FOR the social media age, it was the ultimate act of respect: as Khloé Kardashian���s estranged husband lay in a cocaine-related coma in a Las Vegas hospital, the Twitter feed of America’s most famous reality TV family fell silent.
For the past week, the country has been fixated by the fate of Lamar Odom, 35, whose four-day sex-and-drugs binge at a Nevada brothel ended with the 6ft 10in basketball star unconscious — and an alleged unpaid bill of $75,000 (£48,000).
Khloé, the 31-year-old fashion model sister of Kim and Kourtney, broke up with Odom after four years of domestic turmoil — much of it shared with the world — and now dates another basketball player. But with the final divorce papers yet to be approved by a judge, she is still Odom’s next of kin. Would she, the family’s legions of social media followers wondered, give the order to pull the plug on his life support machine?
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Then, in a twist worthy of the best-scripted drama, the former Los Angeles Lakers star awoke, blinked and said “Hi”. He is reported to have since been taken off a ventilator, spoken a few words and even texted.
Fans are dreaming of a fairytale reconciliation and the revival of the marriage.
Odom, son of a New York heroin addict and with a history of alcohol-related problems, was said by friends to have been out of control since he and Khloé broke up last year.
On Saturday he phoned the Love Ranch, a legal brothel 70 miles north of his home in Las Vegas whose dirt road driveway promises “liquor and ladies”.
TJ Moore, the brothel’s manager, drove to Las Vegas and picked him up.
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“He spent four days socialising with two of my girls and my staff until Monday night when he asked to be left alone,” said Dennis Hof, the owner.
On Tuesday afternoon staff found Odom passed out on a bed clad only in basketball shorts. They rolled him onto his side after bloody white substances leaked from his mouth and nose.
Odom had told Love Ranch staff he had taken a “little bit of cocaine” before arriving at the brothel, which over 60 years had maintained a no-drug policy, a spokesman said.
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But once in a private bungalow he drank their cognac and took 10 tablets of Reload, a “herbal sex supplement” linked in recent months to heart problems.
He was too tall for the medical helicopter that came to carry him to Las Vegas and returned by ambulance — allegedly without having settled his brothel bill.
While Odom was making friends at the Love Ranch, Khloé was engaged in a more usual Kardashian pastime: a “tweet feud” with a critic.
On the TV show Saturday Night Live, the host Amy Schumer talked about the lack of realistic role models for young girls and mocked Khloé’s recent dramatic weight loss. Khloé responded: “no need 2 tear down others just 2 make urself feel bigger.”
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Khloé arrived at hospital just behind Kobe Bryant, the Lakers captain, and the politician Reverend Jesse Jackson, who claimed to have led a 30-minute prayer session over the player.
She has sat at the bedside alongside Liza Morales, another reality TV actor, with whom Odom had two surviving children but never married. Odom was due in court this week in a custody battle over the children, Destiny and Lamar Jr.
On Friday the Kardashians, who have earned an estimated $500m through “social media modelling”, announced they would withdraw from the networks that have made them famous “until the crisis has passed”.
Last night, fans, hopeful of happy news, were still awaiting their return.