Sept. 30, 2003. However, he did have a front-row seat to one of the most insane spectacles of the 20th century.