Is Khloe Kardashian paying Lamar Odom’s medical bills? Speculation about his care continues to build

Rumors and gossip about the growing Lamar Odom medical bills controversy have begun to take on a life of their own, as the exact nature of Khloe Kardashian’s arrangement with her estranged husband comes into question. According to Khloe, she called off her pending divorce with Lamar in order to handle both his finances and recovery from last autumn’s medical emergency. However, rising speculation suggests that Khloe is merely handling payments from Lamar’s own accounts…and that money might be running short.

Khloe Kardashian recieved praise across the internet for asking a judge to cancel her request for a divorce from Lamar Odom, following Odom’s drug overdose and seizure last October. Since then, though, fans and observers alike have wondered about the exact nature of the pair’s relationship, particularly since Khloe has given a number of hints that suggest she’s far less interested in caring for Odom than was initially believed.

In early December, she was criticized for saying “I need to move forward from Lamar” in an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians that had been filmed months earlier and not edited before airing. The statement was one in a series of moves that Odom supporters claim has been strongly anti-Lamar: Khloe denied Odom’s request to convalesce in her Calabasas home; continued her ongoing publicity tour and gave out weight loss tips while Odom struggled to take his first steps without a walker; and, most recently, told fans that she “needs to start focusing on herself more in 2016,” without referencing her technical husband by name.

The Lamar Odom medical bills question has become larger and larger over the past few weeks, as reports of Odom’s fluctuating condition continue to emerge. Lamar Odom–whose son, Lamar Jr., recently shared the above photo of his father, the first anyone has seen since Odom was hospitalized–had been hoping to leave the Cedars Sinai Medical Center before Christmas; a setback in his recovery rendered that hope impossible. Fans are beginning to wonder, though, how much longer Odom can stay, given a pair of recent reports that suggest Khloe is not helping foot Lamar’s medical bills after all.

The first of the two reports claims that Odom’s medical bills “could be in the millions,” and the strong suggestion is that the final, pre-discharge tally could be even higher. According to Shana Alex Charles, a healthcare costs expert cited in the study, Khloe Kardashian “would likely be responsible for a portion of the bills, due to the fact that she and Odom are still married.”

Though Charles declined to offer a specific amount that Khloe might owe, a friend of Odom’s has gone on record saying that the cost of care is starting to worry Lamar’s camp. Odom’s “case is serious,” according to that friend, “and, with the huge [number] of medical needs that [have] to be rendered to him, the bill will most likely sum up to around $50,000 per night.”

It’s not known if the friend was citing hospital authorities when claiming the $50,000 figure, or whether the amount was largely speculation. But an Entertainment Tonight exposé did quote Ryan Stearns, a certified family law specialist, who described the possible nature of Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom’s arrangement. “If I were representing Khloe,” said Stearns, “and [I knew] later she was going to divorce Lamar, I would argue that he’s going through this treatment as a consequence of his ‘whoring’ around.”

What might that mean? According to Stearns, “Namely, that [Lamar] developed these conditions as a result of nothing to do with their marriage, entirely separate. Then it would be up to the court to determine whether the debts are going to be his separate responsibility.”

(Photo credits: Lamar Odom medical bills via Instagram)