Kim Kardashian files for divorce from Kanye West

by · The Guardian
(FILES) In this file photo US media personality Kim Kardashian (L) and husband US rapper Kanye West attend the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 92nd Oscars at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills on February 9, 2020. (Photo by Jean-Baptiste Lacroix / AFP)

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has filed for divorce from rapper Kanye West after almost seven years of marriage, her publicist told AFP Friday.

The divorce proceedings confirm a split that emerged publicly last month, when the mega-celebrity couple were reported by US media to be living separately and going through counseling dealing with “regular relationship issues.”

Celebrity gossip site TMZ — which broke the news Friday — said the separation was “as amicable as a divorce can be.”

Kardashian, 40, is asking for joint custody of the couple’s four children, it added, with her lawyer Laura Wasser reportedly filing the divorce papers Friday.

Kardashian’s publicist confirmed the divorce filing but did not provide further details.

The pair, who married in a lavish ceremony in Italy in May 2014, have been dogged for months by reports in the gossip press that their marriage was on the rocks.

West, 43, has opened up about his struggles with bipolar disorder.

In July last year the mercurial entertainment mogul launched a bid for the US presidency with a rambling speech during which he revealed he had wanted to abort his daughter, and break down in tears.

He also posted a series of tweets, later deleted, that accused his wife and mother-in-law of trying to lock him up, and suggested he was seeking a divorce.

Kardashian called on the media and public to show “compassion and empathy” following her husband’s erratic behavior.

The couple have four children: seven-year-old daughter North, son Saint, five, daughter Chicago, three, and 21-month-old son Psalm.

It is the first divorce for West and the third for Kardashian, who came to fame with the US reality TV series “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” which followed the lives of her family members in Los Angeles.