Kim Kardashian has opened up about the final days of her “toxic” marriage to rapper Kanye West, revealing how their relationship fell apart amid his mental health struggles.
The 44-year-old reality TV mogul, who shares four children with West, 48, revealed intimate details about their relationship during an appearance on Alex Cooper‘s hit podcast, “Call Her Daddy,” laying bare the disturbing “signs” that ultimately made her realize the marriage could not go on.
Kardashian, who wed West in 2014, defended her decision to stand by the rapper, at least publicly, even as his behavior became increasingly erratic—admitting that her initial reaction was to be “super supportive” and try to offer advice that might help him to navigate his own personal struggles.
“People can say that there was, like, signs and maybe I wasn’t paying attention to them,” she said. “And I think when someone has, like, their first, like, mental break, you know, you wanna be super supportive and you wanna, like, help figure that out and you wanna really get into that with them and and be there for them.”
However, as time went on, the marriage—and West’s behavior—began taking a serious toll on her own mental health, and left her feeling like she wasn’t “safe,” even in their home.
“Once my mental health starts to get affected and then I can’t parent the way that I need to and I can’t be present and focused, then there’s gotta be one of us that can,” she explained.
“And I had to save myself in order to be a better mom for everyone. And I think, like, when everyone’s older, they’ll be able to understand it and see that all.”
As for the ultimate indicator that the marriage was not longer salvageable, Kardashian said she realized her relationship needed to end when she realized that she no longer felt safe—both physically and financially, noting that West’s extravagant lifestyle made her feel concerned about their stability.
“Just not feeling safe, you know, not even physically, just like maybe emotionally or even, you know, financially,” she explained.
“I would like come home—and we had like five Lamborghinis—and I’d come home and they’d all be gone if he was [having] an episode. And I’d be like, ‘Oh, wait. Where’s all our cars? Like, my new car?’ And it would be like, oh, he gave them away to all of his friends.
“I didn’t know what you’re gonna get when you wake up, and that’s like a really unsettling feeling.”
The SKIMS founder admitted that leaving the relationship—which ended in 2021, before their divorce was finalized in 2022—was ultimately harder than remaining with West, particularly when she knew that the split would have such a significant impact on their children.
However, she insisted that she does not regret marrying West, particularly when their relationship gave her the chance to become a mother.
“An over a decade relationship with four beautiful children is not a failure,” she explained.
Although Kardashian said she has given West every opportunity to play an active role in the upbringing of their children—North, 12, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 6—she admitted that co-parenting with the rapper is “not easy,” revealing that her family has not heard from him in “a couple months.”
“It’s not easy. But, I mean, I raise the kids, you know, full-time. They live with me. I welcome a great, healthy relationship with my kids and their dad, and I think he knows that,” she said. “I push for it all the time, but I also protect them when, you know, it’s time for that. And it goes in waves and phases and it’s a lot of work.
“It’s probably been a couple months since we’ve heard from him.”
Today, Kardashian and her children are still residing in the Hidden Hills, CA, mansion that she purchased for $20 million in 2014, at the start of her marriage to West—although the fashion brand founder has been carrying out some extensive renovations on the home in recent months.
Reports suggested that Kardashian paid $23 million to retain the home after she and West split and in November 2024, she began work on an enormous extension that will almost double the size of the already-expansive dwelling.
While the purpose of the extension is unclear, hints about Kardashian’s future plans for the home were revealed in a 2021 lawsuit filed by one of the fashion designer’s neighbors, who requested that a judge ban her from adding several underground spaces to the dwelling.
These included an “underground vault, subterranean parking, an attached subterranean ‘wellness center’ and a detached guardhouse,” according to documents reviewed by People magazine.
Kardashian’s neighbor had filed an emergency request to halt work on the home, but that request was denied.
For a time, work on the property appeared to have ceased amid Kardashian’s ongoing divorce from West. But in July 2024, a source told People that the Skims founder had temporarily moved out of the dwelling with her kids so that a new room could be added.
However, images published by Realtor.com in April suggest that the addition extends far beyond one room.
It’s not the first time that the home has undergone extensive work—having been renovated shortly after Kardashian and West purchased it, a transformation that they then proudly showed off on the cover of Architectural Digest.
At the time, the couple’s very minimalist decor sparked a fierce debate online, with some praising the neutral tones and barely there aesthetic, while others blasted the “cold” and “unwelcoming” look.
Still, West and Kardashian appeared overjoyed with the final design of their home, which the rapper told AD had started as a McMansion but was transformed into a “futuristic Belgian monastery.”
Meanwhile, West’s real estate portfolio has seen many dramatic additions and losses in the years since his marriage ended.
The most controversial of those changes was West’s purchase of a stunning Malibu beach house, which he bought for a staggering $57.3 million in 2021—before gutting the Tadao Ando-designed abode in a bid to turn it into a modernist bomb shelter.
The rapper’s overhaul of the dwelling saw it reduced to little more than a concrete shell, decimating almost all of Ando’s original design—and leaving design lovers up in arms over its destruction.
He then sparked further fury when he abandoned his plans for the waterfront abode altogether and put it back on the market in January 2024 with an asking price of $53 million.
Since then, the home has been bought by a developer, Bo Belmont, who began carrying out a restoration of the dwelling before putting it back on the market—where it currently remains, with an asking price of $34.9 million.
West has long since moved on from that dwelling and the financial hit he took in selling it by snapping up a luxurious Beverly Hills megamansion for $35 million in October 2024.
The home was built in 2000, having been commissioned by famed mathematician Norman Zada, according to the original listing information.
It was designed by famed architect Richard Landry, who is often referred to as the “King of the Megamansion” and has worked with a host of high-profile clients in the Los Angeles area over the years.