Brett Cooper — Is the Kardashian Curse to Blame for Kanye’s Breakdown? | Episode 78

Is the Kardashian curse a real thing? Or are we just seeing the price of fame? So, I think anyone who follows celebrity culture or pop culture probably knows about the Kardashian curse. And that is a theory that any man who gets involved with the Kardashians, whether romantically or is just a part of their family. Basically, a man who gets entrapped in their net experiences a dramatic downfall both in their personal life and in their careers.

We have seen it with Bruce Jenner, of course, Lamar Odum, Scott Dick, and obviously probably most prominently, Kanye West. And Kim's latest interview gives us even more insight into the lives of these men. Let's talk about it. Before we do though, make sure that you like this video and subscribe to our channel if you've not already. And of course, ring that notification bell to make sure that you stay up to date on all of the latest episodes.

Now, I just have to say this has become, you know, a Kardashian episode. And we're going to be talking broadly about these men and Kanye, of course, his mental health battles. But I was this close to just talking about Sweet Kimmy today because Kim Kardashian, again, I just need to like get this out here. Kim Kardashian did the most freaking insane thing over the weekend. She has her clothing brand uh called Skims and she released a new product and I don't even know how to describe this without being graphic, so I'm just going to say it.

She released thongs with hair. So, in case you were just feeling a little too hairless, ladies down there, Kim has a solution for you. And if you're thinking, "Oh my god, this is literally so insane." For Kim, it's kind of not. Number one, because she's Kim Kim Kardashian. Number two, because in her company, Skiim, she also very famously has a bra with nipples. So if you want to go out into the world, free the nipple, have them sticking out like a couple, you know, deer in headlights, whatever it is, you can buy her bra.

So if you want to be bralless while wearing a bra, she has that. I also think that she made one that has a piercing in the nipple. So if you want to look like you have a piercing, but you also want to be wearing a bra and you also want to be showing off a nipple, she has something for you. It's like why why do we need to spend $50 and give $50 to Kim Kardashian when you could just not shave when you could just not wear a bra?

I have no idea. But anyway, the product sold out. She obviously made waves on social media when she debuted that product. I guess that's what she was trying to do. Other than that, I have no idea what the goal was with this product. Like, are you trying to relive the hairy days of Merlin before laser hair removal? Now, speaking of Merlin, guys, the Pen Dragon Cycle just dropped. Daily Wire posted it on Thursday night.

I'm sure many of you guys have seen it. We will be putting it at the end of this episode, and I'm so sorry to the team for having to make that segue about the hair and Merlin, but it just seemed too perfect not to do. Anyway, enjoy the trailer. So many people worked very, very hard on that project, and I'm excited for you guys to see it. All right, now that we have talked about Pen Dragon Cycle, now that we have talked about Kim K's Harry thongs, we can move on to the main part of the story because Kim Kardashian made an appearance on Call Her Daddy with Alex Cooper and she addressed the Kardashian curse headon.

So, let's take a watch. >> What is your take on the Kardashian curse? >> I always really hated that. I really did. I think it's like really unfair to say that women are the problem when it comes to issues that our exes might be dealing with and that they had those issues before. All right. So, as you just saw, basically Kim's argument is that the idea of the Kardashian curse, what has been going around in pop culture for years now, is misogynistic because it places all of the blame on her and her sisters, on the women, rather than forcing the men to take accountability for what is actually going on in their own lives.

But I don't think it's as simple as that. I also don't think it's as simple as what this pop culture Kardashian curse theory makes it out to be. But obviously, there has been a pattern here, and we do need to break it down. I mean, Lamar Odum, for example, was at the height of his career when he met Khloe Kardashian. You know, he was an NBA star. He was a champion. But by the end of their marriage, he was suffering from a crack induced coma at a brothel.

Scott Dick, he has had a major battle with alcohol and that has been a storyline on Keeping Up with the Kardashians for years at this point throughout his entire relationship with Courtney. Bruce Jenner was a beloved Olympic gold medalist. He was married to Chris for 22 years before he dropped off his dick, transitioned to Caitlyn, and they got divorced. Rob Kardashian, their brother, has struggled with anxiety and depression and substance abuse, which has also been very well documented on their show.

That's kind of the common thread here. And then obviously Kanye is probably the most famous. He is probably the most well-known rapper in the world. He was climbing to the peak of his career when he met Kim. And now we have seen him go through breakdowns very publicly over the last 10 years or so. And he has extensively spoken about his battle with bipolar disorder. I mean, these are serious and very public struggles that these men are going through.

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So start your journey with Balance of Nature today. Again, use code Brett at checkout. All right, now back to the point. Obviously, I kid. I wish my biggest issue in life was picking out a meat stick to eat. But unfortunately, living with men who are struggling with serious, you know, mental illness battles is something that I know intimately thanks to my childhood and what I've gone through as most of you guys know.

But anyway, back to the Kardashian curse. I see this more as a battle with drug addiction and men with no real male role models and mental health struggles that were magnified once they were put under the eyes of the world. So, let me prove this to you. So, let's go back. Lamar Odum. As we talked about, Lamar's dad was never around until Lamar became rich. And allegedly, everyone around him used him for his money and fame.

He lost his cousin who he was super close with in 2011. And then only a week later, he was involved in a car crash that killed a 15-year-old. Now, moving on to Scott Dick. He was there from the beginning from when they started Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and his struggles with drugs and alcohol were often highlighted in the show. And in 2013, Scott also lost both of his parents within three months of each other.

So again, this is a man who has gone through a lot. Rob, their brother, he lost his father, Rob Senior. And when he needed the most support as a young man when he was needing a strong male role model, he had cameras that were shoved in his face for a sexual lustfilled femaledriven reality show that resulted in his life and his pain being mocked relentlessly for years. And then of course there is Kanye. And in his recent documentary that I'm sure many of you guys went and saw, we got an even closer look at the demons that he has been fighting.

Just watch. You can't say you. Now you can take my >> People say no to me on a daily basis and I don't just start screaming and throwing a tantrum. That's just not normal. >> That's my personality. >> But your personality was not like this a few years ago. >> What do you mean? I used to scream backstage. >> Like something obviously is wrong there. He's obviously struggling. Uh another clip from the documentary that went viral was him thinking that his security was trying to kill him while he and Kim were in Africa.

>> Don't feel comfortable here. Okay, >> let's give you some space. >> Yes, >> totally fine. You know, I don't I don't know what triggered this for you to feel this way. >> Dealing with a lot with truncious. I'm dealing with a lot. My little deal. >> So, obviously something is not right. These clips are hard to watch. As somebody who has been in situations like that with loved ones, it's very uncomfortable, honestly, for me.

But it's very clear that Kanye's mental health went downhill around 2016. He had a mental breakdown on stage just a few months after Kim was robbed at gunpoint. Their entire family was blowing up in his face. He was then admitted into a mental health facility. And sometimes, as it goes with mental illness, Kanye seems totally clear, like he was when he was on David Letterman's show back in 2019. And I want to play this clip for you guys as well.

>> It is a health issue. This is like a sprained brain, like having a sprained ankle. And if someone has a sprained ankle, you're not going to push on him more, >> right? >> With us, once our brain gets to a point of spraining, people do everything to make it worse. >> And that last part is probably the most important thing that Kanye says. People kept pushing him. He was in an environment that was not healthy. Obviously, there is a lot of speculation about what happened with Kanye.

And from what I know personally, there is a lot going on behind the scenes that isn't often shared. So, there probably is more to the story than any of us will ever know about what caused this breakdown behind the cameras. But the reality show, the cameras, the music, the executives, the fame, everything, his environment did nothing to help what was going on in his brain. And that environment that I just mentioned seems to be another root cause of this curse.

So, we have the underlying issues that they came into the relationships with that they were already dealing with, and then it's the fame. And a great yet very sad example of this is Kim's ex-husband, Chris Humphre. And this was her 72day marriage. Now, Chris was probably the most stable of all of the Kardashian men and all the Kardashian husbands. He was an incredible, well-rounded athlete. He came from a good, you know, relatively normal family.

He was at the top of his game as a basketball player. I mean, there was so much that I didn't know about this man. Like I was reading his Wikipedia page earlier today and the whole personal section about him and his upbringing is just crazy. I mean they write his first success in sports came in competitive swimming where he was the top 10-year-old in the nation in six events beating young Michael Phelps in the remaining events.

He held the US national record for the 50 meter freestyle for 10 and under boys for 18 years until it was recently broken. And then at age 12 he gave up something to pursue a career in basketball. So this guy I mean he is an athlete through and through. It's what he wanted to do for his entire life. It's what he wanted to be known for. And that was completely destroyed because of his marriage to Kim Kardashian. After this whirlwind romance, I think they were only together for a couple of months before they got engaged.

They had a $10 million wedding in 2011. His entire life changed and Kim filed for divorce just 72 days after they got married. And like I said, his life was never the same. Now, when he finally retired years later in 2019, he opened up about this entire experience in an essay that he titled, quote, "I never wanted to be that guy." And I want to read you some of this because at the end of his career, what this man is talking about, what he is reflecting on is the aftermath of being in the Kardashian web.

For about 20 years, I tried to bury that memory. He's talking about an embarrassing experience that he had when he was a kid. But then a funny thing happened. I was playing at Madison Square Garden for the first time after my marriage ended. And I was getting booed so loudly that it was crazy. I'm talking like feel it in your bones booed. I wasn't Chris Humphre anymore. I wasn't a real person. I was quote that guy. And then he writes about some other things that happened in his career.

And then we get closer to the end of the essay and he says, "The irony of my career is that I finally figured out what kind of player I was when I got to the Nets. I was going to try to grab 10 boards a game and shut up. I wasn't the guy. I was a grinder. I felt like I knew who I was finally. And then I met a girl who happened to be really famous and I got married and dot dot dot. Damn. Look, I should have known what I was getting into.

I was definitely naive about how much my life was going to change. But the one thing that really bothers me is whenever people say that my marriage was fake. There's definitely a lot about that world that is not entirely real. Talking about the Kardashians and the entertainment world, but our actual relationship was 100% real. When it was clear that it wasn't working, I mean, what can I say? It sucked. It's never easy to go through the embarrassment of something like that with your friends, your family, but when it plays out so publicly in front of the world, it's a whole other level.

It was brutal. I didn't know how to handle it because I never thought I was going to be famous in that way. I remember having this moment when I was getting booed so hard in Philly. And I thought to myself, why exactly are they booing me though? Is it just because I'm that guy from TV? Do they think that I was trying to be famous? Is it because they think I disrespected the game of basketball? The last one killed me.

Because all I've ever wanted to be known for was basketball. My whole life I was really a confident, happy person. But nothing can prepare you for the feeling of walking down the street or being anywhere really. at the grocery store, the gas station, and having people literally running up to you and trying to film you and trying to grab you, saying god knows what. That's not natural. That's not supposed to be real life, and that is what life was like, especially in the 2010s for the Kardashians and everyone in their orbit.

He goes on and he says, "I'll be honest. I dealt with a lot of anxiety, especially in crowds. There was about a year where I was in a dark place. I didn't want to leave my home. You feel like, I don't know, the whole world hates you, but they don't even know why. They don't even know you at all. They just recognize your face and they're on you. And I know most people will see me as that effing guy from TV. And I get it.

I signed up for it. I don't want any pity at all. But I hope that true fans of basketball remember me as a grinder, as a guy who transformed into a heck of a rebounder and as a guy who always tried to put the game in the best light. I was never a person who wanted to be famous. I'm a guy from Minnesota who loves the game of basketball. And yeah, 99 times out of 100 when people come up to me, it's still, "Bro, are you that dude?"

Like 8 years after their marriage. But one out of a hundred, someone will come up to me and say something like, "Hey, all the aside, I watch those Nets teams and you really played hard, man." Whenever that happens, I say, "Thank you." But deep down, I almost want to stop and give them a hug. I know that was a lot that I just read. You might be going like, "Okay, Tik Tok Brett, that was a lot. We're just listening to you read something."

But I felt like that was so important because this is this man's legacy. He was an incredible athlete, a confident, happy guy, a great basketball player. And at the end of his career, the day that he is retiring, this is what he puts out in the world. He's trying to clear his name after years of having the quote unquote Kardashian curse follow him and completely taint his legacy because of his 72day marriage to Kim Kardashian.

I mean, that's freaking heartbreaking. And now when you look him up, like he still has a really quiet life. He's never gotten remarried. He invests in restaurants. I think like he genuinely like retreated as much as possible probably in a lot of ways in a response to what he experienced about 10 years ago. I mean the fame and the spotlight and the vitrial that comes along with the Kardashian family and their fans. It even broke a man who was confident, happy and stable, who was only involved with them publicly for a couple of years.

So imagine the impacts that that world would have on the men who were already struggling. Men like Lamar Odum. Men like Rob Kardashian who had to experience the loss of his father and then watch his entire family turn around and make it into a reality TV show. Men like Kanye West. I mean, take this clip. Another one from Yay's new documentary. >> It don't matter. It does matter. It does matter. >> You just say you >> I haven't finished this sentence.

>> It does matter. >> It matters to us and you. It doesn't matter what the internet says. It matters what we think. Yay. So, what are you saying? Did you have an effect on my mental health? >> Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm saying yes. And I love you. I love you. I don't want you to be not perfect. I love you. And I want my daughter to love you the way you want her to love you. >> Every piece of this is just heartbreaking to me.

Now, number one, I feel like this moment should not have been recorded in the first place, even by him. It was for his own project. But this is a man who is very obviously struggling and he's fighting demons that are within him. And Chris finally acknowledges that she did take a toll on his mental health, whether that was, you know, something that she did or through their family and everything. And the thing that stood out to me most in that clip is her saying, "It doesn't matter what other people think.

It doesn't matter what they say on social media." Yes, it does. Because your entire family, your brand, your business is based on those fans. And anybody who comes into your life has to endure that. And for somebody like Kanye who was already so fragile and struggling, no wonder he broke. And I don't know what's going on in their lives. I don't know their family or their relationship, but in my opinion, she does seem genuine when she says that she loves him.

I'm sure that Kim loves or loved him. I'm sure she still loves him in a way. He is the father of her children. But this relationship, this family, that was a terrible fit for a man who was already very broken and was so sensitive. Trying to weave all of this together for you guys. Back to the curse. People often say like, "Are these women crazy?" I mean, I don't know. Possibly they're the Kardashians. I'm not here to, you know, judge or say what's going on behind closed doors, but it is very clear that most of these men were suffering long before they came into the Kardashian orbit.

And so, it's not fair to place the blame for their breakdown solely on the Kardashian women. And therefore, on top of all of this, it seems dismissive and harmful not to address the root issues that these men were dealing with. Not only just for them and their sake and their narratives and their stories, but for all men in the world who are dealing with something like this. And while it is very easy and convenient to pin everything on the Kardashians and the Kardashian curse obviously is very quippy and it's an interesting theory, this really is in my opinion about the cost of fame and power and what that does to people.

Because for Kanye as an example, like he needed stability. He needed support, not Kim and a reality show. He needed people who would keep him on track and protect him, not a circle of managers and trainers that allegedly took advantage of him. Like that is not what he needed. And more than anything, I think the man probably needed some freaking privacy. So hopefully all of these stories can be a warning sign for the next generation of artists and creators and celebrities because I think the Kardashian curse is a lot broader than just their family alone.

[Music] This land is in a welter of confusion. [Music] [Applause] [Music] There are more kings than sheep, more princes than crows on a battlefield. All seeking to snatch what they can when they can, without a care for who suffers. [Music] Until this island is ruled by one who wields both justice and mercy, there will be no peace. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Look at them boys playing the game of kings. They say they have the Merlin with them.

>> The Merlin died long before you and I were born. >> I've seen what you can do. [Music] [Applause] This is where it begins. [Music] If you made it all the way to the end of this episode, thank you so much for watching. I had so much fun putting it together, and I hope that you enjoyed it, too. If you did, make sure to hit that subscribe button because this channel only exists because of you. And if you're in the mood for more, I've got even more episodes right here that I think you'll love.