Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian are marking an emotional milestone.
On Saturday, the sisters both posted Instagram tributes to their late father, Robert Kardashian Sr., in honor of the 20th anniversary of his death. The defense attorney and father of four died from esophageal cancer at age 59 on Sept. 30, 2003.
Kourtney, 44, shared a throwback photo of her father smiling and waving at the camera. “I miss you, Daddy. 20 years ago today since I haven’t seen you,” she wrote in the caption of the Instagram Story post, adding a white dove symbol.
Khloé’s tribute was a photo-less post that said, “The orbs are my daddy. I miss you.”
Siblings Kim and Rob did not post public tributes. However, earlier this year, Rob, 36, remembered his father on what would have been his 79th birthday on Feb. 22. Alongside a black-and-white photo of his dad and mom Kris Jenner at a restaurant together, he wrote simply, “Happy Birthday Dad 💙💙🫂.”
Kim, 42, marked her father’s birthday this year by sharing a series of sentimental photos of the pair. “It’s almost getting to the point where I’ve had to remember you longer than I’ve known you,” she wrote. “It’s been 20 years since we’ve celebrated your birthday here on earth. But I will take it because I had the best dad in the whole wide world and am so lucky I had 22 years with you!”
She also reposted a touching compilation of family videos and photos put together by a fan page. The slideshow — which was captioned, “The most beautiful star in the sky” — featured a sweet snapshot of Robert tenderly kissing a teenaged Kim on the head.
Back in 2021, Khloé, 39, opened up about the special bond she and her siblings shared with their father, who was famously a key member of O.J. Simpson’s legal team during the former NFL star’s infamous 1994 murder trial.
“We were all so close to my dad. My dad definitely worked all the time, but looking back at it I never noticed that,” she shared while appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show in July 2021.
“He was with us all the time, and I think just had a really good way of balancing work and taking care of his kids and being there,” Khloé continued. “He was there for all of our sporting events, any plays, any of that kind of stuff.”
In a raw passage of her 2015 memoir, Strong Looks Better Naked, Khloé wrote that she “completely fell apart” at her father’s funeral.
“I don’t remember the details, but apparently I was an emotional wreck, and I’m told that I was so distraught I actually passed out,” she recalled. “At one point, I fell to the floor kicking and screaming, and I had to be sedated. It was really intense. I refused to believe my father was gone. I just wanted to believe it was all just a bad dream.”
In a poignant moment, the family came together to honor Robert’s legacy in a very special way in 2019, 16 years after his death. They attended the ribbon cutting of UCLA’s new Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health in Los Angeles.
“So proud to announce the Robert G, Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health being launched at UCLA,” Kim wrote on Twitter at the time. “My wish is that other families can have more information and we can also focus on health and prevention.”
Khloé explained in her own Instagram Story post that the wing named for her father would “provide resources for groundbreaking research, patient care and education/training, in addition to support of efforts in esophageal health.”