Old Friends Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker Got Married and Became a Perfect Stepmom and Stepdad for Each Other’s Kids
It’s often hard for parents to decide to start a new relationship because they don’t know how their kids will feel about a new stepmom or stepdad. It may be even harder if the partner already has a child of their own. But it didn’t stop Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker. They took the risk and got married, and now, they’re enjoying their new lives.
Kourtney and Travis got married after a long friendship.
From 2006 to 2015, Kourtney Kardashian was in a relationship with Scott Disick, but they never got married. They had 3 kids. And musician Travis Barker was married several times. He got married for the second time in 2004 to a model, Shanna Moakler. They had 2 children. Besides, Barker got close to Shanna’s daughter from her first marriage. Travis and Shanna got divorced in 2008.
Kourtney and Travis have known each other for many years, and they remained close friends. Not so long ago, their friendship turned into a romance, and it became known in January 2021. Several months later, Barker proposed to Kardashian, and in 2022, they got married.
Travis thinks the fact that both of them have kids is a great advantage.
According to Travis, their romance benefitted from the fact that both of them already had kids when they started dating. He had dated women that had no kids and sometimes, they didn’t understand why Barker wasn’t ready to see them every single day. But things were different with Kourtney. “I’m spending time with a woman who’s a great mom, who’s a great friend, and you don’t have to worry about any of those things. It just comes natural. It’s a maturity thing.”
Their blended family didn’t become harmonious right away.
Kourtney’s kids weren’t present at the family meeting when Travis proposed to her, and she told them the news on the phone. Her daughter, Penelope, didn’t have a very positive reaction — she cried and hung up. Kourtney had an idea of why she reacted this way, “Even though she loves Travis, I think she doesn’t know what that means. Like is that taking me away? I think she just doesn’t know what it means.”
And in an interview in October 2022, she told that they were still figuring many things out. “I think we’re in the place where we’re figuring out how to blend our households and our kids. For the most part...we’re getting those things in place. We do family dinner every Sunday night with all the kids at his house. There will be [a joint house]. We want our kids to also feel really comfortable, and they have both lived in their homes their whole lives for the most part, and they each have their rooms. And we are a block away.”
Several factors help unite the family.
When asked how they manage their blended family, Kardashian said, “It’s figuring it out and working together and keeping the communication open.” Kourtney is using her own experience, “I came from a blended family. We have experience.”
The long-standing friendship between Kardashian and Barker played a role in how they were able to establish communication with their stepchildren in a way that made the merging of the two families much simpler. As Kourtney explained, she had already known Travis’ children for several years and had been able to build her own relationship with them.
Kourtney and Travis spend a lot of time with each other’s children.
Since the beginning of their relationship, Kourtney and Travis have often spent time together with their children. Back in 2021, Kourtney shared photos from a family vacation that Travis also joined. In April, she went skiing with Barker and his kids. They also celebrated Christmas together for the first time that year.
The kids love their stepdad and stepmom.
Even before the wedding, Travis’ daughter, Alabama, congratulated Kourtney on her birthday and wrote, “Happy birthday to the best soon-to-be stepmom I could ask for!” And his son, Landon, said about Kourtney, “She’s amazing. I love Kourt so much. I love expanding the family.”
Kourtney’s kids also express love for their stepdad. For example, last year, Penelope and Rain gave him cards on Father’s Day. Penelope wrote, “You are so so nice and kind, you are so amazing. You are the beast. You are the beast drummer ever. You make my mom happy!”
Kourtney’s experience helps her sisters and nephews.
Even though Kourtney and Travis are only now learning to live in a big blended family, this experience is already helping her relatives. For example, once, Kim Kardashian heard Kourtney’s son, Mason, say to his cousin, “You know, getting a stepdad isn’t so bad. They’re not these evil people like you see in the movies. It’s just not like that.”
At the time, Kim was in a new relationship herself, and her nephew’s words influenced her in the best way possible. “The way he was talking to her just gave me the feeling of, ’Everything’s going to work out. Everything’s going to be OK.’”
Kardashian explained why she likes the idea of a blended family.
If you’ve watched The Kardashians, you might have seen the life of the Kardashian-Barker family. In one of the episodes, the spouses made a family dinner with all their kids, except Kourtney’s son, Mason. Both the kids and the parents were ready to make sacrifices for the family, such as not using phones at the table.
In that same episode, Kourtney told in detail what she thought about their big family, “Our family is growing and expanding, and we have so much to be thankful for. I love the idea of a blended family. I think the more kids, the merrier. You have all these siblings and more people to love, and it’s a beautiful thing. Travis is so passionate about life. He’s a really amazing father. I love that because we’ve all known each other for 10 years and all of the kids have had so many memories with each other that it just feels so good to continue to have the best time together.”