Kim Kardashian is pulling back the curtain on her co-parenting reality with ex-husband Kanye West, and it’s a lot more complicated than fans might imagine.
During a candid conversation on the October 15 episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast, the 44-year-old SKIMS founder didn’t hold back about the challenges of raising four kids with someone who’s been largely absent from their day-to-day lives.
When Cooper asked what co-parenting with Ye is actually like, Kardashian’s response was refreshingly honest. “It’s not easy,” she admitted, going on to explain that she handles the heavy lifting when it comes to their children, North, 12, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 6.
The reality star emphasised that the kids live with her full-time, though she actively encourages a healthy relationship between them and their father. It’s a balancing act that requires constant effort, and according to Kim, “it goes in waves and phases and it’s a lot of work.”
The most revealing moment came when Cooper pressed about Kanye’s involvement with the children.
Kim disclosed that it had been a couple of months since they’d heard from him, explaining that he sees them “whenever he’ll call for them and ask.”
She was quick to clarify that the kids have always understood their father leads a big life that takes him around the world, and they’ve adjusted to that reality remarkably well.
They love their routine and schedule, she noted, and her job as their mom is to keep them healthy, happy, and grounded in that stability.
What clearly frustrates Kardashian most isn’t the co-parenting arrangement itself; it’s the public narrative that she’s somehow keeping the children away from their father.
“The one thing that just gets me is that there’s this narrative that like, I keep the kids,” she said, her exasperation evident.
She’s never denied Kanye access to their children, not once. In fact, she’s sent them to visit him in countries around the world, from Saudi Arabia to Japan, every single time he’s asked.
The disconnect between reality and perception has left Kim feeling helpless at times. She’s wanted to share text messages that would prove her point, to show the world that she’s been the one begging Kanye to spend time with their kids.
But that’s not her style. “I’m just not that girl online that’s going to fight back,” she explained, describing how she’ll wake up to tweets claiming she’s kidnapped the children when the truth is far more mundane. “It’s not a kidnapping, it’s a divorce. We can still all be in each other’s lives and have group dinners.”
Kardashian does draw boundaries when she feels the situation might be “really super unhealthy,” given Kanye’s well-publicized controversies and mental health struggles. In those moments, she’ll suggest meeting at her house or choosing a different time.
Interestingly, she revealed that when Kanye is going through particularly difficult periods, he typically doesn’t want to see the kids much anyway, so things have always managed to work themselves out.
Beyond co-parenting logistics, Kim opened up about the deeper issues that ultimately ended their marriage, which was finalised in November 2022 after she filed in early 2021.
She acknowledged that people might have noticed warning signs she missed, admitting, “I do have a problem of only remembering the good.”
When Kanye experienced his first mental health crisis, she wanted to be supportive and help him navigate through it. The problem was that he wasn’t willing to make the changes she believed would be healthy and beneficial for their family.
“It makes it really hard to continue on in a relationship that can be toxic,” she reflected. The decision to leave wasn’t easy, especially with four children involved.
Kim explained that when you have kids, it’s actually harder to leave than to stay because divorce changes everyone’s life forever. But she reached a breaking point when her own mental health started suffering.
“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 with striking clarity.
She also cited specific incidents that contributed to her feeling unsafe, not just physically, but emotionally and financially as well.
Kim shared a particularly jarring example of Kanye’s erratic behaviour during episodes: she’d come home to find all five of their Lamborghinis gone because he’d given them away to friends. “I didn’t know what you’re gonna get when you wake up, and that’s like a really unsettling feeling,” she recalled.
The final straw involved Kanye publicly attacking her mother, Kris Jenner, and her sisters. For Kim, who prioritises family above almost everything else, watching him speak out against the people she loves most made staying impossible.
Watch the podcast video here.
