The mom of four was diagnosed with esophagitis and put on medication to help with inflammation, she previously shared on ‘The Kardashians’

NEED TO KNOW

• Robert Kardashian died in 2003 at age 59, eight weeks after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and his daughters Kim, Khloé and Kourtney opened the UCLA Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health in 2019 in his honor
• Kim was recently diagnosed with esophagitis, and on the Nov. 5 episode of The Kardashians, she underwent an endoscopy at the UCLA health center
• “I mean, the last thing I wanna do is have surgery on my esophagus — that’s really scary to me,” Kim said

Kim Kardashian never expected to be a patient at the UCLA health center she and her sisters founded in honor of their late dad.

The UCLA Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health opened in 2019, thanks to donations from Kim, Kourtney and Khloé, and provides “resources for groundbreaking research, patient care and education/training, in addition to support of efforts in esophageal health.”

In 2024, the sisters celebrated the center’s fifth anniversary, at which point Kim, 46, couldn’t have anticipated she would end up a patient there just two years later.

On the Nov. 5 episode of The Kardashians, the mom of four underwent an endoscopy at the center named in her dad’s honor — Robert died in 2003 at 59, eight weeks after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer — following an esophagitis diagnosis.

“Because of my dad’s experience, my sisters and I have opened the Robert Kardashian Esophageal Health Center at UCLA,” she explained in a confessional. “The irony of this all — the fact that I helped to put together this building, never knowing that I would need it.”

She underwent an endoscopy as a follow-up, after an “irregular area” was found in her esophagus during an initial endoscopy. “I went in for an endoscopy and the doctor said my esophagus has these irregularities and I have to have them cut out, and I was like, ‘Oh come on, we’re not repeating this.’ It’s the same thing my dad had,” she explained. “I’m like, nope, we’re not doing this.”

After that doctor recommended surgery, she decided to consult a doctor at the UCLA health center for a second opinion. “He said, ‘I think that doctor’s being a little aggressive. I would test out medication for eight weeks first, and then we do another endoscopy.’ I mean the last thing I wanna do is have surgery on my esophagus. That’s really scary to me. But I’ll do whatever I’ve gotta do.”

Although the medication had to be timed “up to 25 minutes before I eat,” she stuck with the “inconvenient” schedule in the hope that it would help.

Weeks later, she arrived at the UCLA health center, with mom Kris Jenner by her side, to “see if the esophagitis has gotten worse or better with the medication they gave me.”

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“I’m hopeful,” Kim shared in a confessional. “It is what it is. They’re either gonna say, ‘Hey, the irregularities have not gone away from the medication, and you need to have a piece of your esophagus removed.’ Or, they’re gonna say, ‘The medication worked and you don’t need the procedure and just continue on this medication.’ Obviously, I don’t want surgery, but I’ll do whatever necessary.”

Jenner, 70, was candid about how “stressful” the esophagitis diagnosis was for her, given how quickly Robert died after he was diagnosed with cancer. “Of course I’m scared,” she said. “I don’t want to tell her I’m scared, but it’s very worrisome. We just pray for the best.”

New episodes of The Kardashians air Thursdays on Hulu.

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