Reggie Bush And Kim Kardashian's Relationship Explained

Longtime fans of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" remember a simpler time in Kim Kardashian's love life, when she was dating New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush. 

Nicknamed "Bush and the Tush" by Khloe Kardashian, things were lovely between the couple for the better part of three years. Kim said the two spent almost every day together and she even schooled his teammate Bobby McCray on ESPN's "For the Love of the Game." She correctly guessed his favorite food (Mexican), his biggest pet peeve (losing), and his favorite TV show ("Family Guy.") 

While we all know this relationship came to an end, it's important to note that both Bush and Kim have spoken highly of it over the years. It probably didn't hurt the E! reality show's ratings, either. But like any relationship, there were hard times, too, and for this couple, that meant dealing with the stigma of a sex tape, infidelity rumors, and mismatched schedules. So just what are all the details of this interesting relationship? Let's find out. 

Reggie Bush and Kim Kardashian started their on-and-off three-year love affair in 2007 after meeting at the ESPY Awards. Bush told GQ in an interview titled "The Saint and the Sinner" that he had never seen the reality star before that night, but "the rest is history," as Kardashian put it. Their relationship was featured as a common storyline on "Keeping Up With the Kardashians," following the sisters to Reggie's pool tournament in New Orleans and a sexy photoshoot for the Super Bowl champ, which we'll get to later.

The couple parted ways in July 2009, but gave it another shot until breaking up for good in March 2010. The show captured Kardashian's heartbreak after the split. In one episode, she canceled a photoshoot mid-session because she felt like her "world was over." Cameras also captured an angry phone call from Bush, upset that a car wash charged his credit card for Kardashian's wash.

Kardashian and Bush reportedly had lunch together at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 2012 after her divorce from former NBA player Kris Humphries, per TMZ, but we all know that Kanye West was the one to [temporarily] win Kardashian's heart.

Kim Kardashian is the queen of sexy, and once used her appeal as an anniversary gift for Reggie Bush. In a 2008 episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," she set up a sexy calendar photoshoot, sporting 12 different lingerie looks, including Bush's New Orleans Saints jersey, to celebrate their one year. Styled with teased hair and doll-like eyelashes, Kardashian was in her element when Bush surprised her on set.

Kardashian told him the pictures were for a magazine as Bush watched from the sidelines, eating food and checking his phone. "Reggie's a little uncomfortable with the sexiness of the shoot, but little does he know this shoot is for his eyes only," she said on the show.

The episode took a turn, however, when Rob Kardashian found the calendar at a local newsstand. It turns out Kris Jenner distributed them, thinking they were a business venture. Kim successfully bought all the copies from the stores, and Bush ended up loving the gift. How romantic!

Kim Kardashian was known for two reasons in 2007: Her family's reality show and her sex tape with R&B singer Ray J. This made her a controversial choice for Reggie Bush, as Kardashian was years away from being the makeup and shapewear mogul we know today.

But despite the public perception, Bush told GQ in 2009 that the pair "don't talk or think about" her past. "With Kim, and with anybody in life, it's not my place to judge, no matter what they've done — good, bad, or indifferent," he said. "I was a friend to her when she needed one, and we ended up talking, and everything worked out."

Kardashian reiterated that Bush helped her overcome her "shame" from the tape in an 2011 interview with Piers Morgan, per HuffPost. "I think that I was so lucky to find a boyfriend at that time in [Reggie Bush]. [It] was something he really helped me through, and he picked me up when I couldn't pick myself up."

Whatever Kim Kardashian does, criticism and controversy follows, and that includes the rumored reason she and Reggie Bush really called it off. Maybe Bush wasn't ready for marriage, but Kardashian denied any sort of flashy engagement bet between the two.

Multiple news outlets reported there was an agreement bewteen Kardashian and Bush that if he and the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl, Kardashian would get an engagement ring. Kardashian addressed the allegation on her blog, saying it was taken out of context. "If you listen to the interview you can hear exactly what I said," she wrote, per OK!.

"I never made any kind of bet. A radio interviewer asked what I dreamed for in 2010 and I was hesitant and thinking about it and they said what about ring ... I said yes, a Superbowl ring for Reggie," Kardashian wrote. "Then they said that if he gets a Superbowl ring, I get an engagement ring, and I said 'ok deal!' LOL."

Rumors swirled that Reggie Bush may have cheated on Kim Kardashian after the National Enquirer, per Starcasm, published photos of a blond woman leaving his house early in the morning in March 2010. The woman was Bush's friend and recording artist January Gessert, known professionally as January Ryan, who appeared on "Basketball Wives L.A." years later in 2016.

Gessert found the rumor so detrimental to her budding music career that she hired celebrity attorney Gloria Allred and hosted a news conference to set the record straight. Allred said that Gessert and her friends stayed overnight at Bush's house watching movies, but Bush went to sleep.

"I am shocked, frightened, and crushed that leaving a friend's house can be so misconstrued to turn my whole life upside down," Gessert said during the news conference. "I can't believe that people and the media will go to such great lengths to create a completely fabricated story to boost ratings." Bush also spoke about the rumor on Twitter, per Us Weekly, writing, "January is a long time friend of mine & has been dating my best friend for 6 months. Sorry! Lol!"

Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush broke up for good in 2010, after three years of dating on and off. Bush told Rachel Ray, per People, in 2010 that their busy schedules made it hard to spend private time together. He also admitted that Kardashian was much more comfortable in front of cameras than he was, and that he only appeared on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" for his girlfriend.

"I play football, and most football players are camera shy. You have to juggle everything. We're so busy so much: Monday through Saturday we're putting in 14-hour to 16-hour days. In the off-season, I try to spend more time [on the] relationship and doing things that she might like and pleasing her."

A source also told Us Weekly that Kardashian's fame was "just a little too much for him to handle." Bush echoed that statement in a 2014 interview with ESPN, saying, "When I started dating my ex [Kim], that's when all this [media attention] came. But it's part of the territory ... Then all the other stuff came. The gossip magazines and all the other stuff, the ugly side of it. But you know what, I wouldn't change anything because it helped mold and shape who I am today and I'm a better man for it."

Some could say Kim Kardashian's three marriages means she's a hopeless romantic, but maybe marriage just wasn't in the cards for her and Reggie Bush. After their breakup, sources told Radar that Kardashian saw Bush as her husband and child's father, but Bush did not.

"She feels it's the next step for her and Reggie," the source said. "But Reggie knows deep down in his heart that he doesn't want to marry Kim. He basically put it on the line for her — he wants a wife that is a support system to him and would be a stay at home mom to his children."

The source said her sister, Khloe Kardashian's, marriage to Lamar Odom and the birth of Kourtney Kardashian's son, Mason, made her ready for a family life, but Bush did not see it with her. "He loves her drive and ambition, and he thinks she's amazing, he truly loves her, but he knows she's just not the right kind of girl for him to marry," the source said.

Reggie Bush tied the knot with Armenian dancer and choreographer Lilit Avagyan in 2014, per The U.S. Sun. The two would go on to have three children together. 

And even though his relationship with Kim Kardashian was long over, fans started comparing his wife and former girlfriend. As X17 put it, Avagyan and Kardashian looked almost identical "from the boobs to the pout." They also both had long, thick dark hair, thanks to their shared Armenian roots.

Actor Jennifer Lawrence addressed the similarities head-on in an interview with Kardashian that she conducted while filling in as host of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!." "Do you think it's a coincidence that Reggie Bush's wife looks just like you? I don't," Lawrence asked a laughing Kardashian. She didn't answer the question, but instead replied, "Oh, I knew this was going to be fun." In an even more strange coincidence, Bush's daughter, Briseis, was born a month before Kardashian and Kanye West's daughter, North, and the two little ones also look strikingly similar, per Insider.