You have to hand it to them, Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson and Kanye West certainly know how to stay in the headlines. Just days after Kardashian made her relationship with the Saturday Night Live comedian Instagram official, the drama surrounding the trio continues thanks to a leaked text exchange between Davidson and West.
The messages began with Davidson asking West to “calm down”, before going on to say, “It’s 8am and it don’t gotta be like this. Kim is literally the best mother I’ve ever met. What she does for those kids is amazing and you are so f–king lucky that she’s your kids’ mom. I’ve decided I’m not gonna let you treat us this way anymore and I’m done being quiet. Grow the f–k up.”
West responded by asking Davidson where he is, to which the 28-year-old responded with a topless selfie and the message, “in bed with your wife”.
West later shared a video with fans in which he claimed Davidson was “antagonising” him by making comments about “my wife.”
The obvious problem with the exchange is, of course, that Kim Kardashian is no longer Kanye West’s wife. Legally, she’s not anybody’s wife, and that’s a freedom she’s spent over a year fighting to secure for herself.
Love her or hate her, Kim Kardashian is one of her generation’s most successful entrepreneurs. In addition to pioneering a new era of reality television, the 41-year-old runs several multi-million dollar companies, is currently studying to be a lawyer, has successfully campaigned for reduced prison sentencing and used her fame to champion prison reforms, and is a mother of four young children.
Her successes — while unquestionably assisted by her wealth and its many privileges -— speak for themselves. But the men she loves seem insistent on reducing her to a one-dimensional possession to be bragged about or used as an insult for their egotistical gains.
For all of her career successes and stratospheric fame, Kim Kardashian’s love life has always been something of a cautionary tale. From Ray J and the leaked sex tape to her 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries, she offered women around the world a what-not-to-do guide that we could tune into from the comfort of our own living rooms. This latest instalment is no different, and as per promises from Kris Jenner, will be documented in the family’s new series for us to once again consume from afar.
On the one hand, it’s kind of refreshing to know that not even all the money or fame in the world can protect a person from having terrible taste in men. But on the other hand, it’s seriously depressing.
Over the years, Kardashian has watched on as the man she loved for many years has attacked her politics and moral compass, her family and their religious beliefs, the legitimacy of her fame without him and her talent. Most recently as their divorce progressed — despite countless stalling and harassing tactics on his part — she has had to rise above countless insinuations that she is a bad parent. Then just when it finally seemed over and the divorce was finalised, Kardashian now has to face her new boyfriend taking low blows and referring to her, still, as a man’s wife.
During his engagement to Ariana Grande, the King of Staten Island star defended a man who sexually assaulted her on live television, saying he “feels bad for that guy” because he didn’t believe the man meant to grope Grande’s breast. Davidson also said he’d “never been prouder” than when he saw former US President Bill Clinton ogling her, and while it’s never been confirmed, there are long-standing rumours that he sent intimate images of himself with Grande to her ex-boyfriend, Mac Miller as a way of encouraging Miller to move on.
West’s behaviour towards Kardashian, and historically women more broadly, is indefensible and seriously problematic. But it doesn’t make Pete Davidson his natural opposite and a saint simply by virtue of comparison. Kanye West is essentially a glorified heckler watching on at this point. But as a seasoned comedian, surely Davidson knows how to craft a retort without making his girlfriend the butt of the joke.
And if nothing else, Pete, you’re in bed with Kim Kardashian. Stop texting and get off your phone!
