After nearly seven years of marriage, Kim Kardashian has filed for divorce from Kanye West. Things look to be relatively amicable between the couple, but things have been building to this divorce for a long time.
As part of the divorce, Kim is seeking joint legal and physical custody of the couple’s four children. TMZ is reporting that Kanye is fine with this prospect, and both of them plan to co-parent their children together.
But what about the fallout from the divorce? There was already a prenup in place, and TMZ reports that neither of the two is contesting it. In fact, they are well underway in reaching a property settlement agreement.
Normally, divorce paperwork would indicate a date of separation. However, Kim and Kanye’s date of separation is listed as “to be determined.” But the date almost doesn’t matter, as intense rumors of their separation and divorce have been swirling around for many months now.
When, exactly, did their marriage start going off the rails? It looks like it started last July when Kanye launched his bizarre presidential campaign. That campaign began July 4, but it would only be a few weeks later that Kanye held a campaign event in South Carolina. There, he began weeping and told the world about his attempts to get Kim to abort their first child.
That made things pretty awkward between the couple. And soon after, Kanye began insulting the Kardashian/Jenner family on Twitter, going so far as to call Kris Jenner “Kris Jung-On.”
Why didn’t Kim file for divorce at that point? TMZ claims she was ready to do so, but Kanye was going through a major bipolar episode at the time. But part of the fallout from all of this is that the couple began living separately for several months, triggering speculation about imminent divorce.
There were some attempts to reconcile, including a family vacation to a private island to celebrate Kim’s 40th birthday. As a gift, Kanye gave Kim a hologram message from her dead father. At the time, Kim called it “the most thoughtful gift of a lifetime” and “a special surprise from Heaven” via Instagram.
However, such extravagance wasn’t enough to patch things up between the struggling couple. While this will be Kanye’s first divorce, it will be Kim’s third. She was previously married to Damon Thomas and Kris Humphries.