11 Harsh Rules Kanye West Made Kim Kardashian Follow During Their Marriage
Kanye West was a huge influence on Kim Kardashian.
Sky Cinema/Liam Goodner/Shutterstock Kanye West and Kim Kardashian were one of the world's most famous couples for the better part of an entire decade before Kardashian filed for divorce from the rapper and father of their four children in January 2021.
I'm sure we can all agree that West was far from the perfect partner and often made Kardashian's life difficult.
The self-described "genius" has high standards for those around him and Kardashian may have had the highest targets to hit out of anyone else in his life.
Here are 11 rules Kanye West made Kim Kardashian follow.
1. Kim Kardashian can’t make any jokes about their divorce.
Leading up to the SNL episode that Kardashian hosted, West was in the NBC studio with her the entire week, helping to prepare jokes for her and the writers and also providing support wherever he could — but he may have had an ulterior motive.
Kardashian screened a lot of the jokes that were written by the SNL writers and made sure they didn’t include any jokes about their divorce — at least she tried to.
"The divorce is so sensitive for him," Kim told SNL producer Lindsay Shookus, via E Online, "and so, I'm already saying that part in the monologue, I don't want to like...maybe I could talk to Chris and think of something funny. I could just tell him, 'Hey! This is super sensitive to him.'"
This was in reference to a joke they cut from the skit “The People’s Kourt,” but she broke the rule when she left in a joke about their divorce in her monologue that caused West to leave the show early.
2. Kanye West did not like it when Kim wore makeup.
During an appearance at the annual Vogue 100 Festival, Kardashian, alongside her then-husband, West, revealed that the rapper prefers it when Kardashian doesn’t wear any makeup.
"My husband loves me without make-up so,” she told UK Vogue, via Mirror. “I would wear make-up 24/7 if I could, but he likes me without it."
Of course, that doesn’t stop her from ever wearing make-up, but he does have a say in the times when she doesn’t.
3. Kim Kardashian was not allowed to mention her exes to Kanye West.
Sources revealed to RadarOnline that West was very much a jealous husband, and hated whenever any of her exes came up in a conversation.
The problem arose again and made headlines when her ex-boyfriend, Reggie Bush, married Lilit Avagyan.
"Kim went out of her way to avoid reading about Reggie's wedding to Lilit last weekend,” an insider told RadarOnline.com. "She doesn't like to discuss Reggie, not even with her sisters. And Kim did remind her family to not mention Reggie's name in front of Kanye, because he is very jealous of him.”
The problem had gotten so bad that, according to the source, Kardashian had banned her family from ever mentioning his name.
4. Kanye West banned Kim Kardashian from appearing in a reality show spinoff.
"Keeping Up With The Kardashians" was the only show that, during their relationship, West would be okay with Kardashian appearing on.
When Kourtney Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian were preparing for the release of their reality spinoff, “Kourtney & Khloé Take The Hamptons,” and Kim revealed that she would make an appearance on the show — West had a different idea.
"There's no way Kanye was going to allow Kim do it,” a source told RadarOnline.com. “It's no secret how much Kanye dislikes and despises Kim's involvement with reality television, and there was no way it was going to happen so soon after the wedding.”
The source continued, saying that West didn’t want Kim to do more than what she was already contractually obligated to do.
5. Kim Kardashian was not allowed to post anything about their wedding.
This is because, according to TMZ, West didn’t tell Kim anything about their wedding — it was all going to be a surprise.
West kept everything super hushed about their wedding and even led the guests on a wild goose chase when he didn’t tell them anything specific about where they were staying or where they were supposed to go.
6. Kanye West made sure that Kim Kardashian kept her nails short.
Back in 2016 when West was in the middle of beefing with Wiz Khalifa and West’s former girlfriend, Amber Rose, she revealed a secret about West that no one had known before.
“Awww @kanyewest are u mad I’m not around to play in [expletive] anymore?” she tweeted to her ex-boyfriend with a hashtag that revealed his preference in the bedroom.
This claim resurfaced after Kim and West announced their divorce when Kim made a post on Instagram praising the ability to have long nails again — implying that West made her keep her nails short for him and his safety down under.
7. Kim Kardashian would wear whatever Kanye West told her to wear.
West’s foray into the fashion industry was not one that was done alone — he brought Kim with him into the cutthroat world of fashion too.
“I always thought I had really good style—until I met my husband and he told me that I had the worst style,” Kim recalled in an interview with W Magazine. “He was really nice about it and cleaned out my whole closet.”
Kim continued, claiming that she wanted to learn and that West wanted to teach her, so her wardrobe became his and she wore everything that he laid out for her until she was able to do it on her own.
8. Kanye West banned Kim Kardashian from getting any more plastic surgery.
Kim has long been subject to speculations that she has received numerous plastic surgeries in the past — at one point, West banned her from getting any more.
After the birth of their first daughter, North West, a source close to the situation told RadarOnline.com that Kim wanted to get a nip and tuck in order to get a head start on losing her pregnancy fat.
"Kim was certain that she wanted to have surgery after giving birth because she wanted a head start on losing her baby weight," the source explains.
However, when Kanye found out about Kim’s intentions, "He really flipped out."
His mother, Donda West, passed away in 2007 after suffering from “multiple post-operative factors” following a liposuction and breast-reduction surgery.
"Kanye told Kim in no uncertain terms that she needed to put her baby and her life first," the source reveals. "He got pretty emotional because he really didn't want her going through that kind of major surgery. He's still traumatized from his mom's death."
9. Kim Kardashian needed to be comfortable with the temperature in Kanye West’s house.
In 2017, Kim posted on Instagram a list of 20 things that people don’t know about her, and toward the bottom of that list is the reason she knew Kanye was the one for her.
“I love only hot rooms and hate when the air conditioning is on,” read number 20 on the list. “I knew Kanye and I were meant to be when I slept over and he had the heat on.”
Kanye likes to be comfortable in Kanye’s space, so Kim had better hope that she’d find it comfortable for her as well.
10. Kanye West didn’t let Kim Kardashian talk to his bodyguards.
One of Kanye’s old bodyguards, Steve Stanulis, spoke to The Sun, via NME, and told them what it was like to work under the billionaire.
Stanulis alleges that while Kim “is very nice,” she’s also the reason he was fired from being Kanye’s bodyguard.
The rapper was fiercely protective of his wife, and if he so much as caught one of his bodyguards talking to her, he would fire them — which is exactly what happened to Stanulis.
11. Kim Kardashian says Kanye West made her life more private.
During an episode of The Alec Baldwin Show, Kim shared how Kanye made her change her outlook on life.
"I used to...we'd get our hair and makeup done filming...and when we'd be done I was like, 'What is the hottest restaurant in Hollywood? Where can I go? Where can I be seen? Who's there? What are they doing? Oh my God! Is my car washed?" she told him.
However, all of that changed when she got together with Kanye.
"Yeah and now, I'd say most of...it started with Kanye, because he lived a more...his work life is very public but then when he was off, he was very private," Kim explained. "And I was so...everything had to be public for me back then."
Now that Kim and Kanye are close to finalizing their divorce, Kim likely doesn’t have to listen to anything Kanye requests of her at all, except she might have to listen to some things when it comes to co-parenting their four children.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Since graduating from Rutgers University, he spends most of his free time gaming or playing Quadball. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.