Kim Kardashian activates a “lockdown” mode to protect her four children when negative stories are circulating about her ex-husband, Ye (formerly Kanye West), or the Graduation rapper is in the midst of a mental health episode.
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In Jonathan Van Meter’s Citizen Kim: The Woman Who Created the Future, Kardashian revealed that she shelters her four children with the embattled rapper — North (13), Saint (10), Chicago (8) and Psalm (7) — which essentially means disconnecting them from the outside world.
“My whole household knows what a ‘lockdown’ means if I text it. Like, ‘We’re on lockdown.’ No TVs, just movies,” she explains on page 308. “No radio, just plug in a phone for music in the car. Not even, like, Sirius XM, because they talk about current events in real time. It’s like, ‘They don’t have to be a party to this.’”
While West and the reality TV mogul’s co-parenting relationship is much healthier in 2026, along with how Ye seems to be walking a straight path this year, Kardashian admits in the book she still worries about her ex-husband, who continues to face backlash for his antisemitic hate speech. (The rapper, who has been open about his mental health struggles, placed an ad in the Wall Street Journal in January apologizing for and explaining his actions.)
“Oh, I worry about him all day. All the time,” she admits — which could be a double entendre for West’s 2015 single — on an earlier page. “That’s the father of my kids. I’ll never not worry about him. And that’s a big burden of having kids with someone who you don’t necessarily get along with. My kids would never know that.”
The All’s Fair star continues: “I do everything in my power to forget about all the negative things that happened. I have to be realistic, and my therapist definitely tells me, ‘Your boundaries have to go up,’ but we manage to co-parent without too much conflict. It’s been pretty smooth for a while. I guess because we don’t talk that much.”
Kardashian remains close with members of West’s family and encourages them to spend time with their children.
“I’m really close with his family. I welcome anyone,” she adds. “I tell them all, open-door policy. Anytime you’re in town, come for dinner with us, see the kids as much as you want, take them out, come over and hang out. That’s their family. So I encourage the relationship with their dad so much.”
Billboard has reached out to Ye’s rep for comment.
In an interview with The Sunday Times earlier in October, Kim K opened up about being “aligned” with Ye when it comes to co-parenting their oldest daughter North West’s music career. “That is something that her dad and I have better communication about,” Kardashian stated. “We make sure we’re aligned and that she’s in projects that we both approve.”
Yeezy and Kim Kardashian began dating in 2012 and tied the knot with a lavish Italian ceremony in 2014, after North was born. Kardashian filed for divorce from West in February 2021, and the proceedings were finalized with a settlement reached in November 2022.
