There's a contagious disease that's been affecting Americans from every walk of life for quite some time now, and while certain age groups are more vulnerable than others, this illness does not discriminate with regard to class -- the rich are just as susceptible as the poor.
We're talking, of course, about Kardashian obsession.
Yes, the end might be in sight thanks to the vaccinethe end of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, but there's still a good chance that you or a loved one could fall victim to this rampant affliction.
Just ask Travis Barker ...
These days, Travis is dating Kourtney Kardashian, but if you ask the Blink-182 drummer's ex-wife, it's not the first time that he dipped his tattoo needle in the Kard clan ink.
Shanna Moakler claims that she decided to file for divorce after catching Travis having an affair with Kim Kardashian.
Travis, of course, denies this, but Shanna's not backing down from her claim.
And now, folks are pointing to a passage from Travis' memoir as evidence of his longstanding sexual obsession with Kim.
In the book, Barker describes a trip to Amsterdam, during which Kim was introduced to him as “Paris’ closet girl.”
(It's easy to forget now, but there was a time when Kim earned her living organinzing Paris Hilton's clothes closets.)
“I kept on secretly checking out Kim, telling Lil Chris, ‘I don’t care if she’s the closet girl, she’s f–king hot,’”
Barker goes on to reveal that he had seen Kim's famous sex tape prior to meeting her.
“We went to dinner, we went to lunch," he wrote.
"You might think I would be doing the worst things with this girl because of her tapes, 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," Barker added.
Travis elaborated on his fondness for Kim in a 2015 interview with Us Weekly.
“How could you not stare at Kim? Mind you, I enjoyed hanging out with Paris, but I love curvy girls," he said.
"Kim was eye candy. I was in no way disrespectful to Paris, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off Kim.”
Travis has insisted that he looked, but “never touched” in his relations with Kim, but Shanna says she has proof that he's lying.
“Someone sent me all their [text] conversations and I’m also close friends with people who were there, while things were happening,” Moakler said in a recent interview.
“He had already had an affair with Paris Hilton. And … at the time Kim was Paris’ closet organizer, they were best friends," she continued.
"And he started using Kim as a model for [his clothing company], Famous Stars and Stripes."
Shanna went on to state that she still believes her marriage to Travis might have worked, were it not for his attraction to Kim,
“We were working on our marriage and trying to heal through that affair, that infidelity, [but] he continued to [work with her],” she said.
“And then I received all the text messages and the other third parties kind of let me know. It’s something I was well aware of.”
Neither Travis nor Kourtney has responded to Moakler's allegations, but it seems that Shanna has been has been a major obstacle for the couple's relationship.
Moakler has complained about Barker and Kardashian's Instagram PDAs calling them hurtful and inappropriate.
“I’m very much over my ex. It’s been a long time. However, do I think some of the PDA that he’s doing with her is weird? [Yes],” Moakler recently told People magazine.
Additionally, Moakler has been publicly feuding with Alabama Barker, her 15-year-old daughter with Travis.
Shanna claims her daughter prefers spending time with Travis and Kourtney due to their wealth and fame, while Alabama claims Moakler has been an absentee mother for quite some time.
Needless to say, it sounds like Kourtney entered a world of drama when she and Travis went public with their relationship.