Kim Kardashian has revealed that she always felt pressured to protect and help Kanye West during his public controversy, until one of her four children witnessed his strange behavior.
“I was able to hide it for a long time,” she said on Thursday’s Season 7 premiere of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
“I always felt like I had a little bit of Stockholm syndrome, always feeling really bad, always wanting to protect (him), always wanting to help (him).”
According to the Cleveland Clinic, Stockholm Syndrome is defined as a trauma bond in which a victim becomes sympathetic toward their abuser or “over time develops positive feelings toward their captor or abuser.”
Kardashian, 45, did not elaborate on the circumstances that changed her perspective, but added: “It was the first time I didn’t feel personally responsible for it.”
The Skims founder also slammed critics who believed she “could afford to walk away” from West, 48, and “never have anything to do with[him]again,” saying, “That’s not my reality.”
“This guy, we have four kids,” she said, pointing to North, 12, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 6.
Kardashian explained elsewhere that she is experiencing flare-ups of her psoriasis, a skin condition that causes rashes, as she “feels more stressed” to “protect what needs to be protected.”
“My children are involved right now,” she said, admitting that she had no way to cope and was focused on trying to protect them from West’s abuse.
“They’ll know things,” the “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” alum continued. “They’re going to grow up. They’re going to grow up. They’re going to notice. So my job as a mom is to make sure they’re protected when that kind of behavior is happening.”
Kardashian also claimed that West is “a little too quiet.”
The “Heartless” rapper has not been seen in public since August, and his last social media post was in September.
Meanwhile, the reality star also addressed the hitmaker’s previous claims that she is keeping her children away from him.
“This is a divorce, not a kidnapping,” she said. “We’re not separated. We’re in the same place, we have the same address, so he knows where the kids are.”
The businesswoman, who recently claimed that the “Bound 2” artist hasn’t contacted her children for “several months,” recalled the co-parenting plan she had with him in the past.
“What happened to the house next door that you bought? We were going to co-parent and shuttle back and forth, but you take the kids to school every day…[and]eat dinner with us every night,” she questioned.
“Obviously, that wasn’t what he wanted. I get that. Maybe it was too much.”
Kardashian and West married in 2014 and finalized their divorce in 2022.
He then remarried Bianca Censoli in 2022.
