“Not a Failure”: Kim Kardashian’s Candid Confession About Her Decade-Long Marriage to Kanye West
In an era where carefully curated Instagram feeds reign supreme, raw vulnerability feels revolutionary. Kim Kardashian just delivered exactly that. Appearing on the October 15th episode of Alex Cooper’s wildly popular Call Her Daddy podcast, the forty-four-year-old SKIMS empire builder peeled back the glossy veneer to reveal the painful reality behind her divorce from Kanye West—and darlings, it’s the kind of honest conversation we’ve been craving.
“I do have a problem of only remembering the good,” Kardashian confessed when discussing her relationship patterns, a sentiment that will resonate with anyone who’s ever romanticized a difficult past. “I’m a really forgiving person, but I really haven’t dated like that to have those kinds of toxic relationships since I’ve been divorced.” It’s the admission of a woman who’s learned that forgiveness doesn’t require continued proximity to pain.
The businesswoman’s perspective has evolved considerably since her marriage dissolved. “I think when you get older, you just don’t tolerate that stuff. You don’t have time,” she explained with the matter-of-fact wisdom that only comes from experience. It’s a mantra worth embroidering on throw pillows everywhere.
The timeline speaks volumes: Kardashian filed for divorce in early 2021 after their May 2014 wedding, with proceedings finally concluding in November 2022. Her only significant public relationship since? A brief romance with Pete Davidson from October 2021 to August 2022. Otherwise, she’s been notably, deliberately single—focusing on her billion-dollar businesses and four children.
But the most compelling revelation came when Kardashian addressed the “signs” she may have overlooked. “When someone has their first mental break, you want to be super supportive and help figure that out and really get into that with them and be there for them,” she said, her empathy evident despite everything. The problem? West wasn’t “willing to make changes” she believed would be “super healthy and beneficial.”
“It makes it really hard to continue on in a relationship that can be toxic,” she acknowledged. “When you have kids, it’s definitely harder to leave than it is to stay. And it changes everyone’s life forever.” It’s the impossible calculus every parent in a failing relationship knows intimately—stay for stability or leave for sanity?
Kardashian chose herself, and by extension, her children. “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 got to be one of us that can,” she explained. “I had to save myself in order to be a better mom for everyone.”
These days, her eldest daughter North—now twelve—has become her unlikely romantic advisor. “You need to have a boyfriend now,” the preteen reportedly declared, adding with characteristic bluntness, “Mom, you’ve got to get remarried. You’re getting too old and no one is going to deal with this.” Ouch. Out of the mouths of pre-teens comes brutal honesty.
Despite everything, Kardashian refuses the narrative of failure. “An over a decade relationship with four beautiful children is not a failure,” she stated firmly. North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm are living proof that something beautiful can emerge from difficulty.
It’s the perspective of a woman who’s trading rose-colored glasses for clear vision—and looks absolutely radiant doing it.
