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Kim Kardashian is reflecting on the difficult years of her marriage to Kanye West and how she found the strength to walk away.
Appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast on October 15, the SKIMS founder, 44, described her nine-year relationship with the rapper as "toxic," explaining that she didn't feel "emotionally or even financially" safe during that time.
"There was just a lot of things that I wouldn't deal with," Kardashian said. "I didn't like the feeling of someone talking bad about my kids' grandmother, aunts—all of those feelings. If someone feels that way, then we shouldn't be together."
The reality star recalled how West's mental health struggles often left her unsettled. "I'd come home and we had like five Lamborghinis, and I'd come home and they'd all be gone if he was in an episode," she shared. "Then I'd come home again, and we'd have five more Lamborghinis and then I'd wake up in another episode, and they'd all be gone again. I didn't know what you're going to get when you wake up, and that's a really unsettling feeling."
Kardashian admitted that leaving the marriage, which ended in 2022, was one of the hardest decisions she's made. "When you have kids, it's definitely harder to leave than it is to stay," she said. "But once my mental health starts to get affected and I can't parent the way that I need to, then there's gotta be one of us that can. I had to save myself in order to be a better mom for everyone."
She shares four children with West — North, 12, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 6 — and says they continue to be her top priority. "I raise the kids full time," Kardashian explained. "They live with me, and I welcome a great healthy relationship with their dad."
Although West has not been in contact with the children for "a couple months," Kim says they're "healthy and happy" and that she tries to maintain stability in their routine.
Now single, Kardashian said this is the longest she's gone without being in a relationship but feels "totally content." Still, her eldest daughter has other ideas. "North told me, 'You need to have a boyfriend now. You're getting too old and no one is gonna deal with this,'" she laughed.
Looking back, she added, "An over a decade relationship with four beautiful children is not a failure. I think when everyone's older, they'll be able to understand it and see that all."
