Lamar Joseph Odom is an American professional basketball player. As a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association, he won NBA championships in 2009 and 2010 and was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2011
Lamar Odom is opening up about his sex and drug addiction that nearly cost him his life.
“I have been obsessed with sex for as long as I can remember. I am a sex addict,” the former NBA star writes in his new memoir, Darkness to Light to be released May 28th.
“There were too many strippers to count. It wasn’t a big deal, but often I would pay them. I never thought less of them,” he says.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Lamar said he cheated on Khloe Kardashian throughout their marriage.
“I was shocked and embarrassed. I wanted to take it back, but you can’t. [I] wanted to hide it. But that sick sin was hard for me to hide … I had a problem,” he says to PEOPLE.
Lamar continues: “[I] ran out of porn to watch! That’s how you know when you are going a little overboard. Sex was a trigger for me to do drugs. Because you double up on [that] good feeling.”
Lamar says he got the “wake-up call” when he overdosed and nearly died at Love Ranch brothel in Las Vegas. “Like, this can’t happen again,” he says.
He says he’s working on his time.
“I’m still an addict,” he writes in Darkness to Light. “I still struggle … [But] I will not go into the darkness. Ever again.”
Photo Credit: Austin Hargrave for PEOPLE