On September 14th, Kanye West unfollowed the Kardashians on Instagram amid allegations that said he was being unfaithful to his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, and their ongoing divorce. There is no confirmation on the reasoning behind West’s unfollowing of the family, however the most popular theory is that he was being unfaithful to Kim.  To understand any problems they may have had in the relationship, it is important to start from the beginning. 

Kim and Kanye met for the first time in 2003, while Kim was still married to producer Damon Thomas. Kanye was in the middle of recording a song with the artist Brandy, as well as recording a music video for the song they were recording. Kim was friends with Brandy, so she would occasionally be at the video shoots, so she saw Kanye at them a few times, but Kanye didn’t know who she was, so he asked his friends who she was. 

Though they didn’t start dating until 2012, Kanye was very upfront and clear about his crush he had on Kim. Even as far back as when she was known as Paris Hilton’s assistant. In a 2013 interview, Kanye told Ryan Seacrest “I just wanted her to be my girl for a long time, I remember I saw a picture of her and Paris Hilton, and I remember telling my boy, ‘Have you seen that girl Kim Kardashian?’” 

Since then, they kept up their friendship, even while dating other people. In Kanye’s 2012 song ‘Cold’ he raps about being in love with Kim, despite the fact she was still married at the time to the former NBA player Kris Humphries.”And I’ll admit, I had fell in love with Kim/Around the same time she had fell in love with him/Well that’s cool, baby girl, do ya thang/Lucky I ain’t had Jay drop him from the team,” He raps. 

In 2013, on Kris Jenner’s talk show, she revealed that Kanye would draw himself next to Kim in the christmas card the Kardashians had, and show her. On a special episode of KUWTK, Kim revealed that she started dating Kanye shortly after ending things with Humpfries. In December 2012, Kanye announced that Kim was pregnant with their first child North, and she was born on June 15th, 2013, however the birth worried her, due to the fact that the baby was 6 weeks early, and only weighed 4 lbs, causing a multitude of problems. On October 21, 2013, Kanye proposed to Kim on her 33rd birthday, and they got engaged, and almost a year later on May 24, 2014 in Florence, Italy. Not much later in December of 2015, Kim gave birth to her 2nd son, Saint, which again brought up the health concerns that the first childbirth faced. She ended up having to get multiple procedures to help her body recover from the trauma. She wanted to have more children, but her doctors urged her to avoid it. Despite this, in January of 2018, she welcomed her 3rd child, and second daughter, Chicago, via a surrogate and in May of 2019, she welcomed her 4th and final child Psalm, via a different surrogate than the one who carried Chicago. 

However there were also times in the relationship when there were doubts, concerns, and problems. In May of 2018, Kanye thought Kim would leave him because of a controversial statement he made about slavery. Saying it was a choice, and that to be enslaved for 400 years means to also mentally be in prison. In a New York Times interview that happened in June of that year, he talked about how the rant affected his relationship with Kim. Saying “There was a moment where I felt like after TMZ, maybe a week after that, I felt like the energy levels were low, and I called different family members and was asking, you know, ‘Was Kim thinking about leaving me after TMZ?'” he revealed. “So that was a real conversation.” Kanye sparked controversy in July 2020 during a Forbes interview, Kanye outlined details of his campaign and shared his stance on some of today’s major topics. He came out as being pro-life, anti-Planned Parenthood and as an anti-vaxxer. Kanye also said he plans to run as a member of the “Birthday Party” and said he no longer supports President Donald Trump after publicly wearing a Make America Great Again hat and hugging the president at the White House. As for potential Democratic candidate Joe Biden, he said he was “not special” and that he envisions a White House modeled after the fictional country of Wakanda from Black Panther. After this controversial interview, Kim didn’t necessarily agree with these viewpoints, she continued to be there and support him. Recently in January of 2021, A source revealed that Kim has been done with their marriage since July of 2020. The source told ET that “Kim has been over Kanye in a romantic sense for a while but loves him as the father of their kids and doesn’t want to embarrass or hurt him. Her last real attempt to make their relationship work was when she flew to Wyoming in July and she was seen crying in the car with him. After that, she just knew that she had to be done for good.” On February 19th, she filed for divorce from Kanye after 6 years of marriage, and they both filed paperwork for joint physical and legal custody of their kids. 

Kim still supports Kanye as well as his music, and his brands, because she never stopped loving him, and still sees him as the father to their kids, she just couldn’t see their marriage working out. It’s shown through the fact that Kim showed up for all of the DONDA listening events, even appearing in a matching red outfit to Kanye’s, as well as a white wedding dress. What is going to happen next in their relationship is unknown, but it doesn’t seem as if it’ll go anywhere negative. As they both have joint custody of their kids. With Kanye unfollowing the Kardashians because of the ongoing divorce, or him being unfaithful it seems that he may want to cut off any ties with Kim and the Kardashian family. If not, it may have been a way to get some publicity for DONDA, putting his name even more in the spotlight.