Key Takeaways
- Kim Kardashian revealed an esophagitis diagnosis in the Season 8 trailer for The Kardashians, stirring painful memories of her father Robert Kardashian’s 2003 death from esophageal cancer.
- Esophagitis is inflammation of the esophagus—not cancer—and the trailer does not disclose the cause or severity of Kim’s condition.
- The diagnosis follows Kim’s recent brain-aneurysm scare and highlights her family’s support for UCLA’s Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health.
Kim Kardashian is confronting another health scare on The Kardashians, but this one hit especially close to home.
In the newly released Season 8 trailer, obtained by People, Kardashian reveals that she has been diagnosed with esophagitis, an inflammation of the esophagus. The disclosure immediately brings her late father, Robert Kardashian, into the conversation: He died from esophageal cancer in 2003 at age 59.
Kardashian's family doesn't miss the connection. One scene shows Kim in a hospital gown as someone off-camera begins asking, “Didn't your father... isn't it what he died of?” Kris Jenner later becomes emotional while discussing the situation, telling cameras, “I can't, it makes me want to cry.”
To be clear, esophagitis is not esophageal cancer. The condition involves inflammation of the tissue lining the esophagus and can have several causes, including acid reflux. Chronic inflammation can sometimes contribute to conditions that increase cancer risk, but the Season 8 trailer doesn't reveal the cause or severity of Kardashian's diagnosis.
Still, esophageal health matters especially to the Kardashian family. Robert died only weeks after being diagnosed with cancer, and his children have since turned that loss into a long-running effort to support research and treatment. In 2019, Kim, Kris Jenner and other members of the Kardashian-Jenner family helped establish UCLA's Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health.
Kim spoke about the center at its fifth anniversary in 2024, saying she had personally sent friends there for treatment.
“I have friends that I have referred to the Robert G. Kardashian Center, and it has saved their lives,” she said. “It makes me proud to hear them be so grateful that they found a place that was dedicated to the one thing that would help them.”
She returned to the subject during The Kardashians in 2025, acknowledging that advances in medicine arrived too late to help her father.
“We weren't able to save his life with this new technology and with the access to these doctors, but now we can help save other people's lives,” Kardashian said, adding that she believed her father would be proud of the family's work.
The latest diagnosis also extends a run of health concerns Kardashian has documented on the series. During Season 7, she revealed that doctors had discovered a small brain aneurysm.
She later underwent additional testing and was medically cleared, but another brain scan produced a different concern: Dr. Daniel Amen told her the frontal portion of her brain showed lower activity than expected.
“That just can't be,” Kardashian responded at the time. Amen suggested chronic stress could be contributing to the finding, as Kardashian was juggling the California bar exam, co-parenting with Ye and testifying in the Paris robbery trial.
The Kardashians returns to Hulu on Oct. 8.
