When Khloé Kardashian attempted to become pregnant and underwent fertility treatments, her struggle resonated with many viewers on the show. Kardashian spoke about trying IVF on Kocktails with Khloé last year, saying she used the fertility treatments as a way of attempting to repair her marriage to then-husband Lamar Odom.
But in a new Keeping Up With the Kardashians clip, Kardashian revealed that she was only pretending to go through with the treatments. Apparently, she'd decided she didn't want to get pregnant, so she stopped trying — and it sounds like she didn't let Odom know.
"I fake tried. I was married, but I knew the circumstances weren't the healthiest," Kardashian tells Andy Huang, M.D., of her attempts to become pregnant in the clip. "So, I just kept pretending I was doing it."
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The reveal is shocking, even though Kim, who's sitting next to her in the doctor's office, doesn't seem too surprised. The interviews Kardashian has given about her struggles over the years have implied that she wanted to be pregnant. And women who've struggled with infertility have cited her as an inspiration for being so honest about the treatments.
It's not up to us to criticise someone else's relationship — it's Kardashian and Odom's business, and only theirs, to decide if and when they want to have children. Still, why make fertility struggles a storyline on your TV shows if it's not something you're actually dealing with in real life? The reported infertility struggle even seeped into Kourtney & Kim Take Miami, which included a conversation about Kourtney potentially being a surrogate for Khloé.
The new KUWTK clip seems to be meant to elicit sympathy for Kardashian about everything that happened during her marriage. But, really, it just makes us disappointed in reality TV. Is anything off limits for stars like the Kardashians? (The reveal also seems insensitive, considering the fact that Kim herself has struggled with fertility issues.)
Of course, I respect Khloé's decision not to bring a child into a tumultuous home. But it's not fair to trick her husband, or the show's viewers, into believing she was actually trying to get pregnant. It seems like she did try IVF treatments, at least for a time, but now, it's not clear when she decided to stop and who, if anyone else, knew about it.
Still, in one of the previews for the new episode, Huang reveals that Kardashian may actually have trouble getting pregnant — he takes an ultrasound to see if she'd be a viable surrogate candidate for Kim. So this probably isn't the last we've seen of her fertility struggle. Hopefully, future conversations about her ability to conceive won't be "fake."