Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were making headlines separately long before they started dating in 2012.
Naturally, the reality TV star and the rapper teaming up was a match made in media heaven - Vogue even referred to them as the “world’s most talked-about couple” (using a hashtag, of course) when Kardashian and West covered the magazine’s 2014 issue together.
Over the years, the couple has been pictured on glamorous red carpets around the world together, celebrated the births of their children and enjoyed luxury vacations that the rest of us only dream about.
They’ve even kept a united front through more difficult times, like the 2016 robbery when Kardashian was held at gunpoint and West’s 2017 diagnosis with bipolar disorder.
But following West’s public breakdown earlier this summer, where does their relationship currently stand? From how the reality TV star and the rapper met to their lavish wedding in Italy and the fallout from West’s headline-making statements, here’s everything you need to know about the couple.
How did Kim Kardashian and Kanye West meet?
Kardashian and West began dating in 2012, but they actually met a decade earlier, as Kardashian revealed during a special for the 10th anniversary of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
“I met him I think in 2002 or 2003. He was recording a song with Brandy, and I was her friend,” said Kardashian, who previously dated Brandy’s brother, Ray J. “I vividly remember hanging out with him and then they did a video together, so I’d see him a few times,” she said.
Though the two kept in touch, Kardashian married NBA player Kris Humphries in 2011. The wedding coincided with the release of a fragrance called Kim Kardashian Love, and the ceremony and its preparations became a multi-part television special that aired on E! - Kardashian famously filed for divorce just 72 days later.
“After my breakup, I was feeling really low and down and [Kanye] said, ‘Just come to Paris and see my fashion show,’” Kardashian said following her separation from Humphries. “He jokes that he put on this whole fashion show just to get a date with me. So I went there and I stayed with him, and that’s where we started dating. I swear from the moment I landed, I fell madly in love with him and I thought, ‘Oh my God, why didn’t I do this sooner?’ Like, this is what real life is like - love and fun and real support.”
In December 2012, West announced that he and Kardashian were expecting their first child together during his concert in Atlantic City.
While they dated, West introduced Kardashian to designer Riccardo Tisci, who was the creative director for Givenchy at the time. Tisci and Kardashian would go on to forge their own friendship, and it was the designer who helped the reality TV star score her first Met Gala invite in 2013.
Visibly pregnant, Kardashian attended the event with West, wearing a floor-length floral gown designed by Tisci that went viral on social media (just not the way she had planned).
Kardashian gave birth to the couple’s daughter, North West, in June 2013 - just days after her divorce from Humphries was finalized.
West proposed to Kardashian on her 33rd birthday in October 2013, renting out San Francisco's AT&T baseball stadium, where the couple was joined by family and friends. He reportedly spent an estimated $2 million on the 15-carat cushion cut ring from jeweler Lorraine Schwartz (though the ring was later stolen when Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint during Paris Fashion Week in 2016).
When did Kim Kardashian and Kanye West get married?
The couple married on May 24, 2014, in Italy.
Kardashian’s wedding to West was even more over-the-top than her televised ceremony to Humphries (and, we imagine, her 2000 wedding to music producer, Damon Thomas, when she was high on ecstasy).
Ahead of the wedding, the couple was featured on the April 2014 cover of Vogue magazine with Kardashian wearing a bridal gown. And in true Kardashian style, the actual wedding was a weekend-long event that started in Paris with a bachelorette party.
After lunch at designer Valentino Garavani’s home just outside of Paris, Kardashian and West hosted a rehearsal dinner for around 600 guests in the Palace of Versailles’s Hall of Mirrors, complete with a fireworks display and a performance by Lana Del Rey.
For the ceremony, guests were flown on a private chartered jet to Florence, Italy. Kardashian wore a custom Givenchy gown and veil, and the groom (and the couple’s daughter, North West) also wore custom Givenchy.
Kardashian was walked down the aisle by her step-father Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner), as Andrea Bocelli sang, and the couple’s pastor, Rich Wilkerson Jr., officiated the ceremony.
How many children do Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have?
Kardashian and West have four children together. The couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named North West, on June 15, 2013.
On December 5, 2015, Kardashian gave birth to her and Kanye’s second child, son Saint West. The family announced Kardashian was expecting in June 2015 ahead of the season finale of their reality TV show.
During both of her pregnancies, Kardashian suffered preeclampsia. She later revealed that she underwent five operations within a year and a half following the birth of Saint due to her pregnancy complications, which also included placenta accreta.
Kardashian and West turned to surrogacy for their third and fourth children - daughter Chicago West, who was born on January 15, 2018, and son Psalm West, who was born on May 9, 2019.
“I’m so thankful for my beautiful kids, no matter how they came to me - they came to me,” Kardashian in 2019. “I’m so thankful for surrogates. I’m really thankful for my family. I grew up with so many siblings. I just loved being in a big environment. I would have gone through the same pain and back for the result of having my babies. It was all worth it.”
Why are people talking about Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s marriage now?
Speculation about their relationship began following the rapper’s public breakdown, which started when he declared he would run for the US presidency on July 4 through Twitter.
On July 19, West held a campaign rally in South Carolina where he shared a series of bizarre and personal statements, including his claim that revered abolitionist Harriet Tubman “never actually freed the slaves.” West also spoke out against abortion, breaking down into tears as he shared that he and Kardashian considered terminating their first pregnancy.
Kardashian released a lengthy statement on Instagram days later, in which she defended her husband. Calling West “a brilliant but complicated person,” Kardashian spoke of the “incredibly complicated and painful” struggle West’s bipolar disorder was for him and the entire family.
West later shared an apology to Kardashian on Twitter, writing, “I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter. I did not cover her like she has covered me,” he posted.
“To Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me.” Days after West’s July 25 tweet, TMZ published photos of Kardashian in tears as the two reunited in Wyoming.
Kardashian was said to have returned to Los Angeles following their meeting with a renewed sense of hope about the state of their marriage, despite previously stating the family was “powerless” in getting West help if he refused.
“Before the trip, she was ready to end her marriage,” a source told People following Kardashian’s visit to Wyoming. “But Kanye has been listening to her concerns. He has made some promises to her. Kim still sees divorce as a last resort. She is not there yet.”
A week after Kardashian left Wyoming, The Sun reported that the couple had decided to fly to the Caribbean for a “make or break” trip for their marriage. Staying in what a source told TMZ was a “fortress” to avoid paparazzi, the couple was said to be joined by their children and pastor, Rich Wilkerson Jr., who officiated their wedding in 2014.
