Retired NBA star Lamar Odom is using Covenant Eyes to battle porn addiction
Two-time NBA champion Lamar Odom, who is also known for his appearances on E! News' "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," says that he is relying on the accountability software Covenant Eyes to help him battle his pornography addiction.
In a video filmed by the Michigan-based company, the 40-year-old former NBA Sixth Man of the Year and “Dancing with the Stars” contestant revealed that decades of porn addiction hurt relationships and brought him great pain.
“In the NBA, if you late, they just fine you,” Odom said in the video. “I think about all the times I was in my hotel room [on] game day, and I had to get one more last in. So, I chose to be late for the bus just to watch a porno scene. It’s kind of crazy.”
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Odom admitted that there were times when he would be in bed with a woman and watch porn despite her being in bed with him.
“In my case, I don’t know how all these women I was dealing with just never brought it up,” he said. “If I am in bed with a beautiful woman and I am watching porn while I’m in bed with her, that just goes to show it’s a problem.”
Sabrina Parr, Odom’s fiance who works as a life coach, recalled what Odom was like when she first met him. It was Parr that challenged Odom to end his addiction or risk losing her from his life.
“He was reaching for his phone more than reaching for me and I had a problem with that,” Parr said. “I’m like, I want to be 100 percent desired, especially if I am laying right next to you.”
“Is there something wrong with me?” she wondered. “Is there something wrong with the way I look? I immediately thought, ‘I know I look good and I know I am attractive and I know I am to be desired. So, something is wrong with you Lamar and if you don’t fix it, I am not going to be here because that is turning me off.’”
According to Covenant Eyes, it was in 2019 that Odom began his journey to give up porn. To do so, he installed Covenant Eyes on his mobile and computer devices.
“It’s just like if you are an addict to drugs, that first time can lead to an addiction,” Odom explained. “I was definitely addicted to porn and drugs.”
Odom, who was hospitalized in 2015 after being found unconscious in a Nevada brothel, admitted that it was easier for him to give up drugs than it was to give up porn.
“I don’t think you can die from watching porn, even though you kill relationships [with] people that you really love,” Odom said. “It is kind of sad because society is not always right. I never thought about porn related to human sex trafficking. The two go hand in hand. Once I heard that, it kind of [made it easier] for me to stray away from it.”
According to Odom, most men “don’t really understand how it affects your intimacy” with the person that “you say you are going to love.”
Odom concluded that people can get through anything as long as they put God first in their lives.
“I am a testament to that,” he said. “God pulled me back hopefully to tell my testimony and help as many people any way that I can.”
Covenant Eyes was founded in 2000 and has been used by hundreds of thousands of people looking to break free of porn addiction. The software is downloaded on devices and computers. Alerts are sent to “accountability partners” anytime a subscribed user accesses pornography.
Earlier this year, Covenant Eyes released a new software designed by a former National Security Agency data scientist that makes it nearly impossible for users to take advantage of loopholes and watch pornography undetected.
The new software is based on “revolutionary screen monitoring technology” that is said to be vastly more effective than the old system that relied on text-based detection through web browsers.
“The software sees the screen just as you see it,” Covenant Eyes Chief Data Scientist Michael Holm told The Christian Post in an interview earlier this year. “The battleground has moved from the heavily-hampered world of network text-parsing right up to the visual input to your eye."
Odom, who was once married to Khloe Kardashian, claimed in his memoir titled “Darkness to Light” that he’s had sex with “more than 2,000 women.”
Odom first publicly admitted that he was cutting out porn in an interview with TMZ in August. He said that the time that it had been about a month since he last watched porn.
Parr told Covenant Eyes in the interview that when she first tried to get Odom unhooked from porn, she would take his phone anytime she left the house to ensure that he wasn’t watching it behind her back.
“I needed another resource, something else that can help us monitor this and keep him accountable,” Parr said.
After installing Covenant Eyes, Odom admitted that it was “really tough.”
“I was trying to find ways how to break through the phone,” he said. “When you are an addict every day is a struggle.”
Parr recalled what it was like to go through the struggle with Odom.
“When he would get the urge, he would say, ‘We need to take a walk,’” she said. “I had to stand my ground to not become his porn.”
“He has found a way,” she added. “That was the difference between a very low relationship to now we are very high.”
Odom gave thanks to Covenant Eyes for helping him beat the addiction.
In late October, Odom announced that he "got saved" at The Word Church in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, where he was led by senior pastor R.A. Vernon to dedicate his life to Christ.
Earlier this month, Parr and Odom got engaged to be married.
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