Once an accomplished basketball player and married to reality star Khloe Kardashian, Lamar Odom appeared to have it all.
However, his picture-perfect life appeared to fall apart before the world’s eyes in the mid 2010s. The former LA Lakers player had been battling with addiction and substance abuse: something which saw the breakdown of his marriage and a near-fatal overdose in 2015.
It’s something the athlete is opening up about in his new Netflix documentary, Untold: The Life & Death of Lamar Odom. Premiering on 31st March, the feature-length film dives into the aftermath of his overdose – featuring interviews from Lamar’s ex-wife Khloe, his former teammates, children and family members as they detail how the life-changing incident affected them all.
Now available to stream on Netflix, here’s everything we know about Untold: The Life & Death of Lamar Odom – including his experience with the afterlife.
Did Lamar Odom actually die?
When the Netflix documentary dropped, search for ‘Lamar Odom death’ rocketed on Google. Of course, it’s a valid question. With the title The Life & Death of Lamar Odom, some viewers naturally began to wonder whether they’d missed news of his passing.
The good news is that Lamar Odom is very much alive. Born on 6th November 1979, he is currently 46 years old.
However, this doesn’t mean that he hasn’t had his own experience with death…
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In October 2015, Lamar overdosed on cocaine, alcohol, and cannabis in a Las Vegas brothel. He woke up in the hospital days later after being placed in a medically induced coma. It was a moment few of his loved ones expected, with Lamar initially being given little chance of survival without significant and lasting brain damage.
It was during this time that Lamar says he ‘died.’ Recounting the near-fatal overdose in his 2019 book Darkness to Light, Lamar said that his ‘heart stopped twice’ amid several strokes and seizures. ‘My lungs collapsed and my kidneys ruptured,’ he wrote.
Having suffered six heart attacks and 12 strokes, Lamar woke from his coma unable to walk. Supported by Khloe and his loved ones to get ‘walking and moving again,’ Lamar said, ‘it was probably harder for [Khloe] because I couldn’t say thank you, or I appreciate you. I couldn’t even cry.’
What did Lamar say about his experience with the afterlife?
During the documentary, Lamar opens up about having experienced the ‘afterlife’ – saying ‘The afterlife is not what people make it out to be.’
Ultimately, it wasn’t rehab or overdoses that made Lamar decide he wanted to get better, but a dream about his late friend Kobe Bryant (who passed away alongside his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people during a 2020 helicopter crash). Recalling a vivid dream during which Kobe appeared to him, Lamar explained, ‘He looked back and me and said, “The afterlife is not what people make it up to be.”’
Is Lamar Odom sober? What he’s said about his sobriety journey
Following his overdose, Lamar was transferred to a hospital in LA, where he remained until January 2016. In his memoir, Lamar wrote that the overdose helped him realise he could no longer ‘live the way I’d been living.’ That December, he checked himself into rehab for a 30 day substance abuse program, which he completed.
However, fans were left concerned when the athlete collapsed at an LA nightclub back in November 2017. A rep for Lamar told PEOPLE at the time that he had collapsed due to being ‘dehydrated’ – and it wasn’t until April 2018 that Lamar would reveal he had relapsed. Sharing that he had been struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine, Lamar said he found relief by using marijuana.
January 2026 saw another difficult moment in Lamar’s sobriety journey. After being arrested for a DUI, Lamar entered into a 30-day rehab program in LA to address his marijuana addiction. According to his manager, Gina Rodriguez, Lamar made the decision over concerns that his marijuana use might lead to a relapse into harder drugs.
Saying he was choosing to ‘reset and focus on his health.’ Gina told PEOPLE, ‘He took a step back to reflect and address triggers he’s been dealing with.’
Ahead of the Netflix documentary’s release, Odom told USA Today that he was nearly 60 days sober as of 28th January, 2026. He shared, ‘All of my doctors say I’m like a walking miracle, because it’s like medically impossible for someone to survive 12 strokes and six heart attacks while in a coma. And so I just take it day by day, and I’m more than grateful for life.’
What did Khloe Kardashian say about Lamar Odom?
For fans of the Kardashian brood, Lamar and Khloe were once one of the family’s strongest couples before their 2016 divorce. When Lamar overdosed, it was Khloe who stepped in to care for him – despite waiting for a judge to sign off on her divorce request. After caring for her ex-husband in the hospital, Khloe went on to rent a house for him to continue his recovery. However, when she caught him using drugs again, she ended the relationship.
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In the 2026 Netflix documentary, Khloe reflected on Lamar’s substance abuse battle. ‘I was either looking for him in alleys, looking for him in motels,’ she recalled. ‘He would have tinfoil cutouts or spoons, and freebasing things, and leaving things everywhere. I remember needing to go to hotel rooms to clean up after him, so the housekeeping didn’t sell a story.’
At one point, Khloe spoke about ‘being an enabler without knowing [she] was an enabler’ – admitting she felt responsibility to ‘cover this up, hold it together and protect him.’
She added, ‘I remember just keeping all these secrets and feeling horrible about myself. He overdosed a few times, I had to pump his stomach […] We had at-home detox renters. We did everything we could.’
Are Khloe and Lamar still friends?
Despite her participation in Lamar’s Netflix documentary, the basketball player revealed that he and his ex-wife Khloe have not been in contact since their televised reunion on The Kardashians.
Although they did speak through things on the Disney+ show, Khloe later admitted that there was distance between them. She shared, ’It was sad because he was so strange to me. I didn’t know him, but yet I knew him so well. I didn’t think I would feel that awkward around someone that I’ve known so deeply.’
Lamar also touched on the moment during a chat with Page Six, telling them, ‘To me, it didn’t really go well. I felt like I was under attack. But I can’t invalidate her pain and what I put her through. She was there when I couldn’t hold my bowels. She always tried to do her best, when it came to taking care of me. I know it could be a lot, especially when I was recovering from the incident.’
Ahead of the documentary’s release, Lamar revealed that he now has a girlfriend, although he did not share her name. As for Khloe, she shares two children – a daughter named True and a son named Tatum – with her ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson. She recently confirmed that she is still single, and is focusing on co-parenting with Tristan.
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Charlotte Roberts is a writer at Grazia UK, specialising in SEO. She spends her days covering everything celebrity, culture, and entertainment – from film review roundups to cast explainers.
