Travis Barker Pointedly Shuts Down Rumors the Kourtney vs. Kim Feud Has Anything to Do with Him: “It’s Just So Ridiculous”

Kourtney Kardashian Barker and Kim Kardashian’s feud has long simmered—think all the way back to their teenage years—but don’t involve Kourtney’s husband Travis Barker in the drama, okay? The Blink-182 drummer is slamming the rumor that the sisters’ most recent fight has to do with him, multiple outlets report.

“You give people a little information and they think they’ve solved the mystery of ‘this is why they’re fighting,’” Barker told The Los Angeles Times yesterday. “It’s just so ridiculous. “It’s like, ‘Kourtney’s fans are worried about Travis. He’s a womanizer.’ Stop it.” 

Let’s break it down: in his 2016 memoir, Can I Say (many, many years before he and Kourtney ever became a couple, let alone married), Barker called Kim “fucking hot” and admitted to “secretly checking [her] out” when he briefly dated Paris Hilton in 2006. (Paris and Kim were tight at the time; excuse our brief interlude of throwback photos, below.) “We went to dinner, we went to lunch,” Barker wrote. “You might think I would be doing the worst things with this girl because of her tapes [referring to Kim’s sex tape with Ray-J], but it was the exact opposite of any other encounter I’ve had with a woman: with Kim, I wanted to be nothing but a gentleman to her. It was so weird.”

The flames were further stoked when Barker’s ex-wife, Shanna Moakler, accused Kim of having an affair with Barker and breaking up their marriage, Us Weekly reports. While Barker (and Kim, as you’ll see in a moment) have denied that anything physical took place between them, Moakler told the outlet in 2021 that she believes otherwise. (Barker and Moakler first split in 2006 after two years of marriage, but maintained an on-again-off-again relationship for two more years, ultimately finalizing their divorce in 2008.) “I divorced my ex because I saw them—I caught them having an affair,” Moakler said, clarifying she was speaking about Kim.

Barker and Moakler’s daughter Alabama also shared an alleged text message sent by Moakler where she referenced the affair, Us Weekly reports: it reportedly said “I divorced Travis because I caught him having an affair with Kim! Now he’s in love with her sister. It’s all gross…I’m not the bad guy!” 

All of that said, some are now saying that Barker’s past crush on Kim is what kickstarted the sisters' recent feud. (Do these people even watch the sisters’ reality show, The Kardashians? The feud is clearly about Dolce Gabbana.)

“I obviously shared all that stuff because I wanted to move past it,” Barker said. “It was therapeutic for me.” And Barker’s former interest in Kim is not a secret to Kourtney, he said: “That’s her sister,” he said. “She knows we used to talk. Nothing bad was going on.”

Kim herself shot down rumors about a past fling with Barker as far back as 2021: “NO! False narrative!” she wrote on her Instagram Story in response to a fan asking whether she and Barker had ever hooked up, per Page Six. “We’ve been friends for years, and I’m so happy for him and Kourt.” 

On their tiff, Kourtney said on the season four premiere of The Kardashians “I think we’ve both said things we’re not proud of, but anyone who has sisters or siblings knows the dynamic. You could get into a crazy fight and then, you know, you could send each other a funny text, and everything is all good.”

The Barkers are currently expecting their first child together, a boy, nearly any day now; their son will be the seventh child born to the blended family.