Kim Kardashian Says She Had ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ During Marriage to Kanye West

Kim Kardashian is opening up about the emotions she kept hidden during her nearly seven-year marriage to Kanye West.

In the premiere episode of The Kardashians Season 7, which aired Thursday, October 23 on Hulu, the reality star revealed she felt it was her duty to stand by West during his public outbursts, even at her own expense.

“I’ve been able to hide it for so long,” the SKIMS founder, 45, said, according to Page Six. “I always felt like I had a little bit of Stockholm syndrome, to where I always felt really bad and always protected [him] and always wanted to help [him].”

Merriam-Webster defines Stockholm syndrome as “the psychological tendency of a hostage to bond with, identify with, or sympathize with his or her captor.”

Kardashian and West, 48, wed in Florence, Italy, in 2014. She filed for divorce from the rapper in 2021, and it took more than a year to finalize.

While the marriage is over, Kardashian admitted to the cameras that it’s not as easy to move on as some may think. While critics claim she has “the luxury of walking away” from the rapper and “never dealing [with him] again,” she said, “That’s not my reality.”

The former couple shares four children – North, 12, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 6 – who are becoming aware of their father’s public behavior, she said.

“They’re going to know things,” Kardashian continued. “They’re going to grow up. They’re going to see. So my job as a mom is to just make sure that at a time when that behavior is happening, is to make sure they’re protected.”

During the premiere, Kardashian also addressed West’s past accusations that she keeps their children from him.

“It’s a divorce, not a kidnapping,” she said. “We haven’t left. We’re in the same spot. We have the same address, so he knows where his kids are.”

The episode follows Kardashian’s revealing Call Her Daddy podcast interview last week, where she admitted she raises her and West’s kids “full-time” and said they haven’t heard from the rapper in “a couple months.”

“I raise the kids, you know, full-time,” she said. “They live with me, and I welcome a great, healthy relationship with my kids and their dad. And I think, you know, he knows that. I push for it all the time, but I also protect them when, you know, it’s time for that. And it goes in waves and phases, and it’s, you know, a lot of work.”

Kardashian is single, while West has since remarried to Biana Censori.