Bad Birthday

An exclusive eyewitness account of Lamar Odom’s bizarrely somber 38th birthday bash.

Lamar Odom has been through a lot in his life and when his birthday recently rolled around, sadly, it was not much of a celebration. On Nov. 7, a day after Lamar turned 38, he was guest of honor at a birthday bash at Sista Mary’s Soul Food restaurant in Glendale, Calif. “It was very awkward,” a witness exclusively tells Life & Style, “and Lamar seemed really sad.” For good reason: Only about 30 people attended the bash, and most were strangers to Lamar, says the witness. The birthday boy, who sipped a cup of tea with honey (and avoided alcohol) and dined on the restaurant’s signature dishes of chicken, cornbread and collard greens, was treated to a poem in his honor by a poet named Electrabe. But it wasn’t a lighthearted ode. Electrabe touched on the death of Lamar’s mom from colon cancer when he was 12, his drug addictions, his near-fatal overdose in a Nevada brothel and his divorce from Khloé Kardashian. What was Lamar’s reaction? “He got up afterward and went outside,” says the witness. Then “he thanked her for doing the poem, but you could tell it made him sad.” On a more upbeat note, guests played Connect 4, Jenga and Uno. “Everyone had a lot of fun playing the games,” the witness says. “But it didn’t seem like Lamar really wanted to be there. He definitely wasn’t as energetic as you’d assume he would be at his own birthday party. He looked solemn.”