Waking up in America this morning, it was like a new day had dawned. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the Senate was flipped, and most importantly, we’re finally living in a post-Kimye society. Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself. On Tuesday evening, Page Six reported via multiple sources that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are breaking up, and that Kim is planning to file for divorce.
This news obviously spread like wildfire, but as of now we haven’t gotten any official confirmation. With a story like this, there’s a 50/50 chance that the “multiple sources” are Kris Jenner and Kris Jenner’s other phone, but this could also be a completely false story to promote like, the new Kardashian shows on Hulu or whatever. Only time will tell, but there are certainly factors that would make this one of the least surprising things that could happen. We’ve discussed some of the trouble signs in their relationship before, but now that it looks like we really might be at the end of the Yeezy Brick Road, let’s look at where it all went wrong.
Kim’s Style
One thing that everyone knows about Kanye’s relationship with Kim is that he basically overhauled her personal style. In 2018, Kim said at a Business of Fashion panel, “I always thought I had really good style until I met my husband and he told me that I had the worst style.” She recounted how, early in their relationship, he cleaned out her closet, and she recalled, “I probably had 250 pairs of shoes and when we were done cleaning it out, I had two pairs left and I cried.” Hear that? That’s toxic energy. It’s totally normal for your style to be influenced by the people around you, but throwing away all of your shoes because a man told you to is completely different.
And this wasn’t just one-time thing. In an episode of KUWTK from 2018, Kim said that Kanye was policing her sunglass habits, telling her in an email “you cannot wear big glasses anymore. It’s all about tiny little glasses.” In a 2019 episode of the show, Kanye criticized Kim’s photo poses, saying “You are my wife and it affects me when pictures are too sexy.” While Kim insisted that Kanye always gave her “the freedom to be and do what I want,” some of the actual evidence from their relationship suggests otherwise. It’s one thing to value your partner’s input, but this style stuff is some controlling bullsh*t, and it’s only a matter of time before someone doesn’t want to put up with that anymore.
Wyoming
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Let’s be real: Kim Kardashian has no desire to live in Wyoming. She’s a Calabasas queen through and through, and the thought of her leaving behind her entire world in LA to live full-time (or even most of the time) at the ranch seems unfathomable. Kanye, on the other hand, seems to thrive in the relative isolation of the Cowboy State, and according to Page Six, this physical distance between them is by design. Kanye reportedly spent the holidays in Wyoming rather than with his family, and the source says “Kim got Kanye to go up there [Wyoming] so they could live separate lives and quietly get things sorted out to separate and divorce.” It seems kind of sh*tty that Kanye likely didn’t get to see his kids over the holidays, but the California/Wyoming divide would be an easy way to keep unpleasant interactions to a minimum during a separation period.
Kanye’s Presidential Campaign
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) July 5, 2020
It’s barely been six months since Kanye West announced his 2020 campaign for President, but already it feels like some kind of distant fever dream. While Kanye spent the latter half of 2020 halfheartedly selling his soul for what ended up amounting to 70,000 votes, Kim seemed to ignore her husband’s campaign almost entirely. Other than quoting Kanye’s initial announcement tweet with an American flag emoji—a vague endorsement at best—Kim never spoke publicly about the campaign or used her platform to show any kind of support. It’s not a novel concept for couples to have political disagreements, but to spend five months pretending your spouse’s Presidential campaign doesn’t exist isn’t your average dinner table argument. If Kim was already growing tired of Kanye’s often outlandish behavior, it seems likely that the campaign could have been one of the final straws.
Kim’s Birthday Trip
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Kim’s much-maligned 40th birthday trip is another recent-ish event that already feels like ancient history. Leaving aside all of the questionable COVID precautions and tone-deaf photos, let’s talk about Kanye’s involvement in the trip. According to the Page Six report, Kanye almost didn’t come on the trip, and ultimately only attended for one day: “He showed up late and left early, he wouldn’t appear in any of their Instagram shots. All he did was bring over the hologram of her father, Robert Kardashian, then got out of there as fast as he could.” As much as Kim claimed to like the hologram, everyone else thought it was creepy, and it’s kind of hilarious that Kanye thought that would make up for him missing the entire trip.
That Terrifying House
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We’ve all seen Kim and Kanye’s weird white monastery-looking house that became the inspiration for a million memes. While Kim has gushed about the house publicly, it’s always seemed like their extensive renovations—estimated at $20 million—were mainly a passion project for Kanye. Last year, Kim told Architectural Digest that she thought the home was already “perfection” when they first saw it pre-renovation, but Kanye thought it was merely “workable,” and completely transformed it according to his minimalist vision.
I have my doubts about how much Kim actually loves the aesthetic of her home currently, but either way, Page Six‘s sources say that she’ll want to keep the property in a potential divorce. Interestingly, Kim owns the land surrounding the house, as well as the lots next door (because why not), but Kanye owns the building itself, so things could get messy if they both try to hang onto the home.
Whatever divorce may or may not be happening, we’re definitely still early in the timeline here. The second any paperwork is filed, it would be public record, and you already know TMZ and Page Six have people on standby to comb through every paragraph for potential tidbits of information. Hopefully we’ll get some more concrete information in the coming days, but honestly, I feel in my bones that there’s some truth to this story. We’ve all seen it coming to a certain degree, and where there’s this much smoke, there’s almost always a fire.
Images: Jaguar PS / Shutterstock.com; Giphy; kimkardashian / Instagram
