Lamar Odom's daughter feared his addiction was her fault

9 June 2017

Lamar Odom's daughter worried that her father's addiction was her "own fault".

Lamar Odom

The retired basketball player's eldest child Destiny, 17, feared she had caused her dad to become an addict but realised "after talking to therapists and drug specialists" that she wasn't to blame.

She said: "I used to worry that [my dad's] addiction was my own fault but after talking to therapists and drug specialists, you just know the way that an addict's brain is chemically wired.

"They can love you, they would do anything for you, but at the end of the day, there's a chemical dependency on drugs. When your parent's an addict and they get clean, it's like a whole new world. When he's clean, he's more able to see the pain that he's caused."

And Destiny knows it is important for the 37-year-old sportsman to want to get better for himself.

Speaking in the Surviving A Father's Addiction: Lamar Odom's Family Speaks Out feature, she added: "When someone is on drugs there is really not much that you can do except just tell them that you love them and that you're here for them. You can't force an addict to get better. They have to want it themselves ...

"I think he was meant to be here because of me and my brother. It sounds like a cheesy movie, but I think that everything happens for a reason."

Meanwhile, Destiny previously branded Lamar's relationship with his ex-wife Khloe Kardashian as "toxic".

She said: "Things changed when my dad married Khloe. Things were a lot more public. When your dad's an NBA player that's already enough, but when he's marrying a reality TV star, things are so public and you don't have a private life anymore.

"It was crazy that my dad was getting married to this woman that I used to watch religiously. It was such a whirlwind, really ... [When Khloe helped Lamar after his overdose] a lot of people in our circle were confused. Their relationship is very toxic."