KANYE’S ONLY BROUGHT DRAMA TO KIM'S LIFE
I write this to you my brothers while still 53 million dollars in personal debt... Please pray we overcome... This is my true heart...
Paris is widely considered the most romantic city in the world, but Kim Kardashian wasn’t feeling the love. There to see designer Virgil Abloh’s first Louis Vuitton fashion show, Kim was already stressed because it was her first time back in the country since she was held hostage and robbed at gunpoint two years ago. “Kim’s emotions were heightened,” a source tells In Touch. And Kanye West, her famously unpredictable husband, wasn’t helping. Following the June 21 show at the Palais Royal, Kanye suddenly burst into tears and jumped from his front-row seat to embrace Virgil. “Kim didn’t know what to do,” says the source. “He made a scene. Kanye acting up just added to her anxiety.”
Kim has had enough of Kanye’s outbursts — literally. The thrice-married reality star, 37, has announced to her close-knit family that she is leaving the rapper, 41, after four troubled years of marriage. “It’s over,” according to one insider. “She’s realized he’s not the man she fell in love with.” The final straw for Kim was an ugly fight she had with Kanye (father of her children, North, 5, Saint, 2, and 6-month-old Chicago). Kim unloaded on him over recent off-the-wall tweets ( he claimed he and President Donald Trump both share “dragon energy”) and controversial interviews ( he told TMZ in May that slavery “sounded” like a “choice”) and how they affect her and her family. “She called him out on his selfishness and how he doesn’t ever think of the repercussions
it could have for her brands. All he cares about is his music and clothing line,” says the insider. “It was one of their worst fights ever.” The source adds that Kim is petrified to divorce a third time and potentially fight with Kanye over their combined $300 million empires, but her desire to get out is greater than her fear. “Kim wants her old life back,” says the source.
BAD TO WORSE Tension in the Kardashian-west house has been brewing ever since their over-the-top Italian wedding in 2014. Once the pair settled into life as a married couple, Kanye’s behavior began to alternately embarrass and anger Kim, says the source. There were onstage rants (in 2016, he dissed their power-couple pals Jay-z and Beyoncé) and controversial decisions (Kim was furious when he flew to NYC and met with then-presidentelect Trump). The most stressful time for Kim, though, was Kanye’s infamous 2016 breakdown at the home of his personal trainer — and the eightday hospitalization that followed. (He recently admitted he’s bipolar, which he called his “superpower.”) “Kim is a nervous wreck because she never knows what’s around the corner when it comes to his actions,” says the source. Things became even more untenable in recent months when the family moved into their $20 million, eight-bedroom Hidden Hills, Calif., mansion, which they’ve spent four years renovating. “Kanye can’t stop pacing around because he says he likes ‘everything to be done now,’ but their home is a never-ending project,” says the source (see above). “Kim just can’t take it anymore and stays at her mom’s with the kids just to get away from him.”
THE FINAL STRAW His comment about slavery pushed Kim over the edge. And Kanye knew it: In a new interview with The New York Times, Kanye confirms there was genuine concern that Kim might leave him because of what he’d said: “There was a moment where I felt like after TMZ, maybe a week after that, I felt like the energy levels were low, and I called different family members and was asking, you know,
‘ Was Kim thinking about leaving me after TMZ?’” he said. “So that was a real conversation.”
For Kim, “it’s gotten to the stage where her freedom is more important than being trapped in a bad marriage,” says the source. “She’s sick of walking on eggshells.” And Kim thinks Kanye has recovered sufficiently from his breakdown in 2016 to handle the stress of a divorce, adds the insider: “He’s strong enough. That’s the main reason she’s doing it now.”
Protecting her considerable assets is her No. 1 concern. “Kim had a prenup drawn up when she married Kanye, but she’s worried about loopholes,” says the source. “And Kanye’s extremely stubborn and not the type of guy who’d let his wife walk away without battling it out in court.” She’s still haunted by her 2011 divorce from Kris Humphries, which dragged on for nearly eight times the length of their 72-day marriage. “The last thing she wants is another lengthy divorce.”
But there’s a lot to fight over. Forbes estimates Kim made $45.5 million in 2017 alone, but between her real estate holdings and lucrative endorsement deals, she’s worth much more than that. Kanye, meanwhile, has an estimated net worth north of $100 million, although he has claimed
he’s $53 million in debt.
Kim knows the pain — and humiliation — of divorce all too well, but she feels she has no other choice. “They barely talk to each other anymore,” says the insider. “Even when they’re together they barely say two words to each other. Kanye is fine living like that, but Kim can’t stand it. She wants passion in her life again. She wants a husband who worships her for who she is, not someone who uses her as a mannequin to sell his clothes.”
As far as the kids are concerned, the insider says, Kim would never try to keep Kanye away from them: “He will always be in the kids’ lives, but Kim feels that this chapter in her life is done. Kim’s ready to start over — without Kanye by her side.” ◼
Kanye treats Kim as his muse, not his wife” — AN INSIDER