Kim Kardashian described her marriage to Kanye West as “toxic” and revealed that his refusal to change forced her to leave the relationship for the sake of her children and her own mental health.
During a revealing conversation on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Kardashian, 44, opened up about the emotional strain of her eight-year marriage to the Hip-Hop artist and entrepreneur. She said the relationship became unsustainable because West wasn’t “willing to make changes” that she believed would improve their lives.
“It makes it really hard to continue on in a relationship that can be toxic,” Kardashian said. “When you have kids, it’s definitely harder to leave than it is to stay. And it changes everyone’s life forever.”
The former couple, who married in 2014 and finalized their divorce in 2022, share four children: North, 12, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 6.
Kardashian said she tried to support West through difficult moments, including his public mental health struggles.
“People can say that there was, like, signs and maybe I wasn’t paying attention to them,” she told host Alex Cooper. “And I think when someone has 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 be there for them.”
But over time, Kardashian said she realized staying in the marriage was taking a toll on her ability to function as a parent.
“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 said. “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.”
Since the divorce, Kardashian said she’s approached dating with more intention and clarity. “I do have a problem of only remembering the good,” she said. “I’m a really forgiving person, but I really haven’t dated like that to, like, have those kinds of toxic relationships since I’ve been divorced.”
She added, “I think when you get older, you just don’t tolerate that s**t. You don’t have time.”
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