Kris Jenner Reveals Erik Menendez Came to the House to Play Tennis with Husband Robert Kardashian in the '80s

Kim Kardashian’s advocacy for the Menendez brothers has some pretty deep-seated roots.

During the season 6 premiere of The Kardashians, Kim, 43, told her family that Ryan Murphy’s next Monsters anthology installment would explore the story of the brothers’ 1989 murder of their parents in their Beverly Hills home, which brought up a surprising anecdote from Kris Jenner.

“Ryan Murphy told me that his new series — like, how he did Dahmer — is now gonna be on the Menendez brothers,” Kim told Kris, Khloé, Kourtney and Kendall.

“Oh my God. You know I knew those guys? In the 80s?” Kris, 69, said.

Kourtney then asked if Kris knew the brothers’ parents, Kitty and Jose, who were killed by their sons in 1989, and she clarified, “No. I knew the kids because Erik used to come over and play tennis with your dad on the weekends.”

Kim then said she remembered her dad Robert Kardashian, who died in 2003 and was a practicing attorney for most of his life, “talking about the case and I remember the whole case, growing up in Beverly Hills.”

“The trial, I think, happened when I was, like, 13, so there were big cases that I would love to talk to my Dad about and so this was one of them,” she said in a confessional, before revealing how her pursuit of a law degree has changed how she thinks about Erik and Lyle’s case.

“Now, being older and seeing it from a different lens, 35 years later, and knowing what I know now about the system, I just have a whole different outlook on it.”

Since the September release of Murphy’s Monsters: The Erik and Lyle Menendez Story on Netflix, there’s been a resurgence of interest in the brothers’ case — and a new push for them to be resentenced as they have been in prison without parole since 1996.

Kim has taken an active role in the resentencing campaign. In October, she expressed her support for the brothers — Lyle is now 57 and Erik is 54 — in an essay written for NBC News.

“I have spent time with Lyle and Erik; they are not monsters,” she wrote, referring to them as “kind” and “honest men” who “both have exemplary disciplinary records.” She also referenced how the brothers were allegedly “sexually, physically and emotionally abused for years by their parents,” noting that Erik claimed to be just 6 years old when his father allegedly began raping him. 

“The killings are not excusable. I want to make that clear. Nor is their behavior before, during or after the crime. But we should not deny who they are today in their 50s,” she continued. “We owe it to those little boys who lost their childhoods, who never had a chance to be heard, helped or saved.”

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New episodes of The Kardashians air Thursdays on Hulu.