Kim Kardashian West is opening up about how she and her husband, Kanye West, are dealing with his bipolar diagnosis.
Kim Kardashian West is opening up about how she and her husband, Kanye West, are dealing with his bipolar diagnosis.
The 38-year-old reality star covers Vogue magazine's May 2019 issue and gets candid about West's history with mental health issues. The 41-year-old rapper canceled the remainder of his Saint Pablo tour in November 2016 and shortly after, was hospitalized after suffering a breakdown. On his latest album, Ye, that dropped last June, Kanye revealed he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. But fans again began to worry about his mental health last October after he paid a bizarre visit to President Donald Trump at the White House, and said that he wasn't actually bipolar, but suffered from sleep deprivation.
Kim says that Kanye has currently accepted the bipolar diagnosis again, and explains that he's been given conflicting assessments from doctors.
"I think we’re in a pretty good place with it now,” she says. “It is an emotional process, for sure. Right now everything is really calm. But we can definitely feel episodes coming, and we know how to handle them."
But she notes that taking medication is not a solution for Kanye.
“For him, being on medication is not really an option, because it just changes who he is," she says. "Traveling a lot does set it off, so he doesn’t travel as much as he used to. But honestly, I never want to speak for him, because I am not in his mind."
The mother of three has faced criticism from fans in the past who have accused her of not helping him during what appears to be episodes, and she sharply fights back against the accusations in her new interview.
"But I think some of the hurtful things that I read online . . . . What is she doing? She's not stopping him. . . . Like it’s my fault if he does or says something that they don’t agree with?" she argues. "That’s my husband. I share every opinion that I have and let him know when I think something’s wrong. Or if it comes to him being in the middle of a bipolar episode, I’ll do everything to be supportive and help to calm the situation."
But Kim does admit that Kanye's outspoken political views have sometimes affected their relationship.
"I can be sitting there crying: OH, MY GOD! TAKE OFF THE RED HAT! Because he really is the sweetest person with the biggest heart," she says. "I stopped caring, though. Because I used to care so much. I was making it such an issue in our relationship. And in my life. It gave me so much anxiety.”
She also insists that Kanye is neither a Democrat or a Republican.
“He doesn’t represent either side," she notes. "But he doesn’t want to be told what he should be. It can be confusing. I get it. The one thing that I respect so much is that he is who he is, no matter what anyone tries to tell him to do."
In an interview with The New York Times last June, Kanye admitted he feared Kim would leave him after he claimed slavery was a "choice" during his infamous appearance on TMZ Live.
"There was a moment where I felt like after TMZ, maybe a week after that, I felt like the energy levels were low, and I called different family members and was asking, you know, 'Was Kim thinking about leaving me after TMZ?'" he recalled. "So that was a real conversation."
On a lighter note, ET spoke to Kim earlier this month, when she hilariously revealed she had to explain to Kanye how to film confessionals for Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Watch the video below for more:
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