Kim Kardashian has spent years haunted by the devastating impact of O.J. Simpson’s televised murder trial on her family.
The reality TV veteran’s lawyer father, Robert Kardashian, was a close friend of the acquitted murder suspect — and a key part of his multimillion-dollar “Dream Team” defense line-up — after the former NFL star was charged with the 1994 double-slaughter of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
A 2020 episode of David Letterman’s Netflix show “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” — which has resurfaced since news broke on April 11 that Simpson had died at 76 from cancer — Kim revealed the trial “tore my family apart.”
Kim and her older sister Kourtney were teenagers at the time of the blockbuster court case and were torn between which divorced parent they would side with as it dragged on for 11 months before Simpson was acquitted of double murder.
“We didn’t really know what to believe or whose side to take as kids because we didn’t want to hurt one of our parents’ feelings. It tore my family apart, I’d say, for the whole time of the trial,” she told Letterman.
Kim added she has battled not to publicly share her thoughts on whether or not she believed Simpson was guilty of Brown Simpson’s and Goldman’s murders.
“I’ve never expressed how I’ve felt about that because I just respect his children,” she added.
However, Kim’s mother Kris Jenner — who was Brown Simpson’s best friend — said she was convinced Simpson was a murderer.
Kim’s father, who died of esophageal cancer at 59 in 2003, expressed doubts over Simpson’s innocence – and cut contact with him.
Before he was arrested on suspicion of killing Brown Simpson and Goldman, Simpson fled from Rob Kardashian’s home and led police on an infamous, televised 90-minute chase along the Los Angeles freeway while riding in the back of a white Ford Bronco, driven by his friend Al Cowlings.
