Kanye West is opening up the co-parenting issues he’s experienced with his estranged wife Kim Kardashian, particularly when it comes to the education of their children.
In a sit-down interview with ABC News, which aired in full on Thursday night, the rapper — who shares North, 9, Saint, 6, Chicago, 4, and Psalm, 3 with Kim — explained why he wants their kids to attend Donda Academy, a PreK-12 Christian private school in Simi Valley, CA which he founded.
“I have a voice and I don’t agree with certain things. As a dad and as a Christian. And I have a right to have a voice on what my kids are wearing, what they’re watching, what they’re eating,” Kanye — who goes by Ye — told ABC News’ Linsey Davis. “I have a platform where I get to say what so many dads can’t say out loud.”
After pointing out that there’s what he calls a “parallel of discrimination” between how he’s treated as a businessman and as a father, he said, “I want my kids to go to Donda and I have to fight for a say-so because they’re just programmed. It’s just like, ‘Hey, all the kids are going to Sierra Canyon.’ No.”
“I’m their dad. It has to be co-parenting,” he noted. “It’s not up to only the woman. Men have a choice. Men’s voices matter.”
The Yeezy founder later added that he “absolutely” wants his kids to attend Donda Academy, which he described as a “Gospel school.”
“Schools are started with rich people hiring Aristotle to teach their kids,” he said. “You can have tutors for specific things and actually turn your kids into geniuses. If your kids are geniuses, promote that, and they’re three grade levels ahead. That period of theta between four and eight kids can learn the most … It’s about normalizing the kids and making sure that they fit into society.”
“So yeah. If you ask me, the kids should go to my school and that should be supported,” he added, to which he Davis if that idea “is supported” by Kim. Kanye claimed it’s not. “It’s definitely not supported,” he said.
The “Praise God” singer added that celebrities get “so distracted by what the internet just said about us and what we’re doing online or what we have to do with our careers,” noting that “it’s hard out here.”
“It’s hard enough to just raise a family but then we have to keep up an image … keep up our cars and our houses, and our clothes, and all of that, not realizing that all the while there’s this thing that hurts you when you have to scream about what your kids are wearing or you have to say it a million times over.”
Kanye also said that he and Kim, 41, have “dealt with a lot of frustrations,” but noted that he brought “a lot of protection” to the reality star when they first started dating. “God calls me to not release that. That’s still there,” he told Davis, before issuing an apology to Kim, with whom he married in 2014. Kim filed for divorce in February 2021.
“This is the mother of my children, and I apologize for any stress that I have caused, even in my frustration, because God calls me to be stronger,” he continued. “I need this person to be less stressed and of the best, sound mind and as calm as possible to be able to raise those children at the end of the day.”
“It’s not about another media headline,” Kanye added. “A lot of time people, they go for these click baits … There’s some responsibilities that I still feel needs to be taken by the entire family right about how we present ourselves.”
The Grammy winner said the family needed to “present ourselves with the highest level of nobility” in “everything” they do. “When we’re in a position that we are we have to say, ‘Do we want our children to go this? And not just our children, everyone’s children, because we’re being used as an influence to everyone’s children to see the product that affords us the houses that we have eight-hundred million security guards in front of.”
“Knowing that to whom is given, much is required,” he added.
Kanye then issued an apologized to Hulu and Disney — Disney, of course, owns Hulu, the streamer on which “The Kardashians” airs. “I’m sorry Hulu, I’m sorry Disney. It didn’t work,” he said. “Even with me out the house, I’m still the head of the house.”
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