The Step-Family Rift: Why Robert Kardashian’s Widow and His Kids Never Clicked

There’s something quietly sad about this family story. Robert Kardashian Sr. died before his children became reality-TV magnates, so a whole chapter of their lives—one that involves his third wife, Ellen Pierson—never played out on screen for fans to parse. Still, the absence of Pierson from the Kardashian spotlight wasn’t just an accident of timing. There was friction. Legal fights. And a few awkward conversations that, looking back, explain why the stepmother and stepchildren never warmed to one another.

I remember reading about this years ago and thinking, wow, family life can be messy even when it isn’t public. Here the messy part did get public. Not all families have lawsuits, but this one did. That alone changes how people relate to each other—if it isn’t trust, it’s caution. Or both.

A headline nobody wanted

The trouble began publicly when Pierson gave an interview claiming that Robert had once questioned whether Khloé was his biological daughter. She later softened her wording—she said he would never have pushed for a DNA test and that he loved Khloé—but the damage was done. Think about it: a claim like that, even reported with qualifiers, lands like a stone in a pond. Ripples spread.

Khloé and the family reacted the way many people probably would when faced with a comment that questions a loved one’s identity: angrily and legally. The Kardashians sued Pierson, accusing her of orchestrating a plan to take and exploit private material. That phrasing alone—“despicable and unlawful scheme”—tells you how heated things became. Court records, headlines, and tabloid coverage followed. It’s the kind of drama you don’t easily move past.

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Pierson didn’t just sit back, either. She launched her own complaints against the family, saying they defamed her. Whether those cases fully played out in court or were quietly settled, we never got the full picture. That uncertainty is frustrating, sure, but it’s also telling: not every fight ends with facts on the table or tidy public closure. Sometimes, it just ends with people avoiding each other.

Their names on TV—awkward and loaded

Even after the lawsuits, no law could make the Kardashians stop talking about what they felt. In fact, in a later season of their series, Khloé and Kim brought up Ellen Pierson by name, in a scene that was mostly brief but very clear. Kim described a dream where their dad was alive and living with Pierson. Khloé’s response? A blunt “Ew.” It was small, but it didn’t need to be big. The tone said the rest.

Kim tried to soften the moment by admitting Pierson had looked good in the dream—“She looked really great,” she said—but it came out almost embarrassed, like something she didn’t want to dwell on. Khloé’s face and her later scoff—“Oh, my God”—made it plain the warmth wasn’t there. A producer even teased Kim, asking if she meant Ellen DeGeneres, and Kim’s quick, slightly amused correction—“No … his wife”—added an edge of awkwardness. It’s the kind of tiny exchange that tells you more than a long speech ever could.

I find that scene interesting because it shows how old wounds can pop up casually, in the flow of everyday talk. They didn’t stage a sit-down to rehash the dispute. It came out in a sleepy, half-joking conversation. Which, if you think about it, is how most grudges live on: in little references, in eye rolls, in things left unsaid.

Why the tension stuck around

There are a few predictable reasons: the public nature of the dispute, the legal filings, and the allegation about paternity, which hits deep. But there’s also a softer explanation—one that I’ve seen in other blended families. If you lose a parent and someone new comes in later, emotions get complicated. Grief, loyalty, and suspicion can mix in ways that are hard to sort. Add headlines and lawyers, and those feelings calcify.

Also, Pierson’s choice to speak to the media—whether she meant to hurt anyone or not—made the relationship one of public record. That changes everything. When a personal matter becomes news, you can’t just go back to private conversations. People remember the public version, and sometimes that memory is all they’ll accept.

Also read: Oprah interview indelibly altered Meghan Markle’s public image.

What likely never happened