BY: Denver Sean
Published 6 years ago
Lamar Odom is opening up for the first time about just how deep his sex and drug addiction actually was.
via People:
In his new memoir, Darkness to Light — exclusively excerpted in PEOPLE — the NBA champion writes, “I have been obsessed with sex for as long as I can remember.”
“I am a sex addict,” writes Odom, who was married to Khloé Kardashian for four years before they split in 2013.
The 39-year-old reveals that he has had sex with more than 2,000 women. “There were too many strippers to count,” he writes. “It wasn’t a big deal, but often I would pay them. I never thought less of them.”
Odom also reveals that he cheated on Kardashian throughout their marriage; she eventually discovered the infidelities.
“I was shocked and embarrassed,” he tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “I wanted to take it back, but you can’t. [I] wanted to hide it. But that sick sin was hard for me to hide … I had a problem.”
Kardashian’s rep did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Continues Odom: “[I] ran out of porn to watch! That’s how you know when you are going a little overboard.”
Odom’s addiction to sex was compounded by his addiction to drugs.
“Sex was a trigger for me to do drugs,” he tells PEOPLE. “Because you double up on [that] good feeling.”
In 2015, Odom’s addictions led him to the Love Ranch brothel in Las Vegas, where he overdosed and nearly died.
“That was the wake-up call,” says Odom. “Like, this can’t happen again.”
Now Odom is drug-free, but admits that he’s still working through his demons.
“I’m still an addict,” he writes in his book. “I still struggle … [But] I will not go into the darkness. Ever again.”
We honestly can’t say we’re surprised. It’s a blessing he’s alive to tell his story.