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It’s no secret that that former NBA player Lamar Odom has an addictive personality. Over the years, he’s spoken openly about his battle with drugs, addiction to porn and sex.
So it makes sense that he might not be able to engage in certain behaviors the way the rest of us do.
In his sobriety journey, Odom, in his relationship with fiancee Sabrina Parr, has been clean from drugs, porn and even sex, despite their romantic relationship.
During a recent interview with Hollywood Life, Parr shared what influenced the decision.
“This is the first time in Lamar’s entire life that he has been clean of drugs, marijuana, porn addiction, sex addiction. Him and I don’t even have sex, believe that or not. Once Lamar got saved, he developed a relationship with a pastor and there’s a lot of things he just wants to grow, areas he wants to grow in, and things he wants to improve on as a man. And as a man, the pastor suggested to him, it’s not Godly if Christians like to have sex before marriage. And obviously, he’s already had sex, so he couldn’t cut that out, but he said, ‘A great sacrifice to God would be to withhold from sex until you guys got married.’ And so, I think he really respects the pastor’s opinion and his voice.”
Sabrina shared that it was important that Lamar make this decision on his own without pressure from her.
“And I also explained to Lamar how it honors your woman when you don’t touch her, and when you wait, and God repays you for that. And so, I wasn’t going to force him either way because it’s his own relationship with God and I don’t want… He’s very new in being saved, so I didn’t want him to develop opinions based on what I am doing or am not doing. I allowed him to make a decision. But I said, ‘Whatever decision you make, let me know.’ And he really made the decision to not have sex with me until we get married, which is kind of why he wants to rush the marriage,” she explained. “But I’m just in no rush. So, he’s doing very well with it, surprisingly. I just really thought this would be a struggle for him, just because he’s never had to abstain from sex before. I don’t think he’s ever considered it.”
Eventually, Lamar told her that he wanted to abstain as a way to honor her.
“One thing he told me was, the way I respect myself and the standards that I have, they’re very intriguing to him. So, it makes him want to honor me in that way. So, so far so good. Since we’ve been engaged, since before we’ve gotten engaged we have been holding on strong, and the object is to do other things in place of sex. And what he’s seeing is without having sex, it improves our intimacy. We experience real intimacy when we’re not having sex.”
While the couple is committed to the decision, it’s not always an easy one to live out every day.
“The more I think about it, I try not to think about it. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, we’re not going to make it. But I don’t know, I think people would just be surprised to know Lamar’s and my relationship is really different. It’s just more than just we’re in love, let’s shoot pictures, and let’s go to the movies. It’s really got a lot of substance and we get a lot done. And we’re very busy with each other, we’re not just laid up cuddling. So there’s a lot of things that we do that doesn’t even create an environment for sex.”
