Riddle me this: your friend’s ex keeps showing up at her house unannounced, posting screenshots of her private messages on social media and seems to be fixated on her new partner coming to a violent end. What do you do?
I would give her a hug, pour her a large glass of wine (first thing’s first, obviously) and encourage her to report the erratic behaviour to the police. In fact, that’s exactly what I did when something similar happened to a close friend of mine. In her case, the ex-husband was stealing her underwear, letting himself into her house when she was out and taunting her via WhatsApp with naked photos he had kept of her. He was arrested and cautioned. A warning shot: stop the harassment now or the consequences will be severe (for everyone involved, sadly).
But no one (at least as far as I can see) is stepping in to help protect Kim Kardashian from Kanye West, whose controlling behaviour I described in the opening sentence of this piece. I will admit, at first I found it ghoulishly entertaining to watch the drama between Kimye unfold in real time (don’t judge, we all love a celebrity break-up). But then it dawned on me (slow off the mark, as ever): if he was hounding a friend of mine in this way, I’d be terrified for her.
First, a quick recap for those of you who have better things to do with your life than follow celebrity gossip. Reality star and entrepreneur Kim filed for divorce from her rapper husband a year ago. Things were amicable at first, then Kim found herself a new boyfriend — Saturday Night Live’s Pete Davidson. This appeared to send Kanye spiralling and he began plastering his social media with increasingly alarming posts.
One read: “If you see Skete [Pete] in real life, scream at the looser (sic) at the top of your lungs and say Kimye forever.” He also posted shots of desperate messages from Kim pleading with him to stop “creating a dangerous and scary environment.” Someone, she said, “will hurt Pete.”
Things took a (more) sinister turn yesterday with the release of a music video for Kanye’s new song Eazy. The claymation is chilling. It features what appears to be an animated Davidson being kidnapped, buried alive and decapitated. It ends with a credit: “EVERYONE LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER / EXCEPT SKETE YOU KNOW WHO / JK HE’S FINE.”
Surely — as a society — we should find this kind of threatening behaviour unacceptable? Kanye is harassing Kim in plain sight. She has released a statement saying that her ex-husband’s “constant attacks” are “causing further pain”. No matter your view of the Kardashians, no one deserves to be intimidated like this. Kanye’s mental health issues are well documented, whether this is at play here or not, I hope someone puts a stop to this scary smear campaign soon. It’s not funny anymore.
In other news...
In a week of darkness, Rihanna has brought light. The images of the mega-star billionaire arriving at the Dior fashion show in Paris wearing a tiny pair of pants, see-through chemise and a leather trench were joyful to see.
She is a self-made woman with a zero f***s attitude to pregnancy style — and an inspiration to all the mums-to-be out there. Preggo ladies, throw out your saggy leggings, matronly bras and dowdy smocks. Like Bad Gal RiRi, your bump is the star.
Drape it with body chains and frame it with sequins; make your jeans low-rise and your hemlines high: wear deliciously impracticable leather, PVC and lace.
In a recent interview, she said: “Right now, I’m really into pushing the idea of sexy. When women get pregnant, society tends to make it feel like you hide, hide your sexy, and that you’re not sexy right now [but] you’ll get back there and I don’t believe that shit.” Keep it coming, RiRi.
