Kourtney Kardashian admits family 'tend to normalize' men's bad behavior

Kourtney Kardashian-Barker admitted that her family “tend to normalize men’s bad behavior,” stressing that she doesn’t want her daughter to learn that it is okay.

Kourtney made the revelation on The Kardashian’s Nov. 16 episode, where she talked with Tristan Thompson about his repeated cheating on her sister, Khloe. She said she wanted to “have an understanding” of why he did those things and what prompted it. 

In case you missed it, Tristan has been trying to make amends with the family for his misdeeds to Khloe. Last week, he got to talk with Kourtney wherein he was asked whether he felt anything after cheating, to which he admitted he felt “disgusted.” 

Tristan also revealed that during his therapy, he realized that his actions were from the trauma from his childhood, seeing his dad mistreat his mom. 

“As a kid, when you see that, the trauma you have is—’cause you can’t protect your mom because you’re so young,” he said, adding that numbing his feeling of pain and fear became his defense mechanism. 

However, Kourtney does not seem to buy it. She then went on to ask if he ever feels like a “sociopath” with “no empathy [and] feelings” like what the social media users put on TikTok videos about him. 

“I see these TikTok videos and there’s these people and they’re like, ‘I am a sociopath narcissist. I have no empathy, no feelings.’ Do you think there’s any part of you that relates to that?” Kourtney boldly asked. 

“You should definitely feel the way you feel, 100%, because if it was my sister, I’d feel the same way,” Tristan said.  

“I think for me, you know, I want Khloé to be happy and whatever that may be, I’m fully supportive of that,” he continued. “I’ve done things to put myself in a position out of that,”  

Kourtney went on to point out how all guys in their family are lucky because they are still welcome in their circle, regardless of their mistakes. 

"In this family, you guys are so lucky—all the guys—because for whatever reason, it's held a higher priority of, 'Let's keep everyone happy and getting along, and let's make sure Tristan is at Christmas Eve and everyone's there, and it's one big happy family and let's make sure everything's fun and happy,'" Kourtney said.  

"For some reason, that takes a priority in this family over setting a boundary or having someone's back or having someone's side,” she added. 

Kourtney stressed the importance of having “really clear boundaries,” especially because it would be good for their children. She also expressed doubts about Tristan, despite him admitting he’s “not proud of the person [he] used to be.” 

"It was interesting to me, the work that he's doing and the path that he's on because when your words don’t match your actions, it's concerning," she said during the confessional. 

"Talk is cheap. In our family, everyone can tend to normalize these behaviors of some of the men in our lives,” she said. “I don’t want to show my daughter that that’s OK." 

"I think having forgiveness and giving grace is right, but also having really clear boundaries, I think is really important," she stressed. 

Khloé and Tristan began dating in 2016. During the course of their on-off relationship, he had multiple infidelities, including in 2018 just days before their first child, True, was born.  

He also cheated in 2019 with Kylie Jenner's former best friend Jordyn Woods. The same happened in 2021 when he had a child with Maralee Nichols, the same time he was expecting his second child with Khloe via surrogate. 

They officially ended their relationship in 2022 before their son Tatum was born.