“I was in denial that this is happening” — Khloe Kardashian opens up about feeling “detached” during surrogacy pregnancy with son Tatum

Media personality Khloe Kardashian is opening up about surrogacy and the birth of her son Tatum. The 39-year-old appeared on the women's health podcast SHE MD in the episode released on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, to discuss her journey of surrogacy with hosts Dr. Thais Aliabadi and Mary Alice Haney.

Khloe explained to the hosts that she found it difficult to view the pregnancy as a real thing because she was not carrying her son. As per People, she stated —

"The entire pregnancy of my surrogate, I admittedly buried my head in the sand and I said to Dr. A, 'I can't do this.' And the whole surrogacy pregnancy, I was really detached."

Khloe, who is also a patient of Dr. Aliabadi, continued —

"I couldn't really face it. I very much think I was in denial that this is happening. So I didn't get to really attach during the pregnancy part."

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Khloe Kardashian says "she is obsessed with Tatum now"

Khloe Kardashian welcomed her son in July 2022 through surrogacy. Talking about the initial embryo transfer, The Good America founder explained she never informed anybody, including her family, about the process after news came to light that her now-ex Tristian Thompson had fathered another baby. She recalled —

"So it was a couple days before Thanksgiving and I ended up doing the transfer. And then the first week of December, I found out that my ex was actually having a baby with somebody else."

She reasoned —

"And I never told my family I did the transfer. I wasn't going to tell anyone until it took, because I wanted to surprise everyone. So no one knew."

However, Khloe Kardashian admitted she had "one of the world's best surrogates." Tatum arrived earlier than expected, and Khloe explained that it "devastated" her as "all the judgment and the knives were thrown at her."

At the time, Khloe Kardashian was planning a last bonding trip to Disneyland with her daughter, True. However, she got a call from her doctor informing her of his impending arrival. The 39-year-old was shocked as the baby "wasn't due for another week or two."

Immediately reacting to the urgency of the situation, the mother of two told Dr. Aliabadi that they "can’t do this" because she "just needed the weekend." Hearing her panic, as per Khloe, the doctor stated —

"She goes, ‘You know what?’ I’ll deliver the baby. I’ll take the baby and you let me know when you’re ready to pick him up.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ I’m like, ‘Who does this? Who even offers that?’ And she did. And I remember I was like to myself, ‘Khloé, f*cking snap out of it. This is life. We got to do this."

During a season 3 episode of The Kardashians, Khloe Kardashian admitted to her mother, Kris Jenner, that she had difficulty bonding with her son. Stating it only took days with True but was taking months with Tatum, she admitted to feeling guilty and questioned, "Why isn't it the same?" She stated —

"Compare it to True and him, it’s a different experience. The connection... took days with True. With him, it's taking months and we still don’t have a complete bond."

However, Khloe tells the host, opening up about how the surrogacy helped, and while it took nine months for her to "fully connect," she is obsessed with Tatum now."

Khloe Kardashian's sister, Kim, too, has two children via surrogacy: Chicago, born in 2018, and Psalm, born in 2019.