A Today show host has revealed her most embarrassing interview ever was with Khloé Kardashian.
Savannah Guthrie was asked about her most uncomfortable moment on air during a chat with Andy Cohen on his Sirius XFM radio show. And the 53-year-old revealed it was when she had to ask Khloé about rumours her father wasn’t Robert Kardashian, who died aged 59 in 2003.
She shared: “I have a really embarrassing one. So Khloé Kardashian was on, this was really early on [her time on the Today show’] I think,” as Andy interrupted to say: “She’s my favourite Kardashian.” Savannah replied: “She’s a doll,” before continuing: “She was on, there had been these stories circulating in the press that her father Robert Kardashian wasn’t really her father.
“Who knows. I can’t even remember the details but, I know the producers at the time, none of whom are here today, really wanted me to ask and I was very embarrassed to ask such a question.”
The rumours were that US football star OJ Simpson, who was famously acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994, was Khloé’s biological father. Robert Kardashian, who was married to Khloé’s mum Kris Jenner at the time, was part of Simpson’s defence team for the court case, which was later dubbed the ‘trial of the century’.
But though Khloé, 40, was on the show to promote her new reality series at the time, Khloé & Lamar, featuring herself and her then-husband Lamar Odom, 45, which ran for two seasons from 2011 to 2012, NBC host Savannah said she reluctantly followed orders and “did what any naive green anchor would do, which is leave it to last.”
She explained: “At the Today show, we have a thing called the ‘hard out’ – and the ‘hard out’ means you have to be done. The show is going to black at such and such time.” So to try and avoid having to ask the awkward question, she left it to the last 10 seconds to do the deed.
Recalling the cringeworthy moment, Savannah told listeners: “I said Khloé, just real quickly, in the seconds we have, there have been some stories that Robert Kardashian is not your father. Is he?” And to her relief, Khloé was nice about it and in Savannah’s words “saved my butt”.
“God bless her — and I will always, if I saw her today, I’d hug her for this — I don’t know if she’s such a pro that she saw them counting down, like three, two …And she said, ‘Yep, I know. Nothing to it.’ And I was like, ‘And we’ll be right back.’ She saved my butt,’ Savannah added.
OJ died from prostate cancer in April 2024 aged 76. Though he wasn’t convicted of murder, he did serve nine years of a 33 year jail sentence in prison for armed robbery and conspiracy to kidnap in 2008 for breaking into a Las Vegas hotel room and stealing sports memorabilia. He later claimed he was recovering personal items, but was found guilty of all 12 charges against him exactly 13 years to the day that he was cleared of double murder.
He was granted parole in July 2017 and freed three months later. Speaking to the Full Send podcast prior to his death he shut down rumours he had ever hooked up with Khloé’s mum Kris and said: “People have their types, right? I always thought Kris was a cute girl. She was really nice. But I was dating supermodels. The rumour ain’t true. It’s not even anywhere close to being true.”
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