Kim Kardashian has opened up about grief and loss in a heartbreaking tribute.
In an emotional Instagram post shared on Saturday (July 5), the 44-year-old reality star paid tribute to one of her dearest childhood friends, Lindsay May Palevsky - a longtime member of her close-knit friend group known as the “Lifers".
Palevsky heartbreakingly passed away eight months ago on November 2, 2024, after a 13-year battle with a rare form of cancer, the Daily Mail reported. Kardashian described how deeply her absence has been felt among their tight-knit group.
“It was just your birthday and I know you never liked to make a big deal of it, but Happy Heavenly Birthday, Lindz [...],” Kardashian wrote alongside a carousel of photos and videos featuring moments with her late friend.
Kardashian admitted she had delayed sharing her grief publicly. “I waited months to post this, mostly because I couldn’t find the right words,” she explained.
“Nothing really captures how quiet and empty our lifers chat feels without you in it,” she wrote. “I know you’d probably roll your eyes at me posting anything, especially since you didn’t even really have social media, but I couldn’t go through this lake trip without feeling you everywhere, and I needed to share it.”
The group’s annual lake trip - a tradition that often coincided with Palevsky’s birthday - held special meaning. Kardashian shared throwback images of Palevsky blowing out birthday candles, smiling, and enjoying time at the lake.
“The lake was your happy place. It made you feel lighter, healthier… you were you,” she wrote. “It’ll always be our favorite lifers tradition because it’s where we spend time with all of our kids, just being together and getting real time with each other without any outside noise. We felt your absence this year in every sunset, every laugh, every quiet moment.”
Some of the photos Kardashian posted were taken just a year ago, during their final lake trip with Palevsky.
“I feel so grateful for all the memories we made,” she continued. “We miss you so f***ing much, Lindz. Our world is not the same without you. I guess that’s why I hold onto this lake tradition so tightly. We’ll always have the lake, and in that, we’ll always have a piece of you.”
Another member of the “Lifers,” designer Simone Harouche, also shared a tribute from this year’s trip.
“Even though you never liked celebrating your birthday, we still got together this year,” Harouche wrote. “Kim got a purple Hansens cake for you, and your name was spelled wrong, and we all laughed because we knew you’d be laughing about it too. (God, how I miss hearing you laugh.)”
She added: “All the kids were together too, and I know that would’ve made you so happy to see that, Lindz. They are all getting so big!”
Palevsky, who occasionally appeared on The Kardashians as part of Kim’s inner circle, also attended Kardashian’s 2023 birthday dinner, where she was seen celebrating alongside the rest of the Lifers.
Back in February, a source close to the star told the Daily Mail that Kardashian had been struggling with the grief of losing her friend so young. "It's been really hard on Kim because she had known Lindsay since she was a child growing up in Beverly Hills [...] They are only in their forties, not their nineties, so it is difficult to process," the source told the Daily Mail.
To honor her memory, Citizens of Humanity created a pair of jeans called The Lindz, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation, the organization dedicated to the rare cancer Palevsky battled for over a decade.