YouTube Tristan Thompson
After weeks of speculation, Tristan Thompson confirmed rumors that he is the father of Maralee Nichols’ newborn baby. Nichols filed a lawsuit against the Sacramento Kings basketball player last month, suing him for “child support and other pregnancy-related fees,” according to Elle Magazine.
According to People Magazine, Thompson initially denied the paternity allegation put forth by Nichols, but after a DNA test proved he is the baby’s father, he took to Instagram to address the situation.
“Today, paternity test results reveal that I fathered a child with Maralee Nichols. I take full responsibility for my actions. Now that paternity has been established, I look forward to amicably raising our son,” Thompson wrote in a January 3 Instagram story, Seventeen Magazine reported.
He also took the opportunity to apologize to long term girlfriend, Khloe Kardashian. He wrote in an Instagram story, “Khloe, you don’t deserve the heartache and humiliation I have caused you. You don’t deserve the way I have treated you over the years. My actions certainly have not lined up with the way I view you. I have the utmost respect and love for you. Regardless of what you might think. Again, I am so incredibly sorry.”
Maralee Nichols’ Publicist Speaks Out
Maralee Nichols’ publicist spoke exclusively to Page Six about the paternity lawsuit in January 2022.
“There was never any doubt that Tristan Thompson was the father of Maralee Nichols’ baby,” she told Page Six. “Tristan made numerous false and defamatory statements and declarations about Maralee over the past few months, and she is taking his contrite statement today in the context of all of those other statements.”
Court documents exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail a month prior to Thompson’s confession allege that the NBA star admitted to having a sexual relationship with the former personal trainer.
Khloe Kardashian has yet to respond to Tristan’s statement publicly.
Tristan Cheated on Khloe in 2018
This isn’t the first time Tristan has been caught cheating on Khloe Kardashian. In 2018, cheating rumors began to circulate after footage of Thompson hanging out with a mystery brunette in New York was posted online, according to the Daily Mail. The footage captured by other club-goers shows the NBA star kissing an unidentified woman at PH-D Lounge, a rooftop bar in Manhattan, the Daily Mail reported. Khloe Kardashian was pregnant with Thompson’s baby at the time.
Khloé broke things off with Tristan after the news broke, but the couple eventually reconciled, only to face cheating rumors again the following year.
In February 2019, Tristan made headlines after he was seen kissing Kylie Jenner’s best friend Jordyn Woods at a party, according to Us Weekly.
A source close to the Kardashians told Us Weekly in 2019 that Khloe felt “so betrayed,” by Tristan’s actions.
“This time it hurts even more because the person who it was with is someone who knows very much what Khloe has gone through in the past year,” the source told Us Weekly. “Jordyn is like part of the family.”
The Kardashian family cut ties with Woods after the scandal, but that wouldn’t be the last time Thompson was accused of being unfaithful to the TV personality.