Kim calls the shots in showmance with Pete
WHEN YOU’RE ONE of the most famous women in the world, you don’t simply start ‘casually dating’ someone (haven’t you seen Notting Hill?). No, it’s far more complex, and strategic, than that. And Kim Kardashian and her new man Pete Davidson have delivered a masterclass in the art of the new-romance drip feed over the past few weeks. It all started in late October, when the pair were photographed holding hands on a roller coaster. At the time, it was reported that Kim and Pete were ‘just good friends’, although of course we knew they already had chemistry, thanks to their performance together on Saturday Night Live just a couple of weeks earlier.
The canny among us would have heard alarm bells at the old ‘just good friends’ line. And indeed we’ve since had confirmation that Kim and Pete are now official. We’ve since seen them holding hands on dinner dates, hanging out with Kim’s ‘momager’ Kris in matching festive Skims pyjamas (what else?), and even showing off what looked like a love bite (hickeys are back!).
You don’t have to be a media mastermind to understand that absolutely none of this is playing out by chance. After all, Kim is from the most media-savvy and attention-seeking family on the planet. Every life turn is a PR opportunity – and this romance, while by all accounts genuine, is no exception.
‘Kim made it very clear after her SNL appearance that she wanted to explore this chemistry she had with Pete, so the family’s fixers were key in arranging for them to meet and then for the slow drip feed of information about their early relationship,’ said Grazia’s LA source. Kim’s billion-dollar brand must be carefully considered, however, particularly as it’s her first public pairing since she split from Kanye West, father of her four children, in February. ‘Kim is her brand. And so careful thought goes into where they’re seen, what they’re wearing and what comes out about their romance. It doesn’t bother Kim that Pete has been linked with so many other women (his exes include Kate Beckinsale, Phoebe Dynevor, Kaia Gerber and Ariana Grande) and, though they seem an unlikely match, the consensus is that they’re falling for each other pretty fast because he’s so funny and sensitive,’ says the source. ‘It’s all quite intense, but no one knows how to stagemanage media attention like the Kardashians, so Kim will only ever come out of this well, no matter what happens.’
It actually doesn’t hurt that Pete is used to a media circus, having been engaged to Ariana Grande (inspiring Twitter to coin the phrase ‘big dick energy’ to explain his appeal), and barely out of the headlines as a result of his dating history. ‘Pete’s not fazed,’ says the source. ‘But even he hasn’t ever been party to this level of PR machinery.’
There were some suggestions, particularly on Tiktok, that the photographs from 18 November of Kim and Pete in a Palm Springs car park, not far from Kris Jenner’s $12m holiday home, had been staged. In video footage of the moment you can see the pair hold hands only for a few seconds, just long enough to ‘get the shot’. If this were the case, it wouldn’t be the first time, says another Hollywood source, who says the whole family have been known to work with paparazzi agencies. ‘The Kardashians have been setting up “candid” photos for many years. From a celeb’s point of view it’s best to control the narrative and by staging their own pictures they can sign off on the frames they like, plus decide when and where they want to be pictured.’
Next, if all goes to plan, Kim and Pete plan to spend time together over the festive period. ‘Pete is based on the East Coast but he’s dropped everything to be with Kim in California as much as possible,’ says the source. ‘It’s clear they’re in a honeymoon period – whether that feels stage-managed to outsiders or not, they don’t really care.’