Kim Kardashian: ‘One day, my kids will thank me for not… bashing their dad’

Kim Kardashian has gotten a lot of crap about her divorce from Kanye West. It took nearly two full years for everything to get settled, mostly because there were some long-winded negotiations about money, real estate and custody of their kids. Plus, Kanye spent a year and a half trying to hold up the divorce and firing a succession of lawyers who wouldn’t go along with his unhinged schemes to do so. At the end of the day, Kim and Kanye do technically have joint custody of their kids, although Kim basically has primary custody and she had the kids most of the time. She’s gotten sh-t about divorcing Kanye, and she’s gotten sh-t about not divorcing him sooner, and not going for full custody of the kids and everything else. I don’t know – when it came to the divorce, I think Kim was just doing the best she could, all while dealing with an unmedicated ex who was threatening violence and openly stalking her and harassing her. Kim recently spoke to the Angie Martinez IRL podcast about how rough it’s been to coparent with Kanye:

Kim on coparenting: “Co-parenting is really f—ing hard… If they don’t know things that are being said, why would I ever bring that energy to them? That is real, heavy, grownup s— that they are not ready to deal with. When they are, we will have those conversations. One day, my kids will thank me for not sitting here and bashing their dad. I could. I definitely protected him and I still will in the eyes of my kids. For my kids. So, in my home, my kids don’t know anything that goes on [in] the outside world.”

She’s not doing well: “I am holding on by a thread. I know that I am so close to that not happening,” the SKIMS founder continued of the kids’ inevitable access to public information about their parents, “but while it is still that way, I will protect that to the end of the Earth as long as I can.”

She doesn’t want the kids to know the details: “My kids don’t know anything. So, at school, some of my best friends are the teachers, so I know what goes on at recess and lunchtime. I hear what is being talked about.”

She puts on a happy face in front of the kids: “If we are riding to school, and they want to listen to their dad’s music — no matter what we are going through — I have to have that smile on my face and blast his music and sing along with my kids. [I can] act like nothing is wrong and as soon as I drop them off, I can have a good cry.”

[From People]

Yeah… my parents struggled for years before they divorced and I can safely say that Kim’s kids know a lot more than Kim believes. I mean, it’s good that Kim isn’t talking sh-t about Kanye in front of her kids. It’s good that Kim is sheltering them from a lot of Kanye’s crap. But… the kids know some of it already, especially the older kids, North and Saint (who are 9 years old and 7 years old). North especially, since she seems to spend the most time with Kanye out of all four kids. While Kim tries to put a happy face on it, the kids can see that their dad is unwell, and God knows what Kanye is saying to them when he spends time with them. Also: while I’m never on Team “Dump All Of Your Problems on Your Children,” there is something to be said for being honest with your kids, especially when you’re struggling.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Kim’s Instagram.

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67 Responses to “Kim Kardashian: ‘One day, my kids will thank me for not… bashing their dad’”

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  1. B says:

    What she said there is absolutely brilliant.

  2. vs says:

    So the right thing to do then is to discuss it in a podcast and say ‘I could have talked shit about Ye’ even though the kids can listen to it’? How is that rational?
    Not blaming her after all she was dealing with a man who is unraveling but not saying anything about him in any medium seems like the way to go for her kids.
    Am I misunderstanding something here?
    Anyway those kids are stunning!

    • Peachy says:

      Totally agree. Anything at all she says will be blown out of proportion by media and haters anyway, which will just trigger Ye even more.

  3. Peachy says:

    She does need to have discussions with them about mental health, especially since they may also develop issues, but a lot of what he’s saying is too much for littles to understand and is just going to create conflict that isn’t good for the children. There’s also the Nazi propaganda he’s espousing, which needs to be countered. And probably about a dozen other things I’ve forgotten about as I endeavor to ignore Ye. Oh! The porn thing. Yep…she needs to have some conversations with them. ASAP.
    And maybe she is? It’s possible to have talks without using him as an example.

  4. Jo says:

    While I agree that you should not be crying in the car in front of your kids right before you drop them off at school, I am absolutely certain that this 1950s mentality of denying and hiding it not the way to go. Relative honesty and age appropriate release of information is key. The writer is right: the kids know on a conscious or subconscious level. Also, pretty sure she is saying this to get praise and build an image of “silent sufferer”, mum hero, so that we forget that she decided to have a bunch of kids with an unstable man while pretending to be of his ethnicity.

  5. Lolo86lf says:

    The children look so cute. They took mostly after Kim thank God. I really hope none of the kids will inherit their Dad’s mental health conditions because it is really such a handicap in life. I feel for Kim. She must be praying that Kanye will be able to save some of his fortune so their children can inherit it. I know Kim has a lot of money but it won’t hurt getting some from their dad.

  6. SAS says:

    I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt that she’s just talking about his awful harassment of her, because she is doing her kids a giant disservice (and not being a responsible parent imo) if she has not addressed his very public, repeated, violently antisemitic rhetoric with at the very least the school-aged children. Because you can sure as shit be aware that any Jewish classmates parents have had to talk to their kids about it.

  7. Emily_C says:

    Yeah uh so the fact that Kanye’s a Nazi was apparently an open secret for years. There’s no way Kim did not know. Kanye has idolized the man who said “No one remembers the Armenians” since long before he married Kim, who has very recent Armenian heritage. She was okay with her husband being inspired by a man who was inspired by the genocide of her people. Besides being, you know, Hitler.

    Kim is empty. I’m not going to praise her for anything she says — I’m quite sure she just copies from other people. And everything is for publicity.

    • Ameerah M says:

      I think calling anyone empty is a bit unfair. And I don’t believe everything she does is for publicity regarding her kids – if that were the case she would have talked more about their divorce. Kim was very clearly in a mentally abusive relationship with Kanye – at the very least. You can dislike someone and still have nuanced thoughts about them.

      • Peachy says:

        I agree, Ameerah M.

      • Emily_C says:

        I’m aware that you can dislike someone and have nuanced thoughts about them, thank you. I get yelled at about it all the time.

        But Kim knew Kanye was a Nazi when she married him. Come on.

    • Ameerah M says:

      Meanwhile, millions of white Americans gathered around the dinner table at Thanksgiving and Christmas while their parents and other family members said racist horrible things. And say nothing. And will gather with them again. Do you call out YOUR racist family members? Have you cut them off? Let’s not hold Kim to a higher standard than we’re holding the people we actually know. Come on.

      • Kate’s Jeggings says:

        100%

      • Otaku fairy says:

        Not only that, but how many people of all races still gather with religious or non-religious relatives and friends who spew misogynistic and/or anti-LGBT talking points? TBH, I can only say I’ve gone limited contact with some of them as opposed to no contact.
        Also, think of every male celebrity who has been exposed as some kind of abuser over the past several years. Many of them must have spewed bigotry before or during their relationships with the women too. There’s a need to be careful with the kind of precedence we’re setting with these kinds of relationships.

      • Ameerah M says:

        It’s funny to watch people hold celebs they don’t like to higher standards than they do the people they actually know. Or themselves. I say when you stop having dinner with your racist Mom or Uncle then I will entertain your opinions on someone’s racist family members.

      • Dashen’ka says:

        I see point, I do not see many of my family for this. But…most of us do not have famous relative with so much fame and influence. I cannot judge regular person same as this.

      • lawyercat says:

        THIS THIS THIS!!!! Man, you are speaking from my soul!

    • Cheesus says:

      How do we know for a fact that Kim knew he was a nazi when they first got married?

      Their marriage seems to have been on the rocks for years, is it too crazy to consider that him becoming more delusional + more open about his love of Nazis was a contributing factor?

      Kim doesn’t seem empty to me. She’s made a lot of mistakes and I’m not a huge fan of hers, but it seems like she’s doing her best in a difficult situation.

      • Ameerah M says:

        We don’t. That is someone’s speculation and nothing more.

      • Jennifer says:

        Rolling Stone had an article out a few weeks ago saying Kanye’s had a Hitler fascination for like 20 years and if he thinks you’re “cool,” he talks about it with you. I was willing to believe that Kanye’s only started his Hitler fascination within the last few years, but if he’s been openly yakking about it in work situations for 20, how would Kim NOT have heard about it?

        We don’t know for sure, but at this point it sounds likely that she knew ,because who’s going to yak on about Hitler at his work meetings but not share that special detail with his wife too?

        Like I feel bad for her parenting with him, but that news definitely makes her look potentially bad at the very least. I admit it seems extremely strange that an Armenian would be cool with Hitler chat, but…yeah, this is bad.

    • Annalise says:

      @EmilyC- i cannot agree more!!! I have SO much less sympathy for Kim, considering that she KNEW Kanye was a nazi, but helped shield that part of him from the world. Kept it under wraps so that he could legitimize her in the fashion world. So I have a hard time sympathizing about trying to shield her kids from him. It’s like, if she thinks that Kanye being a Nazi is bad for the kids, then maybe she shouldn’t have HAD four kids with him!

  8. Nikki says:

    She’s been in some really terrible situations, she loves her kids. I’m not wanting to mom shame her choices.

    • Colby says:

      Agree. She’s between a rock and a hard place, doing what she thinks is best in a no win situation. I don’t envy her in this.

  9. hangonamin says:

    co-parenting is so so hard. kids soak up everything. i am sure the older kids, if they have access to social media and smart phones already, know some of the stuff going on with kanye. But i think the point that Kim making is clear…she’s saying she’s not going to bad mouth their dad. I think she’s also saying if they come to her as they get older they can have a conversation about what is going on. she’s doing the best thing by not alienating her kids to their father. i’ve seen families fall apart where kids at a young age were told mean things/untrue things about their father and they end up not having a relationship with them.

  10. Lala11_7 says:

    I wish my Mama had followed Kim’s manifesto when I was a child 😒

  11. C says:

    I mean there’s bashing the father of your kids in an attempt to alienate, and then there’s limiting their exposure to a dangerous person who is promoting a past genocidal regime on an international scale.
    So, she can do what she wants and I wish her well, but this is a little different than your normal divorce imo.

    • Ameerah M says:

      Except in the eyes of the law – it isn’t. Which is why he was granted legal joint custody. And so she has to thread that needle while keeping herself safe.

      • C says:

        Nah, I don’t buy that. Both of these people are on a level you and I can only dream of financially and in terms of assets and resources and that shapes the conversation – mind you this has nothing to do with my thinking she’s a victim, but it’s absolutely not like a divorce case for the peons which was my original statement.
        And I’m not understanding the implication that somehow telling your kids Nazism is bad is somehow alienating them from their dad; you can absolutely have that conversation without it being “bashing” him. To each their own.

      • Ameerah M says:

        I suggest you look up the law then. You don’t have to buy it – it’s literally the law. I suggest perhaps watching Leeja Miller on YouTube. She is a divorce and family law attorney. And she broke down why Kanye got legal joint custody. So again – it’s not about what you buy. It’s about the law and how it works.

      • C says:

        Lol, what? I didn’t say anything about custody, so not sure why you are focusing on that. I don’t think Kim ever even sued for full custody, or at the very least I knew they were working it out for themselves, so the fact they have it jointly was never anything that surprised me at all. I think you just made an assumption about what I meant with “limiting exposure”. To which, yes, I think making sure that Kanye isn’t doing these kinds of rants around the kids is a good idea. I would assume they probably have already worked that out if she let them go to his Donda Academy etc. And none of this disproves my original statement which is that because of it being on this platform it’s not like a regular divorce.

    • Purplehazeforever says:

      Well what do you mean by limiting their exposure? Does Kim withhold visitation? I can point to instances where custodial parents have tried to do that & they lost. Judges all over this country have awarded custody to abusive parents & children wind up dead. So what does Kim do in this situation knowing this? Does she allow him access to the children without nannies/ bodyguards nearby? None of us know the visitation arrangement but hopefully she has something in place to protect them. She’s not going to be able to protect them from social media. Other kids have access to it, their parents do & kids are cruel.. Eventually she will have to discuss with her kids what Kanye has been doing.

      • C says:

        I explained this. You can have a conversation that Nazism is bad without alienating the dad, lol. How she chooses to do that is up to her. And you’ll see I never wrote she didn’t. Nor did I say a word about physical access or custody.

      • Lemons says:

        Actually, you can’t have a conversation about Nazism and Kanye without saying that Kanye is an ass. Just like you can’t have a conversation about racism and a sweet white granny who occasionally says racist things without finally admitting that she is part of the problem.

        And I don’t know if Kim is trying to hold onto her children’s innocence for just a bit longer, but she knows that their bubble will be burst and they will find out that Kanye was despicable.

        I think she is hoping that she can present this to them when they are a bit older AND he has gotten better and apologized for his words/actions and gotten medicated so that it never happens again…but she doesn’t know if that is what the future holds and neither do we.

        So in the absence of that, it’s probably best to shield them from everything until they have the mental tools to handle it.

      • C says:

        Yeah, I mean….pretty much.
        Trying to be charitable – but she’s obviously referring to the very high-profile things he has done rather than their actual relationship in private between the family. And unfortunately, some people kind of need to be bashed, lol, even if she doesn’t want to be the one doing it for their sake.

    • hangonamin says:

      these are very adult conversations to have with children who really don’t understand these heavy subjects yet and what is going on with their dad. yes, kanye is an a$$ and deserves all the hate he’s getting for all the horrible stuff that he’s said. BUT how do you have discussions about the stuff he is saying with your child and tell them how horrible it is he’s saying all these things (and maybe he believes it all or maybe some of it is his mania driving it), and at the end of the day have them visit him and spend time with him? there’s no way to balance that without alienating them to him. i think she’s doing the best she can. it’s a celebrity divorce, and not your “regular divorce” but even celebrities have normal familial relationships. let’s just take what she’s saying at face value, give her a bit of grace in this difficult situation, and not pass judgement?

      • C says:

        Some of us are Jewish and the discrimination we went through started from childhood at similar ages that her kids are at. I’m not playing a tiny violin for her “hardships” in explaining Nazism to her kids. It’s the same attitude as white parents who are “having a hard time” explaining anti-Black racism to their kids while Black children are targeted from the beginning.

  12. HeatherC says:

    I have never bashed my ex in front of Kiddo, though he deserves to be bashed because of a lesson I learned from my grandmother.

    My mother’s mom had a strong dislike of my father for reasons I never understood. And she was not shy of talking badly of him in front of me and my brother. That left me with the feeling, I’m half my father and you hate him. Does that mean you hate me too?

  13. Kokiri says:

    I contrast her statements/actions to the actions of those like Kelly Rutherford, that Alice lady, Jesse Williams.
    All those people are using their kids as pawns for revenge, & not at all considering how their actions impact.
    At least Kim thinks of it & is trying to mitigate the impact.
    Parenting is hard daily work & there’s no handbook. It’s literally best guess, every day.
    & it’s not like she has role models either, her mom is a disaster. I don’t know about her dad. But her step mother is an awful Republican so that’s that.

  14. Southern Fried says:

    The children are being raised in the Kardashian clan engulfed by their culture, which is what exactly, press and plastic surgery and $$$? The children are a big part of the publicity stunting. They attend his school! I just can’t with these people.

  15. Jo says:

    I see that most people here are kinder than me. Comparing Kim and Ye’s situation with having racist and homophobic family is really magnanimous. Kim chose to live and start a family with a person who is… in kind words, not well. When North arrived it was still possible to give Kim the benefit of the doubt but with the other kids Ye was already deep in Maga territory and conspiracy racist theories. She still decided to hold on to her fantasy of a mixed race family and use the same dad for her progeny as per the Kardashian-Jenner way. I know we want to protect people from mysoginy and mostly her kids, but I don’t see anything other than a person who is now facing the consequences of her actions, along with innocent kids who deserved better, while pretending to be a mother warrior who is suffering a great deal.

    • Dashen’ka says:

      Agree. My sympathy stops when she had second child. Maybe maybe case could be made, she did not know all when she had first child North. But then she has three more with terrible very mental ill man because she has particular vision for number of children, etc. She deserve judgment for that.

  16. Lena says:

    Came on here to say I usually read the comments but I’m done (for now ha!). Seems like when a celebrity divorces the woman is criticized for either divorcing too fast and not giving the marriage a chance or divorcing too slow for what we believe is the time allotted. Also for going for full custody or going for joint custody. Doing things as a family during the separation or divorce or never being seen publicly with the ex again. She was divorcing a man after a number of years and kids and dividing up a butt load of money and that man is bipolar. She did the best she can yet she gets criticized now for not being honest with them because she keeps her and his vitriol from her kids (as much as she can? ) In celebrity divorces there is truly no winning -everyone’s going criticize you for something because maybe their experience with divorce was different . Believe me I’m Kim K’s biggest non-fan but not about her divorce. The kids don’t need to be told anything against their dad. They will make their own decisions on that so let them. Best advice / I heard ever – love your kids more than you hate your ex.

    • Ameerah M says:

      I agree. I am not a Kim K fan by any stretch but the comments on this post have me defending her because a lot of them are steeped in hypocrisy and misogyny.

  17. lucy2 says:

    I hope she can hold onto that for as long as possible, because those kids are very young, and it’s been a very difficult divorce. However, this is also someone who trades on their private life for a career, has a reality show that I would assume showed some of the relationship and divorce, and has talked about it with many, many media outlets. There’s only so much the kids can be shielded from.

  18. MaryContrary says:

    I’m going to imagine she’s had some conversations with the kids (at least the older ones) about his views. She may be choosing to keep that private because then it opens up more scrutiny.

  19. Frippery says:

    I so totally feel this. It IS hard. It is absolutely so fucking hard but I do it too because I want my kid to have a chance at a good relationship with their Dad, even when he openly screams at me, chases me, brings the police with him or tells her that I don’t know how to take care of her. Because yes, when she is older she is going to see who the asshole was. I don’t need to tell her, he is doing that all by himself.

    You don’t have to agree with Kim about her life decisions or business decisions or even think she is a great person to have empathy for her on this. It’s a situation so many of us are in.

  20. purplecupcakes says:

    Kim is doing such a good job amidst these awful circumstances that Kanye has put her and her kids in.

    I keep seeing Brits on social media try to make a dig at Americans by saying our only royals are the Kardashians, but to be honest, having grown up watching them on T.V. and also seeing how Kim has WORKED her butt off to get where she is today, I AM SO PROUD TO HAVE THE KARDASHIANS and not a lazy bald prince and his grinning stupid wife.

  21. Rnot says:

    North managed to go live on TikTok while unsupervised a year ago. I highly doubt she’s in an innocent bubble and ignorant about her father’s awfulness. She gets to deal with her feelings about it alone because her mom’s deluding herself that she can avoid those conversations until it’s emotionally easier for Kim. I really hope that the kids are being provided with professional counseling.

    • KC says:

      This was what I was wondering about! I mean wasn’t Kanye complaining about North being on social media? Doesn’t North have an Insta? I don’t TikTok but Insta is easy to find juicy tidbits about folks through the search option and feed. Unfortunately, this lot has been known to lie or wildly exaggerate, I’m assuming she means she doesn’t tell them the negative details of their relationship or bad mouth him.

      Anyway, the most interesting and hard-to-believe thing for me in this article was Kim being besties with teachers at their school?!!!! Perhaps it’s because I’m an elementary teacher in an expensive, prestigious, private school but…. 1-🧐was she besties before or after they were teachers there? before or after her kids attended there?
      2-I somehow have now taught a kid from one of each of my local besties and we were tight prior to their kids coming to our school and I disclosed it before class lists were formulated and again before they made them official. I can see her kids attending our school and our wanting to love on them, teach them how to grow, and positively contribute to society but I can’t see a single teacher at my school becoming besties or ever having been besties with her. What is the commonality?🤨 I have a hard time believing she’s in the same circle as, let alone besties with, any of us poors. Does she just mean she’s on first name basis, has access to their cells/home addresses, invites them to the kids parties? 🫤
      3-What is her definition of “besties”?

      • Y says:

        Right. And those “bestie” teachers don’t know everything kids say to each other. Kids hide stuff from adults all the time!

  22. JustMe says:

    Umm where is Kayne? Haven’t seen or heard much about him in the past few months. Hopefully he is concentrating on getting better.

  23. Jess says:

    We don’t care Kim. Your ex husband is a Black white supremacist and anti-Semite and you have Jewish niece and nephews.

  24. Mabs A'Mabbin says:

    This is about the only thing I’ve ever sided with her lol. I never talked shit about my son’s shitty father growing up. He’s 30 now. He knows exactly who his father is and isn’t, and I never had to say a word.

  25. j says:

    No, they won’t thank her. They’ll grow up wondering why she never stood up for herself or showed them how to stand up for themselves. I had a mom like this. And by not having those conversations with us, by acting like things were fine while my dad abused and ranted and raved, all she did was normalize abusive behavior. She primed us to seek this behavior in our partners because it felt like home.