Is Kim Kardashian dating CNN commentator Van Jones?
Fans on Twitter seem to think so. The rumor that the pair are dating has been around since July 2020, and picked up traction in January when a divorce between Kim and Kanye West seemed imminent.
Indeed, Kardashian filed for divorce in February, sparking interest in whom she would date next. While West is reportedly interested in dating “an artist,” Kardashian seems focused on studying for the bar exam and becoming a lawyer.
“Studying in the sun,” Kardashian captioned a series of photos on Twitter last week.
But it is her judicial ambitions driving rumors that Kardashian, 40, is dating Jones, 52.
Kardashian and Jones met in 2018 at the White House when Kardashian was trying to secure a presidential pardon for nonviolent drug offender and grandmother Alice Johnson.
Jones interviewed Kardashian on CNN in June that year to discuss her meeting with President Trump. Trump ended up commuting Johnson’s sentence and later pardoned her.
This was the start of several public meetings between Jones and Kardashian that year. Jone interviewed Kardashian again in October 2018 for his podcast The Messy Truth. A month later, Kardashian and Jones were seen together as keynote speakers at Variety and Rolling Stone’s Criminal Justice Reform Summit in Los Angeles. Also a keynote speaker at this event? Rapper Meek Mill.
Interestingly, the prison reform summit appears to have helped spark Kardashian and West’s divorce. On July 22, 2020, West tweeted, “I been trying to get divorced since Kim met with Meek at the Warldolf [sic] for ‘prison reform.'” He also tweeted, “Meek is my man and was respectful. That’s my dog. Kim was out of line.” The tweets have since been deleted.
Coincidentally, on the same day that West tweeted his desire to divorce Kardashian, a blind item hinting at Kardashian and Jones appeared on Lipstick Alley. “The A list reality star is being comforted by this cable news fixture,” the report read.
There is no confirmation that Jones and Kardashian are actually dating, but that hasn’t stopped fans from commenting on Twitter.
At the very least, Jones does seem to have a high opinion of Kardashian and confirmed he was in regular contact with her on an April 2019 episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “She’s brilliant,” he said, adding, “She eats law books for breakfast.”
“How often are you in touch with her on a daily basis?” Andy Cohen asked.
“A couple times a week,” Jones responded.
Jones also said that Kardashian was genuine about her desire for prison reform and not doing it for publicity. “She cares a lot about criminal justice. She spent a lot of time going to visit women in prison,” he said. “Usually I’m calling celebrities asking them to help me on cases. She calls me asking me to help her on cases.”
Like Kardashian, Jones has been through a public divorce. He married Jana Carter in 2005, and she filed for divorce in September 2018. The divorce was finalized in 2019. Jones and Carter share two children, Mattai, 9, and Cabral, 13.