“It was fabulous and amazing until it wasn’t, and that’s the truth,” Robert Kardashian Sr.’s cousin Cici Bussey said of his love story with Kris Jenner
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From left: Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner and Robert Kardashian Sr.
Kris Jenner had to go to extreme lengths to say her final goodbyes to ex-husband Robert Kardashian Sr.
Robert Sr.’s cousin Cici Bussey shared a surprising anecdote with Khloé Kardashian on Thursday’s episode of The Kardashians when Khloé, 39, interviewed her for a family video “time capsule” she was putting together.
During the interview, Cici told Khloé that her maternal grandmother Helen told her not to speak to Kris, 68, amid her divorce from Robert Sr.
“The lesson is family first,” Cici explained. “When your mom and dad were getting a divorce, the phone would ring, [it was] Helen calling me, [saying] ‘What’s she doing? You’ve got to fix it!’ She thought I could fix it!”
“And your dad got mad at me because your grandma said nobody can talk to [Kris], and I said I can’t do that because then I wouldn’t be able to talk to Kourtney, Kimberly, Khloé and Rob, so I was outed,” she went on. “And nobody talked to me. Your dad didn’t talk to me and he was furious at me till he died, and that’s my biggest regret.”
Kris Jenner Instagram
Kris Jenner and Robert Kardashian Sr. with their kids, Robert, Kourtney, Khloe, and Kim
Related: Caitlyn Jenner Details Last Conversation with Robert Kardashian — and Convincing Him to Divorce Kris
When Khloe insisted that there would be “no way he’s mad” at Cici and would instead be proud of her, Cici reiterated, “I went up against the Kardashians and I wasn’t supposed to.”
“One day during this time, your grandmother Helen went over to the house and said to Kris, ‘Come outside,'” Cici recalled. “She’s screaming [saying to Kris], ‘I worked so hard my whole life, you have ruined our family. The Kardashian castle has crumbled!'”
Despite tensions between the women, Cici claimed Helen ultimately wanted Kris back in her life — and even took the steps to do it, all thanks to PEOPLE Magazine.
“I remember when she married [Caitlyn Jenner], they were in PEOPLE Magazine, and there was Helen [yelling], ‘Look she’s made PEOPLE! She’s in PEOPLE!” Cici recalled. “She carried that PEOPLE Magazine around as if it was her child, and that was when she was not even supposed to like her.”
“She was so proud of her, she’s so proud that she rose up and survived and didn’t crumble,” she added. “The castle crumbled, your mom didn’t crumble. She was proud!”
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Even so, Kris still had to rely on daughter Kim Kardashian to say goodbye to her late ex-husband when Robert Sr. was on his death bed.
“Kim snuck her in,” Cici revealed. “They said their goodbyes, I think they professed their love and she said, ‘You’re the love of my life,’ and he said the same thing. And he died.”
“It was fabulous and amazing until it wasn’t, and that’s the truth,” she added. “It was magical until it wasn’t, and that one day it ended.”
Kris Jenner Instagram
Kris was married to Robert Sr. from July 1978 until March 1991, when their divorce was finalized. They welcomed four children together: Kourtney, Kim, Khloé and Robert Jr.
The Safely founder met Caitlyn (who publicly came out as transgender in 2015) in 1990, and the two tied the knot in April 1991, one month after her divorce from Robert Sr. was finalized. The pair — who share daughters Kendall, 27, and Kylie, 26 — had been together for 22 years when they announced their separation in 2013. (Their divorce was then finalized in December 2014.)
Following Kris and Robert Sr.’s divorce, the exes remained close friends as he skyrocketed to national attention when he acted as an attorney to close friend O.J. Simpson during his infamous 1994 murder trial. He was later diagnosed with esophageal cancer in July 2003 and died less than two months later at age 59 on Sept. 30, 2003.
