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The “Kardashian curse” is a pop-culture trope claiming that people—especially athletes—suffer career or personal setbacks after dating someone in the Kardashian-Jenner family. It is not established as real: the stories cited in its support are anecdotes, not evidence that a relationship caused an injury, poor performance or other difficulty.
What does “the Kardashian curse” mean?
The phrase connects a celebrity relationship to a partner’s later injury, performance decline, career change or personal difficulty. Coverage has concentrated on athletes, though the claim is sometimes extended to former partners’ lives more broadly. These are assertions made by the trope, not verified effects. One overview describes the idea as a recurring celebrity-and-sports narrative.
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Search coverage places the phrase’s rise in early-2010s sports and celebrity media, amid high-profile relationships. An exact first use or a reliably identified coiner is not established, so precise origin stories should be treated cautiously. The available overview does not settle the phrase’s first appearance.
Is the Kardashian curse real?
There is no demonstrated evidence that dating a Kardashian-Jenner family member causes setbacks. The coverage describes the claim as anecdotal and does not present a controlled comparison of athletes who dated family members with an appropriate group who did not. That supports saying the curse is unproven—not claiming that every supernatural possibility has been experimentally disproved. The overview of the claim likewise offers no empirical test showing a causal effect.
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Why a timeline is not proof
If a setback follows a relationship, the sequence alone does not show that the relationship caused it. An injury, a poor season or a career change can have many ordinary explanations, including age, team changes and the uncertainties of competition. To assess a claimed example, ask what outcome is being measured, whether it began before or after the relationship, what other explanations fit, and whether the full set of partners—including counterexamples—is considered. A handful of memorable stories cannot establish a pattern without clear definitions, a complete denominator and comparisons.
What the familiar examples do—and do not—show
Lists of supposed examples commonly name Lamar Odom, Tristan Thompson, Ben Simmons and James Harden. Their inclusion in coverage shows how the meme is repeated; it does not prove a shared cause. The same overview notes that Devin Booker reached the 2021 NBA Finals while dating Kendall Jenner, a counterexample to a simple claim that every athlete involved is doomed. Neither selected examples nor counterexamples amount to a statistical analysis. The overview discusses these names as part of the popular narrative.
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Publicity is a more ordinary possibility
James Harden was reported as saying that media attention during his relationship with Khloé Kardashian was unwanted. Intense coverage offers a plausible, non-supernatural way a high-profile relationship might affect someone’s experience. It does not establish that publicity caused a particular performance outcome, or that a curse exists. ESPN’s report covers Harden’s remarks about the attention.
Why some people criticize the trope
Cultural criticism argues that the story can shift responsibility for men’s professional or personal outcomes onto the women they date. Critics have also raised concerns about sexist and racialized stereotypes in how the claim is applied. That is a criticism of the narrative and its potential effects; it does not mean every person who repeats the joke intends harm. A Guardian opinion piece discusses the trope’s gendered framing.
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A quote attributed to Kendall Jenner during a 2021 reunion has also been cited in coverage objecting to blaming the women and calling for men to take responsibility. Without a directly verified transcript or primary episode reference, it is better not to present that wording as a confirmed verbatim quotation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the phrase is used now
In a 2026 report, The Indian Express described Kendall Jenner using the trope in a Fanatics Sportsbook commercial. The report quotes her calling it an internet-created narrative and gives her punchline: “Kardashian curse? That’s not even my last name.” It also quotes her explanation: “Essentially the internet has created this narrative, which is the idea that if an athlete dates me or one of my sisters, they are then cursed.” Those remarks show that the phrase remains recognizable in popular culture; an advertising joke is not evidence that the claim is true.
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