Understand OJ Simpson’s relationship with the Kardashian family

There was no mention of OJ Simpson on Kim Kardashian’s Instagram page on Thursday (11).

That morning, she posted a video promoting a bike hoodie and sweatshirt from Skims, the clothing company she co-founded. Later, after the Simpson family announced that Simpson had died of cancer at age 76, Kardashian went silent on social media.

Over the decades, her family has distanced itself from the man who played a significant role in elevating the Kardashian name.

Kim’s father, Robert Kardashian, met Simpson through his ties to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Robert Kardashian earned a degree in business administration there in 1966, and Simpson was a standout running back for the school in 1967 and 1968.

The two became close in the 1970s, when Simpson was a NFL standout and Kardashian was a rising lawyer and entrepreneur in Los Angeles. His businesses included entertainment properties and a frozen yogurt company.

When Robert Kardashian married then-Kris Houghton (now Kris Jenner) in 1978, Simpson was his best man. The couple had four children -Kim, Kourtney, Khloe and Robert Jr. The marriage ended in divorce in 1991. In the same year, Jenner married the former Olympian who is now called Caitlyn Jenner.

Simpson met Nicole Brown in 1977, while he was still married to his first wife. During a separation from his wife, he lived for a time with Kardashian in her home, Simpson wrote in his 2007 book, “If I Did It.”

Simpson and Brown married in 1985 and divorced in 1992. Kardashian remained friends with Simpson throughout these years, and his wife became close to Brown Simpson.

In 1994, Kardashian joined the so-called dream team that defended Simpson when he was accused of murdering his ex-wife and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Kardashian’s continued support of Simpson was a source of tension in the family, Kim Kardashian said in a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone. She sided with her father, she said, while her mother believed Simpson was guilty.

Robert Kardashian was with Simpson when police questioned him at his Los Angeles home the day after Brown Simpson was discovered dead in front of her home after being stabbed multiple times.

As police moved closer to charging Simpson with the double homicide, attorney Robert Shapiro was hired to lead his defense. The team also included attorney Johnnie Cochran.

Shapiro added Kardashian as an advisor, even though he had nothing to do with the legal strategy, according to Jeffrey Toobin, whose coverage of the trial for The New Yorker resulted in the book “The Run of His Life: The People v. OJ Simpson.” .

“Kardashian had absolutely no legal role,” Toobin said in a phone interview Thursday. “He was just there to spoil OJ”

He continued, “Bob Shapiro and Johnnie Cochran had real jobs to do. They didn’t have time to take care of OJ’s clothes and his jail phone privileges. That was all up to Kardashian.”

Even before the accusations were made, Kardashian seemed to have taken on the role with enthusiasm. With camera crews outside Simpson’s home, a hiding place was necessary. He got one at Kardashian’s home on Bundy Drive in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

After the accusations were made, Simpson fled Kardashian’s home in a Ford Bronco with his friend and former teammate Al Cowlings. Simpson allegedly held a gun to his head and threatened to kill himself as he led police on a surreal, nationally televised low-speed car chase.

As it happened, Kardashian held a press conference in which she read a letter Simpson had left behind. It looked like a suicide note. According to Toobin, Kardashian “made it seem a lot more grammatical than she really was.” During the long trial, Kardashian was at the defense table daily despite her limited role.

His ex-wife gave birth to a daughter, Kendall Jenner, on November 3, 1995, a month after Simpson’s acquittal. In honor of her friend, Kris Jenner gave the baby the middle name Nicole.

Kardashian was a source for the 1996 book “American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense” by Lawrence Schiller and James Willwerth. Because of their cooperation with the plaintiffs, Kardashian and Simpson reportedly stopped speaking to each other.

In a 1996 interview with Barbara Walters of ABC News, Kardashian stated that she began to question Simpson’s innocence. “I have doubts,” he said. “The blood evidence is the biggest thorn in my side; it causes me the biggest problems. So I struggle with the blood evidence.”

“I never admired that,” Toobin said. “Either you’re his lawyer or you’re not. It’s not your job to publicly speculate whether he’s guilty or not. But I think Bob understood that in his West L.A. world, OJ was considered by basically everyone to be guilty, and he didn’t want to be out of this opinion.”

Kardashian died at age 59 in 2003 from cancer. Her ties to Simpson were the focus of her Associated Press obituary. Caitlyn Jenner, who was a regular on “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”, the E! who made the Kardashians famous, was the only member of the clan who spoke out on social media about Simpson.

“Have a good trip #OJSimpson,” she wrote on platform.