Kimye is kaputt after an L.A. judge restored Kim Kardashian’s single status at a hearing Wednesday.
Kardashian, 41, appeared remotely on a courtroom video screen, raised her right hand, promised to tell the truth and verified that everything in her recent paperwork asking for termination of her marital status was “true and correct.”
In multiple sworn statements filed since December, the the beauty mogul wrote that she “very much” wanted to end her marriage to Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, ahead of final orders related to child custody and property in the ongoing divorce case.
“Did you have problems, disputes, differences causing a breakdown of your marriage?” Los Angeles County Judge Cochran asked Kardashian after she was sworn in.
“Yes,” Kardashian replied, looking straight at the camera. She was seated alone in a nondescript room wearing what looked like a form-fitting black tee shirt, her hair up in a sleek bun.
“Would counseling, additional time or assistance of the court save your marriage?” the judge asked.
“No,” Kardashian replied. She then confirmed it was her “desire to be restored to the status of a single person” and get her maiden name back.
“It is my understanding there is no opposition (to your petition), so it is granted,” Judge Cochran said, dissolving the A-list couple’s marriage shortly after 10:30 a.m. local time Wednesday.
“Thank you so much,” Kardashian said before her remote connection disappeared from the screen.
At multiple points during the morning hearing that included two breaks for lawyers on both sides to tweak the final paperwork, Judge Cochran asked Kardashian about her four kids with West, even rattling off their ages of two, four, six and eight years old.
“Are you showering them with affection?” the judge asked.
“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Kardashian replied.
“Are you having fun with them?” the judge later asked as the hearing started to wind down.
“I am. I’m having so much fun with them. It’s a lot. Four kids is a lot, but it’s the best,” Kardashian replied.
Before everyone left, the judge tried to schedule a trial-setting hearing three or four months in the future related to the couple’s remaining child custody and property issues. West’s new lawyer, Samantha Spector, said she joined the case a day earlier and hadn’t even received the file yet.
“Are there any disputes with this with respect to the children?” Judge Cochran asked.
“I don’t think so, your honor. There haven’t been in the past year,” Kardashian’s lawyer Laura Wasser replied.
The outcome of the high-stakes hearing seemed up in the air as recently as Friday, when West’s former lawyer filed paperwork suggesting the rap icon might challenge the couple’s prenup as well as Kardashian’s recent claims that he was behind recent harassing posts emanating from his Instagram account. Kardashian said the posts were causing her “emotional distress,” but West’s response filing two days later dismissed the allegation as “double hearsay,” arguing Kardashian failed to file any proof he had actually authored them.
The brewing battle apparently took a turn when West fired that lawyer by Tuesday afternoon and replaced him with Spector, the prominent divorce attorney who recently represented Nicole Young in her massive $100 million divorce settlement with Dr. Dre. While Spector helped Young fight the validity of her prenup, saying it was filed under duress, the powerhouse lawyer said Wednesday she hadn’t even had a chance to read the contract Kardashian and West signed before their opulent Italian wedding on May 24, 2014.
The contract called on both parties to keep their assets separate during their marriage and led Kardashian to state in a recent filing that the ex-couple had no community property or debts to divvy up at all, so there was no reason to deny her request for fast-tracked single status.
“I very much desire to be divorced,” Kardashian wrote in a sworn statement filed Feb. 23. “I believe that the court terminating our marital status will help Kanye to accept that our marital relationship is over and to move forward on a better path which will assist us in peacefully co-parenting our children.”
She concluded, “While I wish our marriage would have succeeded, I have come to the realization that there is no way to repair our marriage. Kanye does not agree but at least it appears that he has come to the realization that I want to end our marriage, even if he does not.”
West, 44, adamantly opposed Kardashian’s request for a bifurcated divorce in two February filings from his prior lawyer, saying he wouldn’t agree to an expedited termination of their marital status unless Kardashian agreed to waive any marital privilege she might have with a subsequent spouse that overlaps with their child custody negotiations. He also asked for an order blocking her from transferring assets out of any of her trusts.
Kardashian and her lawyer called West’s demand for a blanket waiver of future marital privilege “unprecedented.”
“Clearly, Mr. West’s goal here is to prevent or make it difficult for Ms. Kardashian to remarry,” Kardashian’s Feb. 23 filing said. “To order Ms. Kardashian as a condition of remarriage to obtain a waiver of all marital privileges under [the law] is an unwarranted intrusion of Ms. Kardashian’s right to remarry and appears punitive at a bare minimum.”
Kardashian also argued that her trusts are her separate property under the couple’s prenup, so West has no right to “freeze” them in a way that would block her from writing checks, paying bills, and conducting everyday business.
“I do not believe it is just or equitable to impose limitations on my ability to move forward with my life and earn a living,” she wrote in one of her statements.
At the hearing Wednesday, West’s lawyer pushed again for the waiver of marital privilege, but the judge shot it down. Spector also reiterated West’s request to modify allegedly “vague” language in an order related to two of Kardashian’s retirement accounts. Wasser argued the accounts are Kardashian’s separate property under the couple’s prenup, but she relented. “If it makes them more comfortable, let’s put it in,” Wasser said.
“I don’t think the premarital agreement is relevant today. You can’t put the cart before the horse. …I’m not saying that my client is not going to say that the prenup is valid and enforceable, but that’s just not the order of things,” Spector argued. She then went on to ask for explicit protection of West’s rights related to possible community assets if Kardashian dies before a judgment related to their property.
“I’m trying to understand what father’s end is trying to accomplish here. Some kind of theoretical protection of rights that might be out there? Or something that’s actually going to be a controversy in the case?” Judge Cochran asked.
“We don’t know,” Spector replied.
“Are you in a position to reveal whether there’s going to be a dispute about the premarital agreement or not?” Judge Cochran asked.
“I am not,” Spector responded. “If Ms. Kardashian wants to bifurcate marital status, Mr. West has no problem doing that, he just wants to protect his rights so he’s not prejudiced.”
West did not appear at the hearing either in person or remotely, but he’s been making plenty of headlines in recent months, both related to his divorce and beyond it.
He released his new Donda 2 album last week, confirmed late Tuesday he’s set to headline this year’s Rolling Loud Miami alongside Kendrick Lamar and Future, and shared a photo of himself with rumored new muse Chaney Jones on his Instagram, along with a heart emoji.
He’s also the subject of a pending misdemeanor battery prosecution after he reportedly punched a fan seeking an autograph on Jan. 13. “We have received the case and are reviewing it,” Rob Wilcox, a spokesperson for Los Angeles City Attorney, told Rolling Stone Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, West has alternated over the last few months between criticizing his ex-wife and her new boyfriend, Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson, and begging for a reconciliation.
“God please bring our family back together,” he wrote on Instagram last month while sharing photos of his family.
Appearing on the Drink Champs podcast last November, West publicly declared Kardashian still his “wife at the end of the day.” During a massive benefit concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum in early December, he changed the lyrics of his “Runaway” to, “I need you to run right back to me, baby/More specifically, Kimberly.”
West later embarked on a PDA-filled public relationship with Uncut Gems star Julia Fox and blasted Kardashian for allegedly kidnapping their younger daughter (she didn’t) and allowing their older 8-year-old daughter to appear in videos on TikTok against his wishes.
Kardashian has stayed mostly mum outside her court statements, but she did defend herself with a rare reaction shared in her Instagram stories last month.
“Divorce is difficult enough on our children and Kanye’s obsession with trying to control and manipulate our situation so negatively and publicly is only causing further pain for all,” she wrote. “From the beginning, I have wanted nothing but a healthy and supportive co-parenting relationship because it is what is best for our children and it saddens me that Kanye continues to make it impossible every step of the way.”
From Rolling Stone US
