Tristan Thompson just confirmed that Maralee Nichols‘ newborn baby boy is his son. He took to his Instagram Story on Jan. 3 to reveal that “paternity test results reveal” he “fathered a child with Maralee Nichols“. In his lengthy message, he wrote, “I take full responsibility for my actions. Now that paternity has been established, I look forward to amicably raising our son. I sincerely apologize to everyone I’ve hurt or disappointed throughout this ordeal both publicly and privately.”
Aside from Maralee, Tristan’s on-again/off-again girlfriend Khloé Kardashian may be the one most affected by the NBA player’s latest scandal, which is why he immediately followed his Monday evening message with a direct apology to The Kardashians star. “Khloé, you don’t deserve this,” he wrote in a second post. “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. Again, I am so incredibly sorry.”
Khloe, who Tristan shares 3-year-old daughter True Thompson with, has yet to respond to Tristan’s heartbreaking message, but HollywoodLife reached out to her rep for a comment, and we did not receive an immediate response.
Tristan’s reveal comes one month after Daily Mail exposed his months-long affair with Maralee Nichols. In court documents filed in the Superior State of California, County of Los Angeles, and obtained by Daily Mail, Tristan confirmed he had sex with Maralee in March 2021, while he was celebrating his 30th birthday. However, he also stated that he didn’t think he was the father of the baby that she birthed in early December.
While Tristan waited for paternity test results, he and Maralee battled it out in court. She sued Tristan for child support, and claimed he tried to pay her $75,000 to keep quiet about the baby. He then asked a judge last month for an emergency gag order to get Maralee to stop talking about the paternity case, and now, here we are.
According to Maralee’s timeline, it seems she and Tristan conceived their newborn son just after he reunited with Khloe last spring. However, Tristan and Khloe split up again in the summer. They’ve since supported each other since the breakup and are co-parenting their daughter together.
This is Tristan’s third known child. He also shares 4-year-old son Prince with ex Jordan Craig.