Kim Kardashian has opened up about co-parenting with her ex-husband, Kanye West.
In a new episode of The Kardashians, which dropped on Hulu on 19 October, Kim was in the process of hiring a nanny for her four children. However, the reality star explained that she was specifically looking to hire a male nanny for her kids.
“I recently hired a manny [male nanny] because I really wanted a male around that was going to be picking them up and taking them to sports,” she said in the episode. Kim and Kanye - who legally changed his name to Ye - share daughters North, 10, and Chicago, five, as well as sons Saint, seven, and Psalm, four.
Kim explained that she was concerned to bring up the topic with Kanye due to his potential reaction.
“I was scared out of my mind to tell their dad that,” she said.
However, the interaction between the nanny and Kanye utlimately went better than Kim had expected. The rapper was cordial with the nanny, and Kanye made sure he was enforcing specific rules that he wanted his children to learn.
“When he was dropping off the kids, Kanye introduced himself and played [soccer] with Saint and him. He was so nice to him,” Kim continued. “He said: ‘Hey, if you are going to help raise my son…’ Because [the nanny] handed [Saint] the ball really easily and [Kanye] said: ‘Don’t do that. Make him go get it himself. These are some of the rules I would want.’”
Kim and Kanye were married for six years before finalising their divorce in November 2022. The couple has previously opened up about how they’re trying to co-parent their children, as Kim once described the process as “hard” amid the rapper’s many controversies.
“One day my kids will thank me for sitting here and not bashing their dad when I could,” she said on the Angie Martinez IRL podcast last December. “All the crazy s***.”
“I definitely protected [Ye] and I still will in the eyes of my kids for my kids. In my home, my kids don’t know anything that goes on in the outside world,” she continued, adding: “I’m holding on by a thread.”
Speaking to Robin Roberts during an ABC News primetime special in April 2022, Kim maintained that she’s “really open and honest” with her two oldest children about the topic of divorce, but acknowledged that her younger two children “don’t understand as much”.
Meanwhile, Kanye has previously spoken out about their parenting dynamic, as he acknowledged that Kim was the primary parent.
“Even to this day, I’ll still give Kim advice on things that could help because that’s going to go to the kids,” the rapper said on the Alo Mind Full podcast last year. “She’s still got them 80 per cent of the time, [to] raise those children. So, what people saw when I was going back and forth is that I still have to be able to throw my version of what people would throw into the curriculum.”
Kim echoed Kanye’s sentiment while the couple was going through their divorce in a since-deleted Instagram statement. “As the parent who is the main provider and caregiver for our children, I am doing my best to protect our daughter while also allowing her to express her creativity in the medium that she wishes with adult supervision - because it brings her happiness,” she wrote.
“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.”
New episodes of The Kardashians are released on Hulu every Thursday.
