Was Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s staged wedding last week just a publicity stunt, or a sign a reconciliation is on the way?
According to sources speaking to Page Six, the 44-year-old rapper is telling people in the music industry he’s back together with his estranged wife, but no one believes him.
Kardashian, 40, has been in attendance at all three of West’s listening parties for his latest album Donda. At last week’s Donda event in Chicago, Kardashian joined West on Soldier Field wearing a wedding dress, where they staged a mock wedding ceremony during his last song “No Child Left Behind.” They were later spotted leaving the event holding hands.
While fans were left wondering if the fake marriage ceremony was symbolic of a reconciliation — West and Kardashian were spotted having lunch together recently, shortly before West split with Russian supermodel Irina Shayk — an insider claimed to Page Six it is nothing but a publicity stunt designed to drive album sales.
“Kanye has been telling other rappers that he and Kim are back together, but everybody knows that isn’t true,” the source said. “The real story is that Kanye wants to beat Drake in record sales, and he is putting on a big show of performance art to grab all the media attention.”
If West is trying to drive Donda sales by getting his name in the news as much as possible, that could explain the timing behind why he chose to file to have his name legally changed to the mononym “Ye” last week.
West’s highly-anticipated 10th studio album Donda finally released on Sunday, Aug. 29 after multiple delays and reports that West was living in an Atlanta stadium while he finished the album.
Still, it appears that Donda was released against West’s wishes. On Sunday, he shared the following message to Instagram: “Universal put my album out without my approval and they blocked Jail 2 from being on the album.”
While the track “Jail pt 2” was not initially released with the rest of the album Sunday morning, it is currently available to stream. According to another Page Six report, there were issues getting rapper DaBaby’s verse on the song to clear. West refused to release the song without the verse, saying DaBaby “was the only person who said he would vote for me in public” during West’s controversial run for president last year. Comments West made about their private life at one of his presidential rallies are reportedly the reason Kardashian decided to file for divorce.
While fans may be hopeful for a reconciliation — and TMZ reported that West and Kardashian are “working on rebuilding the foundation of their relationship” — a source told Page Six that the estranged couple are “are not getting back together.”
“The one thing they still have in common is love of the press. And of course she will still help him make money because the money goes to their children. It’s mutually beneficial for both of them.”
Another source said, “They did not speak for several months after she filed for divorce, but started speaking again earlier this summer,” which supports reports in March that West had changed his phone numbers so Kardashian could not contact him directly.
At the Keeping Up With the Kardashians reunion in June, Kardashian said, “I will forever be Kanye’s biggest fan. He’s the father of my kids. Kanye will always be family.”