Kim Kardashian has revealed her health diagnosis that is related to her dad Robert Kardashian’s fatal cancer.
In The Kardashians season 8 trailer that dropped on Thursday, September 17, there is a glimpse of Kim’s health scare.
Kim, 45, is shown in hospital, where she shares that she has “something called esophagitis.” A voice off-screen can be heard asking Kim, “Didn’t your father — isn’t that what he died of?”
The trailer then jumps to a scene featuring Kim’s mom, Kris Jenner. An emotional Kris, 70, says to the camera, “I can’t. It makes me want to cry.”
Esophagitis is a condition that involves the swelling and irritation of tissues lining the esophagus. Without treatment, esophagitis can lead to a condition called Barrett’s esophagus, which can raise the risk of developing esophageal cancer, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Robert died at 59 in September, 2003 following a battle with esophageal cancer. In addition to Kim, Robert shared daughters Kourtney Kardashian and Khloé Kardashian and son Rob Kardashian with Kris.
Over the years, Kim’s sister Khloé, 42, has been particularly candid about her father‘s death.
“At the funeral, when I saw my father in his casket, I completely fell apart,” Khloé recalled in her 2015 memoir, Strong Looks Better Naked. ”I don’t remember the details, but apparently I was an emotional wreck, and I’m told that I was so distraught I actually passed out. At one point I fell to the floor kicking and screaming, and I had to be sedated. It was really intense. I refused to believe my father was gone.”
Khloé also spoke about how quickly the family lost Robert following his diagnosis during an April 2025 episode of her podcast, “Khloé in Wonder Land.”
“My dad died really quickly,” Khloé divulged. “He had esophageal cancer and I think he died six or seven weeks after diagnosis.”
She added, “I don’t think he could accept himself that it was terminal, but he never used those words with us.”
For her part, Kim has credited Robert, who worked on the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial, as influencing her interest in studying law and giving her advice about the profession.
Kim told Vogue in 2019, “He once said to me, ‘I think you’d be great at it. But I also think that it’s super stressful and exhausting. So, if you want a stress-free life, maybe don’t follow through with law school.”
At the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour in 2020, Kim reflected on growing up around her dad’s work.
“I think that by the time I was a teenager and he was working on the O.J. case, I was sneaking in his office, looking at all of the evidence and things I shouldn’t have been looking at,” she said.
She continued: “Maybe it was in my soul for years that that’s what I would have wanted to do. And I’ve even seen interviews pop up now from six or seven years ago. People ask what I wanted to do if I wasn’t filming my show. I always said I wanted to be a crime scene investigator or an attorney.”
