On Monday, Kanye West took aim at his ex Kim Kardashian by accusing her of “trying to antagonize” him by letting their 8-year-old daughter, North, upload videos to TikTok.
Kim and North started the shared account — which is “managed by an adult” and has all comments disabled — back in November and regularly post videos together as well as clips that North has made on her own to their 5.2 million followers.
However, Kanye — who legally changed his name to Ye last year — made it explicitly clear that he doesn’t “approve” of his daughter’s social media presence in a new interview.
In fact, Ye said that he recently asked his cousins to meet with Kim to discuss their children post-split because he didn’t want to speak directly to his estranged wife out of fear of getting “into an argument.”
Speaking on the Hollywood Unlocked podcast, Kanye said that TikTok was one of two key “directives” he required a discussion about, saying: “There’s two things I said, tell her — security not gonna be in between me and my kids, and also tell her, don’t have my daughter wearing lipstick on TikTok.”
“And I said it after it was done without me knowing,” Ye went on. “And then it happened again. So I feel like it’s poking the bear or trying to antagonize me or create this crazy narrative.”
North wears makeup in three videos shared to the account so far: one of her and Kim removing what appears to be Halloween makeup and prosthetics together, and two of her dressing up as a reindeer before lip-synching to a scene from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Kim has not publicly responded to Ye’s comments, but earlier today she uploaded a new TikTok video featuring North.
It is their first post in two weeks, with the last video shared on Jan. 13 showing the mother-daughter duo lip-synching to “The Family Madrigal” from Disney movie Encanto.
In today’s TikTok, Kim and North are lip-synching to a remix of Studio Killers’ trending song “Jenny (I Wanna Ruin Our Friendship).”
Using a pink-toned filter that turns users’ eyes into neon hearts, Kim initially filmed herself as she mouthed along to the first line of the chorus.
“I wanna ruin our friendship,” she lip-synched, with North then leaning into the shot and miming the next line: “We should be lovers instead.”
The short video racked up almost 1 million likes in its first 12 hours, with many fans jumping online to debate whether it was in response to Ye’s comments.
“Oh snap Ye is gonna be PISSEDDDD🤭🤭🤭,” one fan wrote on Reddit. Another tweeted: “Love that Kim’s reply to Kanye about North being on TikTok is to make another TikTok video with North.”
Another fan pointed out that North’s cousin Penelope, 9, posted a video using the same sound to her and mom Kourtney Kardashian’s shared account earlier this week and that North may have wanted to copy it.
They explained: “My first thought was everyone else’s after hearing Kanye’s interview. But I think Penelope and Kourtney posted with this sound the day before. If it’s something North is constantly asking to do and seeing her cousin do, Kim may just be doing it to make her daughter happy.”
Kim’s social media move comes amid reports that she is feeling “overwhelmed and upset” by Kanye’s recent comments about her parenting, with their children her “main priority” following their split.
North is Kim and Ye’s oldest child, with the pair also mom and dad to 6-year-old Saint, Chicago, 4, and Psalm, 2.
An insider told Entertainment Tonight that Kim hopes to create a “structured plan” with Ye that will let their children “feel safe, secure, protected, and loved by the both of them."
They added that she wants a “healthy co-parenting relationship with Kanye.”
Parenting was an open source of contention between the two stars throughout their six-year marriage, which came to an end in February 2021 when Kim filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences.”
Back in 2019, Kim confessed that she’d “got in trouble” with Kanye for letting North wear makeup on special occasions.
She explained that Kanye had decided to “change all the rules” and ban their children from makeup until they are teenagers, which led to “a big fight in the household.”
Kim told E! News at the time: “North is trying to get in on the makeup but she’s being blocked heavily because her dad has stopped all makeup for her until she is a teenager.”
Doubling down on his beliefs, Ye revealed at around the same time that North is also banned from wearing crop tops, partly due to the fact that Ye had become a Christian.
“I don't think North should wear crop tops just because I had her wearing a slip dress when she was 2 years old,” the rapper said in a 2019 interview with Beats 1. “I think and feel differently now, now that I'm Christian, now that I'm founder of a $3 billion organization and married for five years."
And following his and Kim’s split, Ye has lashed out at Kim’s parenting style in new lyrics and accused her of “playing games” over their kids.
In his song “Eazy,” which was released earlier this month, Ye suggests that the children are left with nannies and TV crews.
“I got love for the nannies, but real family is better / The cameras watch the kids, y’all stop taking the credit,” he sings. “When you give ‘em everything they only want more / Bougie and unruly, ya’ll need to do some chores / Rich-ass kids, this ain’t yo’ mamma’s house / climb on your brother’s shoulders, get that Top Ramen out.”
The day after “Eazy’s” release, Kanye claimed that Kim and her family were refusing to tell him where his daughter Chicago’s birthday party was being held.
“I’m just wishing my daughter a public happy birthday. I wasn’t allowed to know where her party was,” Ye said in a video at the time. “There’s nothing legal [in place]. This is the kind of games that’s being played. It’s the kind of thing that’s affected my health for the longest.”
He was later able to attend the bash, but claimed that security tried to stop him from entering before Kylie Jenner gave the all-clear.
However, sources told Us Weekly that Kim was “shocked” by Kanye’s claims, as he was given the location as soon as he requested to attend the party. They added that Ye had originally said he’d host a second bash for Chicago later that same day.
Kim’s divorce lawyer, Laura Wasser, also refuted Kanye’s subsequent claims that he’d been “stopped at the gate” when picking his kids up from school and that security wouldn’t let him into Kim’s house with North.
