Kim Kardashian is opening up about a frightening health scare in the newly released trailer for Season 8 of The Kardashians, revealing she was diagnosed with esophagitis, inflammation of the esophagus, during the upcoming season.
The promo shows Kardashian in a hospital bed telling her family, “I have something called esophagitis,” a moment that immediately draws a chilling connection to her family’s history, an unseen voice off-camera asks, “Didn’t your father… isn’t that what he died of?”
Kardashian’s father, Robert Kardashian, died in 2003 at age 59 from esophageal cancer, just two months after his diagnosis.
While esophagitis and esophageal cancer are distinct conditions, esophagitis refers to inflammation and irritation of the esophagus’s lining, which can cause painful swallowing and chest pain if left untreated, according to the Mayo Clinic, the trailer does not indicate that Kardashian herself has been diagnosed with cancer.
Other trailer footage shows her being wheeled into what appears to be a medical procedure, with Kris Jenner reacting emotionally off-camera, saying, “I can’t. It makes me want to cry.”
In 2019, Kim and other family members helped launch the Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health at UCLA, a facility dedicated to esophageal disease research and treatment established in her father’s memory.
At the time, she wrote on social media, “So proud to announce the Robert G Kardashian center for esophageal health being launched at UCLA. My wish is that other families can have more information and we can also focus on health and prevention.”
This isn’t the first health scare Kardashian has documented on the show, during Season 7 in 2025, she revealed doctors discovered a small aneurysm in her brain, likely linked to stress, along with reduced activity in the frontal part of her brain, she later reassured fans on Good Morning America that “everything works out.”
The Kardashians aeason 8 premieres October 8 on Hulu.
