in the Los Angeles Open at the Riviera Country Club. We checked into the round Holiday Inn on the corner off the 405 and got all dolled up. I remember I wore a pair of new sunglasses I had just bought at Judy’s—really great movie-star sunglasses—and I had this little purse with a wooden handle so that you could change out the purse itself and just attach different bags to the wooden handle, gray flannel or black-and-white check or black leather. Every golfer’s wife had that purse. I thought I looked pretty cute with my golf shoes and my fabulous outfit and my little sweater. We had VIP passes and
the
purse, just like the other professional-golfer wives.
We headed to the golf course. Anthony was playing a round with Arnold Palmer. Arnold Palmer had fifty bazillion followers—“Arnie’s Army,” they called them—and they were his fan club. I followed Anthony around with my little stick seat, which unfolded out into a chair. With my little seat and my cute outfit, I looked like I had been out on tour for ages. Debbie and I floated around between Anthony and Phil. The round Anthony played with Arnold Palmer was crazy—there were so many people around. It was like having your boyfriend play against Tiger Woods.
I was walking down the fairway when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there he was. “Remember me? Bob Kardashian,” he said.
I was shocked, but he kept talking. “This is my friend Joni Migdal,” he continued, introducing me to the woman who had found my phone number for him.
“What are you guys doing here?” I said, my mind racing. I was trying to put it all together. Did he just run into me accidentally? Was Joni Migdal actually his girlfriend? Robert and Joni started to follow me around the fairway. I found Debbie, but it was clear Robert and Joni were not planning to leave.
Around this time, Anthony walked by and saw the little parade on my tail. “Oh, who are your friends?” he asked.
“This is Robert Kardashian and Joni Migdal,” I said.
Robert turned to me and said, “Cute glasses.”
I smiled at that; I
loved
those sunglasses.
“They’re filthy. You better clean them,” he added.
I took them off and, sure enough, they
were
filthy, smudged, and I was so embarrassed. I thought I was so cool and so meticulous, and here I was, wearing a dirty pair of sunglasses. Robert thought it was so funny. I cleaned them immediately and we all walked around together for the rest of the day. Finally, Robert said, “I’ll call you.”
“Isn’t Joni your girlfriend?” I asked when she was out of earshot.
“No, she’s my friend,” he answered. “We came out here to find
you
!”
I had been blowing Robert off every single phone call, but apparently when I told him I was going to the Los Angeles Open, he decided he would come there to find me. After they left, I had to admire Robert’s persistence. Here I had blown him off for a year, and he still kept calling me. The Anthony thing seemed serious, but I think I loved the lifestyle more than the man. So the next time Robert called and asked, “Will you
finally
go out with me?” I relented.
“If you come to San Diego and take me out on a real date, I will go out with you,” I told him. I didn’t tell Robert that I had agreed to marry Anthony.
A nthony proposed, and I had been having so much fun dating him that I thought that saying yes was the right thing to do. But as time passed, I started to realize that I didn’t really want to marry Anthony. At nineteen, I was too young to be engaged to anyone. I had also reconnected with my biological father. My dad had moved back to San Diego, and I reached out to him a lot. My dad became not just the dad who didn’t get along with my mom when I was a child; he became more like a friend. He was a really cool guy, and I really enjoyed the time I would spend with him. We formed this really amazing bond during that time.
Also around this same time, I fell in love with cooking.