Tried to keep it on the down-low. Tristan Thompson admitted he had been hooking up with Maralee Nichols, the personal trainer who gave birth to the NBA star’s alleged third child on December 1, for months while communicating secretly through Snapchat under the username “blkjesus00.”

“[Maralee] told me that she had been involved with other athletes and understood the limitations of our relationship; to-wit, that we might see each other on a sporadic basis for consensual casual sex only,” Tristan, 30, admitted in a declaration filed on December 8, obtained by the Daily Mail.

“From December 2020 through March 2021, we saw [each] other on such a basis,” the basketballer added. “We never had any telephone calls, emails, nor did we exchange text messages. We only communicated via the Snapchat application.”

This timeline coincides with his public relationship with Khloé Kardashian, with whom he shares a 3-year-old daughter, True Thompson. The Sacramento Kings player went on to explain that he had used Snapchat for their privacy, as messages are automatically deleted after they are read. 

Tristan also admitted he had used the social media app solely to organize when and where the months-long hookups with Maralee, 31, would occur. 

Maralee claims that the two met in California and were hooking up, on and off, for five months before she became pregnant. She further claims that Tristan offered her $75,000 in hush money and to receive an abortion.

The Houston-based personal trainer claims to have screenshots of this interaction. If a user screenshots the chat, both users are alerted — although there are workarounds for this feature.

“You know how I feel. My feelings haven’t changed at all. [I] won’t be involved at all. [By the way,] if you think having this baby is gonna make you some money[,] it’s completely wrong. You are aware that I’m retiring after this season. So in terms of support it will be whatever is required monthly for someone who’s unemployed. It’s Texas, so it will be only a couple hundred dollars,” the alleged Snapchat communication, obtained by Page Six, read. “So you better off taking this 75K I’m offering cause you won’t get nothing near that with having a kid with a father who’s unemployed. All you will have is a baby with a father who has zero involvement with the child and a few hundred dollars of child support a month.”

Maralee has filed this text as evidence for her paternity lawsuit, according to the outlet. 

Tristan denies sending the message in his declaration, adding that he “strongly [contends] these messages have been fabricated” by Maralee.

 “I received no notification as required by Snapchat terms of use [that a phot of the chat was saved] as required by Snapchat terms of use,” he stated. “It is not difficult for an individual to manufacture such messages by using two other cell phones. … [Maralee is trying] to give viability to the false Snapchat messages that she created.”

In Touch previously obtained the child support lawsuit filed by the personal trainer, which claimed their baby was conceived on Tristan’s 30th birthday on March 13. At the time, Tristan claimed it was the only time he was intimate with Maralee. However, Maralee alleged the affair began at least “five months” prior to Tristan’s birthday and that she took a number of trips to California before and after becoming pregnant. 

Khloé, 37, was listed as Tristan’s “ex-girlfriend” in the child support lawsuit. Tristan also shares son Prince with ex Jordan Craig. The Candian native has been caught in a number of cheating scandals, most notably when the Keeping Up With the Kardashian star was nine months pregnant with his daughter and in 2019 when he kissed Kylie Jenner’s former BFF Jordyn Woods

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