A trip down memory lane? It wasn’t Ben Simmons who stole the show at the Philadelphia 76ers’ recent game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, December 13. It was the athlete’s ex-girlfriend, Kendall Jenner, who drew attention for her surprise appearance.
The supermodel, 24, was photographed watching her 23-year-old ex’s team defeat the Pelicans 116-109 from a box seat section at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, according to photos first posted by SportsGossip.com. Footage from Jenner’s appearance also appeared on social media, as fan accounts posted videos and photos of the reality star at the sporting event.
Us Weekly reported in May 2018 that Jenner and Simmons were casually dating. The news of their romance surfaced after the NBA star reportedly concluded his relationship with Tinashe. A day after Us’ confirmation of Jenner and Simmons’ budding relationship, the 26-year-old “Touch & Go” singer’s brother, Kudzai, accused Simmons of infidelity.
“Never met you before in my life. days after u break my sis heart u do this,” he tweeted at the time. “People all lied n her talking fake news about my sis *doing Kardashian s–t* u cheat on her w a Jenner.”
After four months of dating, Jenner and Simmons called it quits in September 2018. They later reconciled their relationship that November before parting ways a second time this past May. A source told Us at the time that the pair’s “sudden” separation came as “things have wound down” between the former couple.
“They were getting serious for a bit, but were starting to cool off recently,” another insider told Us. “They’re so busy doing their own things and realize they’re young and want to have fun.”
Days before their split was confirmed, Jenner spoke with Vogue Australia about why she chose to keep her relationship with Simmons relatively private. “I got a glimpse of how my sisters dealt with [the attention] and it’s cool to learn from that,” she said in the magazine’s June cover story. “For me, a lot of things are very special and very sacred, like my friends and relationships, and I personally think that bringing things into the public makes everything so much messier.”
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star continued, “I’m very young and right now I feel like relationships aren’t always super-certain and I don’t want to bring too much attention to something if you don’t really know long term [what it’s going to be]. A relationship is only meant to be between two people, and the second you make it the world’s business is when it starts messing with the two people mentally.”
