Khloé Kardashian's Legal Battle With Her Dad Robert's Widow Explained
Khloé Kardashian has never been afraid to speak her mind, but it has sometimes led to trouble. The reality star once faced a lengthy legal battle with Ellen Pierson, Robert Kardashian's widow.
If you are a die-hard "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" fan, you know the Kardashian daughters speak highly of their late father. In the show, they talked about Robert's marriage to Kris Jenner, which lasted thirteen years. However, what you don't really hear about is whether he remarried after his divorce from Jenner. Despite his failed marriage to the family matriarch, Robert walked down the aisle two more times. The former lawyer married his second wife, Jan Ashley, in 1998 before annulling the marriage just 30 days later — now we know where Kim Kardashian gets it from. Shortly after his marriage with Ashley ended, he sparked a romance with Pierson.
The two reportedly crossed paths in 1998 and immediately had a connection. Robert and Pierson dated for two years before the lawyer got down on one knee and popped the question. The two tied the knot in 2003, but the marriage was short-lived because Robert died just over a month after the two exchanged vows. Although Pierson was only a part of the Kardashian family for a short time, she made quite an impression on the family — and not in a good way.
Ellen Pierson sued the Kardashian family for defamation
The Kardashian family never seemed to be a fan of Robert Kardashian's wife, Ellen Pierson, especially Khloé Kardashian. In Ian Halperin's biography, "Kardashian Dynasty," he revealed one incident Khloé and Pierson had not long after Robert passed away. As he revealed, Khloé remembers asking Ellen if she could take Jocko — her father's toy monkey — while packing her belongings from her old room after her father's funeral. Despite not getting approval, Khloé took the monkey and ran. And while this is just a small feud, the tension between the two goes beyond toy monkeys.
In 2013, Pierson sued Khloé and the rest of the Kardashian gang — Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, and Rob Kardashian — for defamation, according to TMZ. Pierson alleged that "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" sought to hire a private investigator to coax her into divulging harmful information about the Kardashians, aiming to paint her as a conniving blackmailer. Although she didn't agree, Pierson alleges the family still shared misleading information about her and her relationship with Robert. On the show, they suggested that Pierson married the former lawyer for his money.
As TMZ noted, Pierson went after the matriarch of the Kardashian-Jenner clan in the lawsuit, calling Kris a "manipulative and devious mother and ex-wife who simply used and exploited her children." But if Pierson thought none of the Kardashians would fight back her claims, well, she thought wrong because Khloè fired back.
Khloé fought back Ellen Pierson's defamation lawsuit
Khloé Kardashian was not going down without a fight when it came to Ellen Pierson's defamation lawsuit. In response to her filing, the Good American founder shared her side of the story and claimed that Pierson married her dad, Robert Kardashian, at his weakest moment. According to TMZ, Khloé suggested that her dad's mental awareness was compromised during the wedding ceremony due to his diagnosis of esophageal cancer. She said, "Several ceremony guests assisted my father from his bedroom to the couch and helped to sit him up straight for the ceremony, which took place at my father's couch."
The defamation lawsuit eventually came forward to a Los Angeles judge in 2014, who dismissed the majority of the Kardashians' statements, claiming they weren't proof of defamation, per the Hollywood Reporter. However, the judge permitted Pierson to proceed with her lawsuit based on four statements made by Kris Jenner, Kourtney Kardashian, and Khloé Kardashian during "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." One of these statements included Khloé saying: "[Pierson] married [my father] on his deathbed." Although Pierson was able to move forward with some of her filings, it looks like nothing ever came from it. After 2014, there was hardly any information made public about Pierson's defamation lawsuit against the Kardashians.