- Tristan Thompson confirmed he fathered a child with the fitness instructor Maralee Nichols.
- Thompson apologized to his girlfriend, Khloé Kardashian, on Monday.
Tristan Thompson apologized to Khloé Kardashian, saying a paternity test showed that he fathered a child with the fitness instructor Maralee Nichols.
The NBA player wrote on his Instagram Story on Monday: "Today, paternity test results reveal that I fathered a child with Maralee Nichols.
"I take full responsibility for my actions. Now that paternity has been established I look forward to amicably raising our son," he wrote.
"I sincerely apologize to everyone I've hurt or disappointed throughout this ordeal both publicly and privately."
Thompson had previously disputed the paternity of the child, who was born in early December, and demanded the DNA test.
He then apologized to Kardashian, with whom he has a 3-year-old daughter, True.
"Khloé, you don't deserve this. You don't deserve the heartache and humiliation I have caused you. You don't deserve the way I have treated you over the years. My actions certainly have not lined up with the way I view you. I have the utmost respect and love for you. Regardless of what you may think," he wrote.
"Again, I am so incredibly sorry."
Late last year, Thompson admitted that he had cheated on Kardashian with Nichols but denied that he was the father of Nichols' child. Thompson said in court documents filed last year, after Nichols sued Thompson seeking child support, that they met in December 2020 and that while they did not have a "serious ongoing relationship" they saw each other sporadically from December 2020 to March 2021.
"I did not foresee that she and I could have any type of relationship," Thompson said, according to the Daily Mail, which published the documents.
This is not the first time Thompson has cheated on Kardashian.
Photos and videos of Thompson kissing other women circulated in 2018, days before Kardashian gave birth to True. And in 2019, Thompson admitted to cheating on Kardashian with Kylie Jenner's best friend, Jordyn Woods, while hosting a party at his home.
Kardashian has not discussed Thompson and Nichols publicly.