Khloé Kardashian explains why she concealed her family’s initial diagnosis of skin cancer
Khloé Kardashian hid the fact that she had been diagnosed with cancer from her family after her dad Robert Kardashian died.
Robert Kardashian was an attorney and businessman. He had three children with his ex-wife Kris Jenner, 69: Kourtney Kardashian, 46; Kim Kardashian, 44; and Rob Kardashian, 38. He died in September 2003, aged 59, two months after being identified with cancer in his esophagus. Khloé was 19 years old at the time.
Soon after Robert’s sudden death, Khloé found out she had melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. UV radiation from the sun or sunbeds is the main cause of melanoma, but Khloé kept it a secret from her family because she “didn’t want to worry anyone.”
On the most recent episode of her show Khloé in Wonderland, the actress and model talked about her first bout of skin cancer. She said, “I was 19 years old.” I don’t remember much because I wasn’t thinking about how scary things could be when I was 19. It’s been months since I found out I had skin cancer on my back. My dad died when I was 19 from lung cancer. I didn’t even tell my family because I knew all I needed to do was get this taken care of. I was sure I was okay. The word “cancer” makes me very scared. I was 19 too, and you’re crazy for being that old. I drove myself to the doctor, had all this skin taken off, and that was it. “I didn’t give it much thought.”
Khloé noticed she had a “bump” on her face in October 2022. At first, she thought it was “cystic acne.”
“I was sure it was that cystic pimple,” the Kardashians star said. It wouldn’t go away. I tried to pick it up, all of these things. I played with it for more than a year, I think. I went to the spa. No one thought it was strange because they had the same skin color as me. There are beauty spots all over my body, but they are brown. I thought, “Gosh, maybe this is a mole of skin color.” “I had no idea what it was.”
Before it turned out to be cancer again, Khloé had a biopsy to see what was wrong.
“So we cut it out, and within days they found out it was melanoma,” she said. I sent it to my other doctor, and they looked at it. Since it’s on my face, they need to remove the tumor that’s there where my cheek lies. To make sure the cells don’t spread, you also need to remove enough good skin around it.
Khloé had a “family friend” who is a plastic surgery take care of it.
“The scary thing is that you don’t know how much they need to take out until they start cutting into you,” she said. Then they have to test it because they think they have all the lines.
“We did it.” Everything went well. The first time, he got everything they needed. “I no longer have skin cancer.”
