It’s hard to believe it has already been four years since *that* infamous Tristan Thompson cheating scandal destroyed Kylie Jenner and Jordyn Woods’ friendship.
But the pair finally seem to have patched things up, after they were spotted having dinner together at an LA sushi restaurant on Saturday night. Snaps of the unexpected reunion sent social media into a frenzy. But sources have confirmed that the influencers have been spending time together over the past year away from the cameras to work on rebuilding their friendship.
Kylie and Jordyn’s seven-year-long friendship came to a crashing halt in February 2019, when Woods was caught kissing basketball player Tristan Thompson — who at the time was in a relationship with Jenner’s sister Khloe Kardashian — at an LA party.
At the time of the scandal, Kylie and Jordyn had become one of their generation’s most iconic friendship duos. The pair were inseparable, even reportedly living together for a time, and had launched a business venture together, cosmetics line KYLIE X JORDAN, the year before. But the Kylie Cosmetics founder began distancing herself from Jordyn in the weeks after the cheating rumours, eventually publicly signalling the end of their friendship by unfollowing Jordyn in August 2019.
However, a source told People that the pair have patched up their friendship, instigated by Jordyn extending an olive branch to the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star. “Jordyn reached out to Kylie to apologise for how everything went down and let her know that she loves her,” the source said.
So what happened between the ex-BFFs and could there be a frenaissance on the cards?
From childhood besties to business partners
Kylie and Jordyn first crossed paths when they were just 14 years old, back in the summer of 2012. The pair were introduced by their mutual friend, Jaden Smith, who went to middle school with Jenner. Woods has been family friends with the Smiths for many years.
They quickly became close, and Woods attended the annual Kardashian/Jenner Christmas party together in 2013. The following year, Jordyn was one of 200 guests invited to Kylie’s sister Kim’s lavish wedding to Kanye West in Florence.
Already the very definition of bestie goals, their iconic status was only solidified when they both starred in the reality series titled Life With Kylie, which launched back in August 2017. Their super-close friendship was intimately portrayed on the show — in one of the episodes, the two girls even got “married” during a commitment ceremony in Peru.
In February 2018, Kylie announced her daughter Stormi’s birth by releasing a YouTube video, titled To Our Daughter, in which Jordyn was a central figure. Having kept her pregnancy secret to the public, the adorable video showed Kylie telling her inner circle the big news — and notably telling her bestie by handing her a positive pregnancy test.
In the video, fans heard Jordyn say: “Whatever your name is going to be, this is how I found out about you. Your mother and I were living our lives, she met your father, they just hit it off. Chemistry.”
A few months later, the new mum and Jordyn launched the Kylie x Jordyn collection for Kylie’s make-up brand Kylie Cosmetics.
“i can’t wait to introduce the KYLIE X JORDYN @kyliecosmetics collection to you guys but before i do, i wanted to come on here and let you know just how special this collection really is to me,” Jenner wrote on Instagram.
“jordyn and i have had a true unmatchable relationship and i consider her family. she’s helped me remain ME throughout all these years and this is the first time we have collaborated on such a project.”
The infamous kiss, and the Red Table Talk
In 2019, Jordyn and Khloe Kardashian’s then-boyfriend and baby-daddy sent shockwaves across the entertainment world after it emerged they had hooked up at a party. Although Jordyn initially denied that anything had happened between the two, she later revealed that the pair had shared a kiss during a bombshell interview on Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith in March 2019.
“I was drunk. I was not tipsy, I was drunk. But I was not beyond the point of recollection. I know where I was. But, on the way out [of Tristan’s house], he did kiss me,” she said in the emotional interview. “No passion, no nothing. On the way out, he just kissed me. It was a kiss on the lips. No tongue kiss, no making out. Nothing. I don’t think he’s wrong either, because I allowed myself to be in this position.”
She said immediately after the kiss, she didn’t know how to process her emotions. “I didn’t know how to feel. I was like, ‘That didn’t just happen,’ because I was leaving already so I walked out immediately after.” She remembered getting “in the car and was like, ‘No, that didn’t happen,’ I [told him] ‘I need to go.’ I was in shock.”
Jordyn also took a lie-detector test which was shown on Red Table Talk. At one point, she was asked, “Did you have sexual intercourse with Tristan Thompson?” She responded, saying, “No.” At the end of the test, the practitioner confirmed: “You definitely passed and I believe you’re being truthful on the test.”
Why are you lying @jordynwoods ?? If you’re going to try and save yourself by going public, INSTEAD OF CALLING ME PRIVATELY TO APOLOGIZE FIRST, at least be HONEST about your story. BTW, You ARE the reason my family broke up!
— Khloé (@khloekardashian) March 1, 2019
After Red Table Talk aired, Khloe took to Twitter to publicly call out her sister’s friend. “Why are you lying @jordynwoods??” she tweeted, “If you’re going to try and save yourself by going public, INSTEAD OF CALLING ME PRIVATELY TO APOLOGIZE FIRST, at least be HONEST about your story. BTW, You ARE the reason my family broke up!”
Jordyn had, however, spoken in the interview about trying to apologise to Kardashian. “I did as much apologizing as I could do, over the phone, over text,” she said. “And, until I get the opportunity to talk face-to-face, can she can really feel what I’m saying? But I reached out and the opportunity is there. I offered as much as I could. A lie-detector test, anything. Whatever makes you feel better is what I want. But at least they know it’s there.”
It’s safe to say that the news was a bombshell in Khloe and Tristan’s relationship, who ended up separating. It wasn’t the first time Tristan had been accused of infidelity — he allegedly cheated on her the year before in 2018 when she was pregnant with their daughter, True.
‘It’s gone too far and enough is enough’ — how the friendship ultimately ended
While on the Red Table Talk, Jordyn said that her friendship with Kylie was likely over due to the scandal, that “at this point, it’s gone too far and enough is enough.”
Four months after the scandal, the kiss was addressed during an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. In one scene, Kylie was talking to her sisters about Jordyn and a phone call that they had following the incident.
“I called her and she didn’t really say anything, she was just like, you know, crying the whole time,” Kylie said. “I was just telling her… You weren’t thinking about [Khloe and Tristan’s daughter] True, about Khloe, about me, [and] you weren’t thinking about yourself.”
That May, a source told People that Kylie was torn as to whether or not she would end her friendship with Jordyn in support of her sister.
“Although Kylie was very upset and disgusted by the Tristan situation, she didn’t want to make any harsh decisions when it came to Jordyn,” the source revealed. “It was very difficult for Kylie to just cut Jordyn out of her life. Kylie was devastated at first. Jordyn was her confidant for so long.”
However in August, it seemed that Kylie had made up her mind. She unfollowed Jordyn on Instagram, publicly signalling the end of their friendship. A source told People at the time, “They have obviously not had a good friendship for months, but it seems Kylie never wanted to rush it and completely break away from Jordyn. Jordyn is very much trying to hang onto the world that she shared with Kylie. Kylie is just over it.”
“She wants to live as drama free as possible,” the source added. “She just doesn’t need Jordyn in her life. Unfollowing her on Instagram was kind of the last step to break away from Jordyn.”
Khloe and Tristan ultimately reconciled, but the basketball star went on to cheat on her again. Their last breakup happened after he impregnated a personal trainer while being secretly engaged to Khloe, and while the pair were also expecting a third child. The trainer welcomed a baby boy with him in December 2021, while a surrogate was pregnant with Kardashian and Thompson’s second child, who was born in summer 2022.
In a later episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians in July 2019, Kylie seemed to have moved on from the friendship. Talking to Khloe during a wine-tasting, the elder Kardashian asked her sister if she ever missed Jordyn, to which Kylie responded: “I think that this whole Jordyn situation needed to happen. For a reason. For me, for her, for you, for everybody. She was my security blanket, she lived with me, we did everything together.
“I just felt like, "Oh, I have Jordyn, I don’t need anything else." I feel like there’s a part of me that needed to grow without her.’ The reality star expressed, ‘And sometimes people are there for certain reasons and certain times of your life and not for others.”
Four years later — is a public frenaissance on the cards?
Fast-forward to July 2023, and Kylie and Jordyn have been spotted together again after four years MIA, grabbing dinner at an LA sushi restaurant.
While the reunion sent fans into a frenzy on social media, sources say that this is not the pair’s first time talking since the fallout. According to TMZ, they have been working on their relationship in private for “over a year”. Multiple sources close to Kylie and Jordyn have said they’ve “been hanging out privately for a while.” This weekend was just the first time the two were seen publicly.
The former best friends appeared to be in good spirits during their catch-up, with Jordyn smiling while heading into the restaurant with Kylie.
Could this be the beginning of a public frenaissance for the iconic pair?
