All The Times Kim And Kanye Discussed Their Marriage
A celebrity couple so famous that they go by the singular name "KimYe," Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West have dominated headlines for much of the past decade with their trendsetting style and high-profile projects. Kanye's world of music and fashion converged with Kim's Hollywood empire, with the couple racking up billions in income by the end of the 2010s and expanding their family, welcoming four children together.
KimYe has seemingly done it all, including waging a social media war on Taylor Swift, inspiring headlines nearly every time they step out their front door, and executing the tried-and-true Hollywood A-List maneuver of purchasing of a secluded piece of property to get away from the spotlight.
Through it all, Kanye and Kim have given both joint and solo interviews about each other that revealed some candid opinions about their relationship — some loving, some less so. Read on for everything Kim and Kanye have said about their marriage, from their early days of wedded bliss through the rougher patches in their seemingly made-for-reality-TV union.
Kanye could't wait to gloat about his brand new bride
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West's romance began in 2012, following Kim's short-lived marriage — 72 days, to be exact — to NBA player Kris Humphries. Following the birth of their first child together, daughter North, in June 2013, Kanye proposed to Kim in October 2013, with the couple marrying in a lavish ceremony in Florence, Italy on May 24, 2014.
Just ten days after their wedding, Kanye spoke to GQ about his new status as a married man, quoting the movie Step-Brothers to praise Kim as "his dinosaur" and lashing praise upon his new wife. "Kim is this girl who f***ing turns me on. I love her," he said. "You mean to tell me that this girl with this f***ing body and this face is also into style, and she's a nice person, and she has her own money and is family-oriented? That's just as cool as a f***ing fighter jet or dinosaur! And just as rarely seen." Kanye also praised Kim's intelligence, describing her as "the type of girl that, her entire life, if you were in school with her, most people would be studying and up late nights, but for some reason she would have the skill set to go and grab the one book, turn to the exact page, and just magically say, 'That's the exact answer.' Or she could wink at the person who had done all the work and get it done anyway."
Kim called Kanye 'the best daddy'
Following the birth of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West's first child, their daughter North, in June 2013, Kim revealed she was pregnant with the couple's second child in May 2015, announcing the sex of the baby in a pair of sweet posts on Father's Day 2015. "Precious moments like this when we were traveling on tour with you are what I live for," Kim captioned a photo of Kanye and North. "You're such a good daddy to North & you will be the best daddy to our new son too!"
In a second Instagram post, Kim shared another sweet photo of Kanye kissing his daughter on the cheek. "I'm so lucky to be married to a man who is so in love with his daughter, your bond is so irreplaceable!" Kim wrote, adding, "Thank you for being such a good dad! We love and appreciate you so much! We're so blessed to have you!" Kim and Kanye welcomed their son Saint, later that year in December 2015.
Kim and Kanye praised each other's hearts
Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West's lives would get more complicated in fall 2016, when Kim was robbed at gunpoint in Paris in October and Kanye entered the hospital in November, canceling the remainder of his fall tour. A joint interview Kim and Kanye gave to Harper's Bazaar in July 2016 provided a glimpse at what their life was like before this rough patch, where the couple provided loving answers when asked about their spouse's favorite body part.
"Is the face a body part? My favorite body part of Kim's: heart," Kanye said, with Kim responding, "Awww, now I have to say the same. But of my own, I like my upper stomach. I just seem to always have abs. When I'm not really pregnant, I have a great two-pack ... And of Kanye's? I have to say his heart. And I've always loved his legs." Kanye also got racy in his compliments to his wife, praising her "nude selfies" and adding, "I love nudity. And I love beautiful shapes. I feel like it's almost a Renaissance thing, a painting, a modern version of a painting. I think it's important for Kim to have her figure. To not show it would be like Adele not singing."
Kim described the couple's thoughtful parenting strategies
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West kept a low profile as a couple throughout 2017, with Kanye largely refraining from speaking to the press, and Kim speaking about her family life in more general terms in several magazine interviews throughout the year. Kim described her and Kanye's parenting strategies in a chat with Interview, saying about the couple's two children, North and Saint, "We want to raise our kids to be really aware. I think that's all you can do. The more you talk about things and keep them out in the open, the more they won't be taboo."
Speaking to Allure around the same time, Kim described trying to stay humble as a family living with considerable wealth, saying, "(Kanye and I) talk about it all the time, about not getting too much and trying to be as grounded and well rounded as possible...We just did absolutely nothing (for our anniversary). We spent two days in Santa Barbara, and we slept." Kim also mentioned that she and Kanye had struggled with complications with her first two pregnancies. As Kim told Allure about having a third child, "I would like to, but ... I had preeclampsia. And then I also had something called placenta accreta. We've explored surrogacy. We're thinking about it."
Kim and Kanye welcomed daughter Chicago in January 2018 via surrogate.
Kim said Kanye made her less independent
Kim Kardashian West's public persona may project an image of power and independence, but the beauty mogul admitted to Alec Baldwin on an episode of his Alec Baldwin Show in October 2018 that her marriage taught her the value of compromise.
"I think being with a man like Kanye, you have to learn how to be a little bit not-so-independent," she told Baldwin (via Us Weekly). "I've always been so independent and working, and [had a] schedule, and when you get married and have a husband that has their career and then have kids, your independence ... you have to let it go. I had to learn that being with a man like Kanye."
Earlier in October 2018, Kanye visited President Trump in the White House for a highly-publicized meeting, where Kanye wore a "Make America Great Again" hat and embraced Trump. "(I let) him be who he wants to be," Kardashian told Baldwin about Kanye's beliefs, adding, "I let him have his own views and opinions, even if they're different than mine."
Kanye said he's 'deeply grateful' to his wife
Kanye West made his return to the public eye in 2018, paying tribute to his wife in between his tweets and album releases. On their fourth wedding anniversary on May 24, 2018, he wrote on Twitter, "Gratitude and happiness best describe what my wife means to me. I'm deeply grateful and purely happy." As for Kim Kardashian West's anniversary post, she shared an image of her and Kanye from their 2014 wedding. "4 years down and forever to go....Thank you babe for giving me our family and caring so much about us," she wrote, adding, "Thank you for inspiring me on a daily, I'm so lucky. I can't wait for forever... Happy Anniversary."
Later that year, Kanye went all-out to celebrate his wife's 38th birthday in October, filling their home with flowers and surprising her with a piano serenade. "You're stunning," Kanye tweeted to Kim, captioning a video of the display. "I will keep trying to make things that can express how beautiful you are inside and out and how much I love you and our family." Kim praised her husband's elaborate show of affection on her Instagram Stories (via People), writing, "Kanye's the most creative when it comes to sending me flowers for my birthday! Love you so much babe."
Kim defended Kanye as 'the sweetest person'
Kim Kardashian West got real about the challenges Kanye West's mental health diagnosis posed for their marriage in an April 2019 interview with Vogue, shortly before they welcomed their fourth child, son Psalm, via surrogate in May 2019. "I think we're in a pretty good place with it now," Kim said about Kanye's bipolar diagnosis, mentioning that "medication is not really an option" for her husband. "It is an emotional process, for sure. Right now everything is really calm. But we can definitely feel episodes coming, and we know how to handle them."
Kim also defended Kanye's support of President Trump, claiming her husband "doesn't represent either side" and admitting that his views "can be confusing." She added, referencing Kanye's affinity for MAGA hats, "I can be sitting there crying, 'Oh my god! Take off the red hat!' Because he really is the sweetest person with the biggest heart. I stopped caring, though. Because I used to care so much. I was making it such an issue in our relationship."
Kanye joked that he'd been married to Kim for '500 years'
Appearing on The Late Late Show in October 2019 — where he did Carpool Karaoke on a plane with James Corden — Kanye joked to Corden about how he'd been married to Kim for "500 years," explaining, "Like you know how dog years are like seven years? Every marriage year is like 100 years." Kanye also had loving words for Kim, telling Corden, "People thought it would be uncool to be married. Then I got married and people were like, 'Oh, that looks cool,'" Kanye explained, to which Corden responded, "Nobody ever thought it would be uncool to be married to Kim Kardashian!" As Kanye explained about his marriage to Kim, "It's more than cool. It's more than cool as hell or something. It's heavenly. It's great. It's magnificent. And God is using me as a human being, as humbly as I can put it, he's using me to show off."
Kanye, who let it slip to Corden that he hoped to eventually have "seven kids," also broke down his family's nightly routine. "We'll eat dinner, and we'll play with the kids, and then we'll put the kids to bed and then we go to bed," he said, adding that Kim "watches Dateline" to unwind, while he "read[s] the Bible."
Kanye hurt Kim's feelings with his Met Gala criticisms
From her figure-accenting dresses to her infamous, naked "Break The Internet" spread for Paper, Kim Kardashian West has never been one to shy away from showing off her assets. And yet, Kanye West raised eyebrows in October 2019 for comments he made to Kim on an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, where he implied that she crossed the line with her 2019 Met Gala gown (shown above), which featured a dramatic corseted silhouette.
"You are my wife, and it affects me when pictures are too sexy," Kanye told Kim in the scene (via Billboard), which was filmed the night before the MET Gala, explaining, "I went through this transition where being a rapper, looking at all these girls and looking at my wife, like, 'Oh my girl needs to be just like the other girls showing their body off.' I didn't realize that that was affecting my soul and my spirit as someone who is married and (a) father...a corset is a form of underwear, it's hot, for who though?" Kim shot back with a less-than-friendly reply, telling Kanye, "I don't need any more negative energy, and for you say you're now not into me wearing a tight dress." Eventually, Kim prevailed, wearing the look to the gala with Kanye by her side.
Kim called her husband 'very simple'
Despite Kanye West's occasionally-controversial public persona, Kim Kardashian West described her husband in loving, albeit almost childlike terms, in a November 2019 interview with Stellar. "He's very simple. If I bring him a warm brownie and ice cream, he's very happy and that'll win me points for, like, a good week," Kim said (via the Daily Mail), going on to describe the couple's domestic bliss. "Yes, he's very simple. And he lets me watch my TV shows that I want at night," Kim added. "Even when he wants to watch Rick and Morty all night long and I want to watch Dateline, he lets me watch Dateline."
Kim opened up further about her marriage to Kanye in a November 2019 interview with The Real, revealing that she'd made changes in their household to support his recommitment to his Christian faith. "The kids are getting older and he's very cautious about what we have in the house, and we got rid of TVs in the kids' rooms and removed makeup from North's room. ... And he's had this epiphany of, not that he wasn't an amazing dad, but being a little bit more strict as a dad and being very forceful on the imagery that's in our household." This wound up forcing a compromise between the pair, where Kim was able to still remain true to herself, while respecting what she called Kanye's "beautiful journey."
Kanye shocked fans by calling for a divorce
Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West's marriage issues became front-page news in summer 2020 after Kanye announced a presidential bid on July 4, 2020. He then held his first campaign rally on July 19, and revealed in a series of since-deleted tweets that he had been "trying" to get a divorce (via People). Kanye also claimed Kim and his mother-in-law, Kris Jenner, had been attempting to bring him back from his Wyoming residence to California, and that his wife allegedly sought to have him involuntarily committed to a hospital. "Kim was trying to fly to Wyoming with a doctor to lock me up like on the movie Get Out because I cried about saving my daughters life yesterday," he wrote (via TMZ), in reference to a speech he gave at his rally alluding to him and Kim thinking about terminating their first pregnancy together.
Days later, Kanye issued an apology to Kim on Twitter, writing, "I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter. I did not cover her like she has covered (me). To Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me."
Kim stood by Kanye, calling him 'brilliant but complicated'
After Kanye West went public on Twitter on July 20, 2020 about his plans for divorce, Kim Kardashian West issued a statement on July 22 asking for privacy and defending her husband. "As many of you know, Kanye has bipolar disorder. Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand," she wrote, calling herself "powerless," and explaining that West must seek treatment on his own accord.
"I understand Kanye is subject to criticism because he is a public figure and his actions at times can cause strong opinions and emotions," Kim added, calling Kanye a "brilliant but complicated person" and attributing his struggles to "the pressures of being an artist and a black man, who experienced the painful loss of his mother, and has to deal with the pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bipolar disorder." Kim also included a plea for understanding, writing, "Those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words some times do not align with his intentions."