What Is The Kardashian Curse And Does It Have Any Validity To It?

The Kardashian (and later Kendall and Kylie Jenner) sisters have been a pop culture staple since the 2000s with reality shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami, and The Kardashians on Hulu. They’ve had their ups and downs through the years, but one thing that has stuck with them is the alleged Kardashian Curse.

Some viral TikToks claim that a Kardashian ancestor was involved in witchcraft back in Armenia. This ancestor is said to have “sacrificed her soul” to four witches to make the women in their family successful, but all men they’d associate with would suffer. The curse allegedly entails that every man a Kardashian or Jenner woman dates will have his life ruined during the relationship or after the breakup. 

While this sounds like a wild TikTok conspiracy theory, it is odd that so many of they men they’ve dated or married have had their careers fall apart. We're here to go down the list, ex by ex, and find out if this curse has any validity to it.

Damon Thomas

Very little is known of Kim Kardashian’s relationship with her first husband, music producer Damon Thomas, but most signs hint it wasn’t the best relationship. They eloped when Kim was only 19 years old in 2000, and she claimed she was high on ecstasy during the ceremony. They were married for four years before they divorced, and Thomas has stayed out of the spotlight since.

Ray J

The entrepreneur and R&B singer dated Kim from 2003 to 2006 and was the other half of her infamous sex tape. While his music career wasn’t as successful as his famous sister Brandy, he infamously penned “I Hit It First,” in 2013, which appears to be about his relationship with Kim. He appears to have moved on with his life and founded the electronics brand Raycon. He is now married with two children.

Reggie Bush

Kim’s on-and-off relationship with the former professional football player Reggie Bush was documented in the first few seasons of Keeping Up with the Kardashians from 2007 to 2010. While it appears that the relationship ended on good terms and that Bush wishes her well, he is often thought to be one of the first victims of the curse since his career went downhill after their breakup.

Kris Humphries

Who could possibly forget Kim’s 72-day marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries? They began dating in late 2010 and had a lavish and televised wedding in August 2011, only for the marriage to fall apart in less than three months. The divorce was ugly, and Humphries has since alleged that the relationship was a sham and blamed it for the decline of his basketball career.

Lamar Odom

Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom married after a whirlwind romance (they met the month before) in September 2009 and appeared to have a healthy marriage for several years before cheating rumors began to swirl in 2013. The rumors turned out to be true and were fueled by Odom’s substance abuse issues, leading Khloe to file for divorce in December 2013. In 2015, Odom overdosed on cocaine at a Nevada brothel, and things appeared to take a turn when Khloe rushed to his side to support him. Despite his near-death experience, their divorce was finalized in 2016.

Many believe that Odom is a victim of the curse since his NBA career declined and his addiction issues worsened during their relationship. Since their divorce, Odom has publicly expressed how much he misses Khloe.

French Montana

Shortly after she filed for divorce from Lamar Odom, Khloe Kardashian started dating rapper French Montana in 2014. The couple dated for less than a year and decided to remain friends after their breakup. In 2022, he wrote a song where he references the Kardashians and seemingly makes the claim that him and Kanye West "killed the curse".

James Harden

Khloe Kardashian dated NBA star James Harden for a few months in 2015, which the basketball star called the "worst year of his life" due to the press attention and the pressure their relationship put on his career. 

Tristan Thompson

Tristan Thompson was the most hated man in reality television until Tom Sandoval of Vanderpump Rules stole his crown, so much so that fans often forget that he’s a professional NBA player. His name is synonymous with cheating because he cheated on Khloe while she was nine months pregnant with their daughter, True, cheated on Khloe a second time with Kylie’s former best friend, Jordyn Woods, and then cheated yet again and fathered another woman’s child while he was still with Khloe. Needless to say, his public image could be better.

Blake Griffin

Kendall Jenner’s relationship with NBA star Blake Griffin was short-lived, but it was the start of what many call the Kendall Jenner NBA Curse. The pair began dating in August 2017 after Griffin and his former fiancée broke things off and continued dating until early 2018. Though it appears that the relationship ended amicably, his career took a steady decline after they broke up.

Ben Simmons

Kendall Jenner started dating the Australian NBA star in July 2018, and they dated for almost a year. Similar to her relationship with Blake Griffin, the breakup appeared to be amicable, but his career declined after the breakup.

Devin Booker

Kendall and the star of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns Devin Booker were spotted on a road trip to Sedona together in April 2020, sparking dating rumors, which seemed to be confirmed as he was seen spending more time with her as the year progressed. They went Instagram official in February 2021, and many got to see their adorable relationship develop as she cheered for him at his games. In June 2022, rumors began to swirl about a possible breakup, only for the two to be spotted together a month later. They officially broke up in November 2022. And wouldn't you guess, shortly after the official breakup, Booker’s performance on the basketball court declined.

Tyga

It’s safe to say that this is a relationship many of us would like to forget due to their creepy age gap (he was 24 when she was 17, gross), but it’s worth noting since the pair dated on and off for two years. 17-year-old Kylie Jenner started dating the rapper in 2015, and he famously gave her a Ferrari for her 18th birthday. She appeared in several of his music videos, and they broke up a few times before calling it quits for good in 2017.

Travis Scott

Rumors that Kylie Jenner was dating rapper Travis Scott began shortly after her breakup with Tyga and were followed by pregnancy rumors in mid-2017. Kylie announced that she’d given birth to their daughter, Stormi, in February 2018, confirming that she and Scott had been together since April 2017. They started to appear on red carpets together, making their relationship more public than she ever was with Tyga.

The couple announced that they were “taking a break” in October 2019, but reunited in 2020. They went on to break up and get back together a few times before Kylie gave birth to their second child, Aire, in 2022, but they split yet again in early 2023. Fans believe they are done for good now that Kylie is allegedly dating Timothee Chalamet.

How is Scott impacted by the curse? The Astroworld Festival tragedy destroyed both his career and reputation. He’s tried to make a comeback, but it’s nearly impossible to divorce his music from the tragedy.

Scott Disick

Scott Disick may be a Kardashian fan favorite for making Keeping Up with the Kardashians and The Kardashians so hilarious, but his relationship with Kourtney Kardashian was completely chaotic. They met at a party in 2006 and started dating shortly after. They had three children together: Mason, born in 2009, Penelope, born in 2012, and Reign, born in 2014. They broke up for good in 2015 but had been on and off for a good portion of their relationship, mainly due to Disick cheating and his issues with drugs and alcohol. 

Pete Davidson

After Kim hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in October 2021, she began dating SNL star and comedian Pete Davidson. To say that everyone on the internet lost their minds over this relationship would be an understatement. Most were perplexed as to how Pete Davidson has dated so many beautiful women, but his subsequent feud with her ex-husband, Kanye West, was one of the most talked about feuds of 2022. Kim and Davidson broke up in August 2022, and since then he has some trouble in the spotlight. Pete was exposed for leaving a heated voicemail to a member of PETA, and crashing his car into a Beverly Hills home before reentering a rehab facility for mental health struggles.

Kanye West

Kim started dating her most recent husband, the legendary rapper and entrepreneur Kanye West, in April 2012 and announced they were pregnant with their first daughter, North, in December of the same year. Kim gave birth to North in June 2013, followed by Kanye’s proposal in October 2013. They married in May 2014 and later welcomed three more children: Saint, Chicago, and Psalm.

While Kim and Kanye appeared to be the perfect power couple, his struggles with bipolar disorder caused plenty of problems in their marriage, but many believe he is just a victim of the Kardashian curse. Kim filed for divorce in January 2021, ending their nearly decade-long romance, and Kanye has been "canceled" by the public several times since for various controversies.

Robert Kardashian

Robert Kardashian was Kris Jenner’s first husband and father to her four eldest children: Kourtney, Kim, Khloe, and Rob. Kris and all four of his children are very open about what a good man and father he was, but he is most famous for defending his best friend, OJ Simpson, during his murder trial. Many believe that Robert changed his mind about OJ’s innocence as the trial went on (he famously admitted in a Barbara Walters interview that the blood evidence made him question OJ’s innocence). He didn’t have much time to try to regain his reputation, though, as he died of esophageal cancer in 2003.

Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner

Kris married her second husband, Bruce Jenner, in 1991 and they had two children together, Kendall and Kylie. On Keeping Up with the Kardashians, they appeared to be a loving and family-oriented couple, but things began to unravel as the show increased in popularity. They separated in 2013 after 22 years of marriage and finalized their divorce in 2014. In 2015, Bruce came out as transgender, started using she/her pronouns, and changed his name to Caitlyn. 

So, Is the Kardashian Curse Real?

In a 2016 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Scott Disick decided to investigate the idea of a Kardashian Curse by speaking to a psychic. The psychic confirmed that Disick was surrounded by “negative energy” and that he likely is cursed. She suggested that the only way to break the curse would be to set a rooster free (which would then free his problems) while dressed in all white. While you could easily argue that this was a gimmick to make the show more entertaining (which worked), it wasn’t the last time the Kardashians themselves would talk about the curse.

On a recent episode of The Kardashians, Kim, Khloe, and Disick watched a TikTok explaining the theory of the witch ancestor who sold her soul to guarantee that her female bloodline would always have fame. They not only point out that the theory is ridiculous, but that it’s sexist – the problems, whether it’s drug addiction or infidelity, are blamed on the women instead of the men making those choices. They point out that some of the men like Disick and Odom have come to their defense by saying that they were the ones who screwed up, but that still doesn’t erase how many of their exes have had tough experiences after they broke up.

While you could argue that dating a Kardashian could ruin a career, the idea of a group of women casting a curse on every man they date is ridiculous. Some exes have gone on to have better careers post-breakup, while others never made a full recovery. The rest are somewhere in between, but the truth is that the Kardashian and Jenner women aren’t responsible for the problems their exes have. Whether it’s mental illness, drug abuse, or gender dysphoria, these problems were present long before the Kardashian and Jenner women entered the picture.

Kendall Jenner dislikes the curse idea for the same reason – the onus is wrongly placed on the women, not the men whose careers declined. When Andy Cohen asked Kendall Jenner about how she and her sisters have dated NBA players whose careers have flopped post-breakup, Kendall said, “What I don’t like about this narrative is that the blame is on us. I think the men need to take that responsibility. It’s almost offensive, personally.”

Kendall continued, “I think that we’re all extremely giving and caring and loving women. And, when there is a man in our lives we give everything to them and, as a family, we all love them so much.”

Kylie has a different take on the curse – she believes it’s real. In the same KUWTK episode where Disick speaks to the psychic, she said, “The Kardashian curse is every male figure that comes and dates a Kardashian. Their life kind of just goes downhill after that.”

But Kylie also believes that most people who come in contact with the Kardashian/Jenner family – men and women, lovers and friends – have a difficult time adjusting to the public scrutiny that comes with being associated with them. She told GQ, “It’s everyone around us that aren’t used to [the media attention]. And we’re just like, ‘Oh, that’ll go away in a day.’ I know these stories aren’t going to matter, so don’t even let them affect you, you know?'” 

She continued, “But it’s not just men – it’s friends, it’s people who come and just don’t know how to handle it. It’s the negative. There’s a lot of people who love us, but there’s also a huge handful of people who don’t like us.”

Kylie is smart to point out that being associated with a Kardashian or Jenner isn’t for the faint of heart due to the public attention they all get. Some may think they can handle it, only to succumb to the pressure. It’s like this for anyone who is in the public eye and just increases when six women from the same family are in the spotlight.

Closing Thoughts

If you search #KardashianCurse on TikTok, you’ll come across hundreds of videos explaining the theory. While some on the internet buy into this wild story wholeheartedly, others blame the Kardashians/Jenner's bad taste in men. Since there's no way to tell for sure, I suppose we'll have to wait and see if the girls claim any further "victims."

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