As fans reflect on some of Kimye’s most turbulent arguments, it’s becoming more apparent than ever that it was ultimately Kim divorcing Ye that completely disrupted his long-running attempts to control her image.
Earlier this month, a judge ruled Kim Kardashian legally single in court following the months she’d spent trying to attain the official status to the apparent displeasure of her now-ex-husband Kanye West.
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Kim first filed for divorce from Kanye, now known as Ye, last February. The proceedings took over a year, with Ye having apparently refused to cooperate on several occasions.
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Fans of the pair will know that over the course of their almost-seven-year-long marriage — during which they had four children: North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm — Kim and Ye, aka Kimye, established a strong legacy as one of the world’s biggest and most appealing celebrity couples.
Instagram: @kimkardashian
But their marriage was simultaneously one filled with arguments and moments of turbulence, many of which were documented across Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
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Perhaps one of the most controversial aspects of their relationship involved Ye’s apparent obsession with sculpting Kim’s image, which seemingly stemmed from his background in the fashion industry and renowned status as a stylist.
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But Ye’s attitudes toward Kim — beyond her clothing choices — have attracted fresh scrutiny over the past few months following his disturbing public reaction to the divorce and to her relationship with Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson.
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Given that Ye’s recent disputes with both Kim and Pete have sparked a wave of concern for the new couple, fans have been more critical than ever of his behavior throughout his and Kim’s marriage.
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And after a YouTube compilation of Kim and Ye’s most “toxic” moments went viral last week, it’s safe to say that fans’ concern is incredibly apparent in the comments.
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The video, titled “kim and kanye having a TOXIC relationship for 5 minutes straight,” showcases some of Kimye’s most memorable arguments throughout KUWTK, from the most intense to the seemingly trivial — though it is edited for comedic effect.
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For example, the now-infamous “Band-Aid” fight is included among the various clips, as well as their little clash over Kim’s use (or lack thereof) of their jacuzzi — which has become something of a meme.
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But arguably the most contentious moment — which fans took particular issue with — was the spat between the pair that unfolded after Ye confronted Kim about an outfit she’d planned on wearing at the 2019 Met Gala.
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As shown in the clip, Ye told Kim on the night before the event that the now-iconic Thierry Mugler dress that she’d spent nine months preparing to wear was “too sexy,” which he said negatively affected his “soul.”
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“You are my wife, and it affects me when pictures are too sexy,” Ye told her.
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“A corset is like a form of underwear, it’s hot… but like, it’s hot for who though?” he said of Kim’s sheer waist-cinching dress.
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The KKW mogul then asked Ye, “So, on the night before the Met, you’re gonna come in here and say that you’re not into a corset?” In response, Ye said: “I just feel like, I just went through this transition from being a rapper, looking at all these girls and looking at my wife, being like, My girl needs to be like all the other girls showing her body off, showing this, showing that.”
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He continued, “I didn’t realize that that was affecting my soul and my spirit as someone that’s married and loved.”
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Standing her ground, Kim replied: “You built me up to be this sexy person and [to have] confidence and all this stuff. Just because you’re on a journey and you’re on your transformation doesn’t mean that I’m in the same spot with you.” After hearing this, Ye walked out of the room.
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Of course, Kim’s Mugler dress ended up becoming one of the most renowned looks of the night, and arguably even paved the way for the resurgence of sheer, nude, crystallized gowns on the red carpet.
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But viewing the spat retrospectively in light of everything we know now, many viewers have commented on Ye’s apparent attempts to control Kim’s public image.
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“The minute a man tells you how to dress that’s a red flag to run and run fast! The amount of control Kanye wants over a woman is disturbing,” one user wrote.
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“Kanye literally married and had children with a curvaceous woman (natural or not, who gives a fuck) and is upset when she has curves in clothing and enjoys showing off her figure? What attracted you TO HER?” another person questioned.
“Does he expect Kim to drop all of this, things she LOVES, and things he USED TO LIKE, because he’s a little uncomfy?! Come on. I’m not saying he can’t like a more conservative dressing woman, but don’t try to change someone man,” they added.
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But, as viewers of KUWTK might remember, Ye imposing his personal choices over Kim’s wardrobe wasn’t anything new.
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Months after the pair started dating in 2012, Ye apparently told Kim that she had “the worst style” before almost reducing her to tears while clearing out her entire closet.
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Years later, in 2018, Kim revealed that Ye once flew all the way out to Paris for just 24 hours in order to style her after he came across several paparazzi photos of her in various outfits that he didn’t approve of.
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Speaking out against Ye’s behavior now, one person wrote: “Just because she is his wife, she doesn’t need to do whatever he wants her to do. Kanye kind of wants his wife to be his doll to play dress up.”
Interestingly, Ye has long been accused of deliberately treating his romantic interests as fashion objects to express his own creativity, with his recent relationship with actor Julia Fox demonstrating his apparent need for a “muse.”
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Ye and Julia’s six-week-long romance was filled with grand gestures and heavy PDA. Days after they were first pictured together, the Uncut Gems actor revealed that he’d surprised her with “an entire hotel suite full of clothes,” reminding fans of his commitment to overhauling Kim’s wardrobe back in the day.
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Several internet users also pointed out that while Julia was dating Ye, she dressed in eerily similar styles to what Kim has worn throughout their relationship and beyond, including a series of all-black Balenciaga outfits.
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What’s more, Ye has most recently been linked with Instagram model Chaney Jones, who fans have called a “Kim Kardashian lookalike” in light of her similar style choices, too.
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In light of this, a bunch of the comments under the viral Kimye compilation video also questioned Ye’s apparent objectification of the women he’s romantically involved with, drawing attention to another clip from his and Kim’s 2020 Architectural Digest interview.
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In the short video, Kim asks her then-husband: “What’s the most prized possession in the house?” to which he responds “You.” Though Ye’s sentiment was seemingly heartfelt — and was certainly interpreted by Kim that way — fans are now more skeptical in light of his self-demonstrated need to control women’s images.
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Quoting the clip in question, one viewer commented: “My dude has the audacity to refer to his wife as a possession.”
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“He meant that literally,” wrote another of Ye’s answer. “The question was, ‘what is your….’ [‘What’] implies that the answer is an object; and the same notion applies to ‘possession.’ So when Kanye answers ‘you,’ what he basically said is that Kim is an object — not a person — to him, and he must possess her.”
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And Ye’s apparent obsession with controlling Kim’s persona has only been made more apparent during the divorce.
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If you’ve been following the pair over the past year or so, you’ll know that they remained amicable for months after Kim officially filed to split from Ye.
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In fact, the pair stayed on such good terms that they made several public appearances together while navigating their new relationship as coparents, with Kim even supporting Ye onstage at his Donda album listening events last summer.
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And in October, Kim reportedly enlisted Ye’s help before her SNL hosting gig, suggesting that the pair were friendly at that point, too. The rapper actually showed up on set in support of his ex, watching her from the side while having apparently approved the majority of her jokes.
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But soon after, as Kim became romantically involved with Pete Davidson — who she kissed as part of an Aladdin sketch on the show — Ye’s public attitude toward her soured.
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Just days after Kim and Pete were pictured out holding hands, Ye went on the record to claim that he’d “never even seen” the divorce papers, while still referring to the mogul as his “wife” during a podcast appearance.
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Over the next couple of months, Ye made a bunch of huge declarations about his hopes to reconcile things with Kim, even begging her to “run right back” to him onstage at a concert in December.
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Kim ignored Ye’s ongoing pleas, instead filing to be “legally single” just a day after the grand concert. Cut to the start of January, and she’d jetted off to the Bahamas with Pete, later revealing that she’d actually thrown her phone into the ocean while she was out there to avoid being contacted during their vacation.
A couple of weeks later, Ye released his first of many public disses toward Pete, rapping on his song “Eazy”: “God saved me from this crash / Just so I could beat Pete Davidson’s ass.”
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He spent the next months taking aim at both Kim and Pete in several since-deleted Instagram posts, most harshly denouncing the comic with a new nickname, “Skete,” that he encouraged his fans to use.
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With “Skete Davidson” becoming a meme online at the hands of Ye and his fans, the rapper continued to call Pete “garbage” and “trash” in a string of other posts before bragging about running the comic off of Instagram entirely.
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Most recently, the rapper released a music video showing a cartoon version of himself kidnapping, decapitating, and burying a Pete lookalike — though he later defended the move from fierce backlash by calling it “art.”
