[Nick] Julianna, can you come here for a second, please?
- And bring me Ye's prenup. - [Julianna] Okay.
So, I went ahead and...
Oh, perfect.
As soon as I got formally retained,
I had to make sense of where the case was at.
Immediately, I could see that there was the trial dates.
As a divorce attorney who's handled very complex cases...
the goal should be to avoid trial.
It was clear that this case was a race against time.
It was the biggest news story on the planet.
People love a messy public spectacle.
[Neama] There was so much at stake in this case,
it turned nasty, it turned litigious.
[Nick] Ye objected to the way that Kim was parenting the children.
I am her father.
I know y'all don't respect fathers and the idea of family.
[reporters speaking indistinctly]
Kim accuses him of emotional abuse
and harassment.
Kanye's actions were absolutely dangerous, right?
[camera shutter clicking]
[Robert] People who are getting divorced
need to resolve their issues as quickly as they can
because there's so much to lose.
[Albe] What does it tell about his character
to fight for his marriage?
What we really learned in this case was this was a toxic relationship.
♪ I tell my soul ♪
- ♪ Fall in love, forgive ♪ - ♪ Fall in love and forgive ♪
♪ I tell my soul ♪
- ♪ Fall in love, forgive ♪ - ♪ Fall in love and forgive ♪
♪ I've been dreaming fire ♪
♪ It's got me On the devil's list ♪
♪ I tell my soul ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ Fall in love Fall in love, forgive ♪
♪ Forgive ♪
[crowd chanting indistinctly]
[cheering]
[Larry] In 2020, Kanye announces
he's gonna be running for president.
He has a rally, the only rally,
in South Carolina. And at that rally,
he does a kind of stream of consciousness speech.
I remember...
that my girlfriend called me
screaming and crying.
She said she was pregnant.
And for one month and two months and three months...
we talked about her and I having this child.
[Larry] In that rally, Kanye reveals
that they had considered having an abortion of North, their first child,
back when she was pregnant.
So, even if my wife were to divorce me after this speech,
she brought North into the world, even when I didn't want to.
- [woman 1] Aw! - [woman 2] Don't... Don't cry.
[woman 1] Kanye!
[all cheering and applauding]
[August] There's still a real lived sense
that your family can be taken from you at any moment,
and you will be left alone in the world.
[crying] I almost killed my daughter!
I almost killed my daughter!
[man] You didn't.
[Albe] And I think the most important thing for Ye is family.
I think that's the most important thing,
God, family.
There's nothing else.
[all clamoring]
[August] Soon after that South Carolina rally,
the rumors of the marriage being at its end started circulating.
Kim Kardashian filed for a divorce
the next year, formally.
[Neama] The stated reason for the divorce
was irreconcilable differences.
When you're fighting over kids, property and money,
the possibility of an explosion,
someone lighting that match, was always there.
[Nick] Key summary of the issues that are resolved by the prenup
are, uh, the property division...
I knew very little what to expect
from him as a client.
I certainly had not represented a client,
uh, who had received as much media attention.
...and spousal support.
The problem is that Ye didn't want to get divorced from Kim.
And that he actually wanted to save the marriage.
I think he didn't wanna be Kanye without Kim.
[camera shutter clicking]
[August] For six years, Kim and Kanye
kind of were America's sweethearts.
[Larry] Nobody was more different
than Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
He was a hipster, rapper, operating in a much higher plane.
She was someone who was famous for being famous.
[August] The combination of this really famous family
that is incredibly stage-managed
coupled with the most volatile,
uncensored, unmediated musician alive
was a fascinating premise to begin with.
[Larry] You either believed she's very naive...
or that she is trying to just, like, take
one bigger step on the ladder of fame.
[reporters talking indistinctly]
[Larry] The Kardashians, dare I say,
are like American royalty,
or the American royal family.
[Zan] Kim and Kanye actually ended up getting married
in Florence.
And, of course, the wedding also became
an entire episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
[Kim whispering]
It's crazy that, you know, Kanye and I have been so close
for so many years.
I finally feel like, you know, I'm marrying my best friend.
[Zan] Like everything that the couple did,
especially in those early days,
it was a spectacle.
[Larry] Oh, I don't wanna say that her marriage to Kanye West
was just another plot point.
It served as one.
[Emily] Kanye's involvement in the Kardashian is particularly difficult
because being in that family involves an aspect of fame
that Kanye was never really interested in to begin with.
[Zan] Keeping Up with the Kardashians is a reality TV show
and it was just focused on the Kardashian family.
- [slight chuckle] - Yeah.
- So, if you wanna, like, look up? - [Kanye] Ah.
This is my first time doing this.
I'm not actually attempting to do good.
[chuckles] I just...
[laughs]
Kanye mostly was not on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
He was uncomfortable being part of the reality show.
[cameras flashing]
[Larry] Being married into the Kardashian family
was the worst thing for him, right?
Because he was on display at all times. He was fair game.
From that moment, that you can sort of see his decline set in.
[man] Yo, what's up, Ye? Yes, I'm a big fan, bro.
- I love your work. I love your work. - I appreciate it.
I appreciate it, but don't talk.
The spotlight was really not the best thing for him.
[Kanye] I don't wanna hear paparazzi talk to me
or anybody I know.
[Albe] Entertainment world is smoke and mirrors,
and so, people are gonna choke around the smoke.
Yo, I said, "Don't..." I said, "Don't talk."
[Nick] Kim was previously married to Damon Thomas,
and that ended in divorce in 2004.
Kris Humphries, she was married to.
That ended in divorce on April 19th, 2013.
The three main reasons that I've found for spouses to get divorced
are infidelity, money or they just fall out of love.
[Natalie] Kim and Kanye are from two different cultures.
Their backgrounds were just way too different.
Kim is from Calabasas.
She comes from a very affluential, privileged lifestyle.
Kanye comes from the South Side of Chicago,
raised by a single mother.
Not a lot of glitz and glam in his background.
[Albe] If you know anything about Chicago,
that's a gritty city, it's a working class city, but it's also...
They always had their eye on the bigger prize.
[Larry] He had an English professor for a mother.
He had a photojournalist and Black Panther for a father.
[chanting indistinctly]
[Larry] But their home was broken,
and I think both of those things influenced his character.
[Zan] The Kardashians are very different.
They very much grew up a Hollywood family.
Someone get a tape of this, because I hope you do
so you can see me when I'm famous,
and also you'll remember me.
[Larry] Kim Kardashian wanted to be famous.
She worked for Paris Hilton...
who was the kind of urtext in getting famous.
She learned about how Paris constructed her fame
based off "nothing," right?
[Larry] A sex tape helps always.
But a mother who was very keen on this idea
of the family becoming an industry.
[Kris] The reason that the Kardashian-Jenner brand
has had so much longevity
is because it's sort of the perfect storm.
I think that the foundation of the brand
has always been the show.
And I think the longevity of the show
has nurtured the longevity of the brand.
[man] Wow, Kim. You look beautiful, Kim.
[Zan] Kris is absolutely not a passive mother.
[man] Making the family strong, Kris.
She is the mastermind of their careers.
Keeping Up with the Kardashians sort of appealed
to audiences in several ways.
Early on, it was just a fun reality show.
[Kim] You'll see each of us and what we do individually
in our daily lives, and then how we come together.
[Zan] As the family got more famous,
it became a way to potentially gain some insight
into things that were happening with the Kardashians
in real time.
[Larry] Artistry is not what the Kardashians are about.
They're about fame, totally about fame.
Kanye seemed frankly more concerned about creating
and the act of creating in music
than he did in fame.
[August] Kanye West didn't get his start as a rapper.
It took a lot of work for him to convince people
that he was a capable rapper
with a really unique voice that fans would respond to.
And, initially, he kinda struggled to be taken seriously.
♪ And she be dealin' With some issues ♪
♪ That you can't believe ♪
♪ Single black female Addicted to retail, and well ♪
[knock at door]
[August] You know, there's a famous scene of him walking around,
trying to convince Def Jam to sign him,
and, you know, it's not necessarily going
over the way he thought it was.
But once The College Dropout came out,
and especially his song Through the Wire,
it became clear that he was something new.
♪ She was with me Before the deal ♪
♪ She'd been tryna be mine ♪
♪ She a Delta, so she'd been Throwin' that Dynasty sign ♪
[August] He was just really something different
with a lot of credibility,
but also pop savvy.
[Natalie] He was what we called back then a conscious rapper,
so he wasn't rapping about guns and gangs
and, you know, the typical hardcore rap stuff.
[Albe] I think Jeen-yuhs is something that is simplified.
But I will say, 2,000 years from now,
we'll talk... We'll be talking about Ye.
[Zack] He put out some of the most influential,
critically-acclaimed albums of the aughts.
And he has the biggest shoe line since Michael Jordan.
[Kanye] Look at all these.
Look at these designs, look at these ideas,
all together.
[Albe] He's one of the greatest product men known to our culture.
He can give you a finite product in your hand,
that you touch and go, "Wow! I didn't see it like this.
And now that I see it like this, this is great."
[Kanye] I believe that the world can be saved
through unselfish design, through unselfish creation.
[Albe] I don't think I've ever spent the time with that man
and he didn't say something
to which he wanted to benefit humanity...
that day.
I got a chance to meet Dr. Donda West couple times...
and she changed my life.
I look at her as not just his philosopher or his teacher,
but also someone that was so interested in how he spoke
that he had a fire to say more interesting things.
[August] In 2022, there was a three-part documentary called Jeen-yuhs
that aired on Netflix.
And it was really unlike anything I'd seen in a music documentary
to have that much footage of him so intimately.
♪ Ah, ow ♪
♪ I wanna scream so loud for you ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm so proud Of you and, uh ♪
♪ Let me tell you What I'm about to do, Mama ♪
♪ You know I love you so ♪
[August] The moment when Kanye West and Donda West
were singing Mama together, I think it just showed
that music was kind of a shared language for them,
that, like, she was a fan of his music
as much as she kinda knew him as a son.
[Emily] Kanye will always blame himself for his mother's death
because he paid for her plastic surgery,
which she ultimately died from the complications of.
[Larry] It is impossible to overstate how much of an impact
Donda West's death had on Kanye West.
He was visibly, publicly shattered by this.
I'm at that point where, you know, I long to have a family.
Especially, losing my mother, I just really wish that I had, like...
uh, the type of woman that would have supported me
through a situation like that, you know?
[reporter] The world's number one power couple...
Kanye and Kim.
[August] Kim Kardashian was definitely a turning point in his life.
It would be really difficult to say if this was the thing
that pulled him out of the depths of his grief.
But it definitely was the start of something new for him.
[Natalie] Kim benefited from this relationship with Kanye
more than Kanye did.
[Zan] There was something just always a little bit D-list about her.
Kanye really helped elevate Kim's status from D-list to A-list.
Before Kanye, brands literally would not dress Kim.
She was blacklisted by a lot of the major designers.
[reported] Kanye, how was the show?
Are you gonna make a new show this year?
[Natalie] He positioned her in certain places of high visibility,
so she's no longer on the E! network.
Now she is like Paris Fashion Week front row.
Kim became so famous because she has an acute understanding of fame
and how to use fame.
Now she's the girlfriend, the wife, the mother of the children
of one of the most famous rappers of all time.
[reporter] Kanye! Talk to me, Kanye!
What's going on, man?
[Zan] But the level of fame that the Kardashians have is enormous.
[reporter] What's going on, man?
[Zan] And it seems like a lot of the men in their lives,
who are often already famous,
when they get to sort of that level,
the pressure is too much for them,
and they just... They can't handle it.
[camera shutter clicking]
[Kanye] I ain't here to massage you with a fake truth,
telling you that Hillary gonna win over and over and over.
And you wake up, you still can't believe it!
You know why? Because you was lied to by Google.
You was lied to by Mark Zuckerberg.
[Natalie] He did this show in Sacramento,
and I was there.
And he rants and rants for 20 minutes.
Get ready to have a field day, press.
Get ready, get ready.
'Cause the show's over.
[man] What the [bleep]?
What?
No!
Ends the show abruptly and just leaves.
And we didn't get a show. Just nothing.
His team, Kardashians included,
were trying to convince us that he didn't have a mental health problem.
[August] It became clear that there was a lot of tension
and mental illness and volatility under the surface.
[siren blaring]
[Kanye's doctor] I'm actually, uh, one of his doctors.
I'm just calling from my cell phone...
[siren blaring]
[August] He, uh, was checked into a psychiatric facility,
and the 911 call that brought him there
was leaked to TMZ.
I'm sure that was added to his trauma and stress at the moment.
[man] Best rapper alive! Best rapper alive!
[August] He went on David Letterman later
to talk about how this impacted him.
And you have this moment...
you feel everyone wants to kill you.
You pretty much don't trust anyone.
And you have this moment where they put you, they handcuff you,
they drug you, they put you on the bed.
And they separate you from everyone you know.
[August] It really brought home the stakes of what he was going through.
But, also, how bracing of a moment it was
that he needed to get much deeper help.
[reporter] Kris! Kris!
[August] Kim Kardashian came from a family
where, kind of, any admission of weakness is non grata
outside of the family. Didn't quite know what to do
with someone in their fold kind of acting so erratically.
The last place he needed to be was with a family
that was on TV and in social media
and in the public 24/7.
He's not a guy who is gonna get any better
being on that platform all day long, like they are.
[Kanye] Let me tell you about crazy,
because I went to the hospital.
I was diagnosed with being bipolar.
I went...
crazy. I am not crazy,
but I definitely can go there...
if pushed.
[Rwenshaun] Bipolar disorder is something that we use to describe individuals
who have a mood disorder,
where they shift between moods,
between their low-lows, which is depression,
and their high-highs, which is mania.
It's hard to describe exactly what episodes Kanye is in
because we only see one side.
But then, also, understanding how media plays this one side.
[Emily] Almost as soon as he makes this announcement that he has bipolar disorder,
we see him go off on a spree of media appearances
that seem to just further his own unravelling.
Everyone listen to this, please.
Two day before I was in the hospital,
I was on opioids.
I was addicted to opioids.
I had plastic surgery because I was trying to look good for y'all.
I got liposuction.
Because I didn't want y'all to call me fat,
like y'all called Rob at the wedding
and made him fly home before me and Kim got married.
The TMZ interview seems pretty directly correlated
to his bipolar diagnosis
and his refusal to take medication.
And it seems to kind of ramp him up
and push him even farther, maybe,
into this mania.
[indistinct shouting]
[Natalie] Once Kanye came out with his mental health diagnosis,
there should've been more grace extended.
But in America, it's very easy to paint a Black man as crazy,
or as aggressive, or offensive.
[reporter] What's up, Ye?
I always say Kanye talks like a college essay
that no one proofread.
[reporter] Hey, how you doing, Kim?
[Natalie] But I think Kris and Kim are really mindful about their brand.
That's a trigger for Kanye,
because, like he said, he cannot be managed.
Like, you're not gonna control me
and I'm gonna say what I wanna say, do what I want...
I don't care what it looks like.
[Zan] Kim's one of the most brand-managed people in the world.
You know, initially, protecting Kanye
was protecting the Kardashian brand. He was part of it.
And it became apparent
that that was actually not gonna be the case.
And then they started saying, "Okay. Well, then we're gonna show you
in a different light...
because we need to protect ourselves."
[camera shutter clicking]
[Emily] Over the years, we've seen a change
in actually how they present him
on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
It gets darker and heavier,
and it kinda focuses on more the hardships of their relationship
versus kind of the, like, lighthearted moments of it.
[Kanye speaking]
[Kim] You built me up to be this, like, sexy person,
and confidence and all this stuff.
- [Kanye] Yeah. - And just because you're on a journey
and you're on your transformation,
doesn't mean I'm in the right...
I'm in the same spot with you.
- So-- - Okay, all right. So all right.
All right, cool.
Oh, my God. That's absolutely ridiculous.
I think it might be used as a tactic or a way to paint Kanye as this unstable person.
[Zan] Kim Kardashian has a lot to gain by playing nice.
But that's also not the entire truth of sort of, who she is.
She's absolutely calculating, she's had to make some pretty ruthless business
decisions in her life.
- [reporter] Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim... - [Zan] And she's made them.
[Emily] Via social media, Kanye reveals that Kim
and Kris are trying to lock him up
and 51/50 him again.
Not as for his own safety, or for his protection, but...
control him and silence him
and lock him up in a way that keeps their brand safe.
[Zan] One of Kanye's big claims has been much talk about how much of a role
Kris plays in the family.
And to accuse her of kind of puppeteering things.
He's very clear that he feels that Kris is sort of controlling everyone
in the family
and making problems for him.
[Emily] According to sources, what seemed to be kind of a final straw
in their relationship
was Kanye's rally in South Carolina.
[Larry] The sense you got was that the rope was being sawed off
from the good ship Kardashian and he was being pushed out on a lifeboat.
[Zan] In terms of the public brand, Kim and Kris knew they had to cut Kanye loose.
[Larry] They have to hire lawyers.
Who's your money gonna be on?
Hmm, Kardashian, where do I know that name from?
The Dream Team. Her late father, Robert Kardashian,
was on OJ Simpson's defense team. So many, many, many lawyers are a phone call away
in hiring and working for the Kardashians.
[Neama] Kim retained Laura Wasser who had represented her
during her second divorce
and who had represented her mother Kris.
[reporters] Yeezy, Yeezy.
[Neama] Kanye may be a rich and powerful artist,
but he's never dealt with something as powerful as the Kardashian
legal machine.
[Larry] And when you hire someone like Laura Wasser, you hire them because
they're matrimonial warfare generals.
[Emily] Over the course of this divorce, Kanye seemed to run through
ten lawyers, maybe more.
Seemed like every day he had new representation.
I think he expected his lawyers to somehow change her mind
or make his marriage solid again.
And that just never seemed to be the case.
[cell phone ringing]
Kanye has to look out of state and he hires Robert Cohen from New York,
who famously represented Melinda Gates in her very expensive divorce
from Bill Gates.
Sure, he can be asking to delay it one day from Monday to Tuesday,
which I think we would say no to.
I do represent people who've reached the highest level.
Curiously, divorce is one of the most important things they're gonna go to,
I mean, I tell them right up front. In a lot of cases,
this may be the biggest deal that they're ever going to go through.
[Neama] Because Cohen was an out-of-state lawyer, he had to hire
a local California attorney to assist on the case.
And that lawyer was Nick Salick.
[Nick] Julianna, what's Ye's new deposition date?
Okay, well, actually I just updated the file.
So, his deposition is set for November 10th.
That's perfect.
My reputation as a family law attorney is, to some extent,
is being that attorney who comes in on the 90-yard line.
I pick up the ball, and I carry it into the end zone.
Robert Cohen's involvement was to be the face of the divorce case.
where you're dealing with Kim Kardashian and Laura Wasser.
Frankly, I felt a little relieved when Bob Cohen came onto the case.
I had learned through the media articles as well as just the demeanor
of the litigation that Ye didn't want to get divorced from Kim.
And that he actually wanted to save the marriage.
[reporters clamoring]
[August] This was not a guy that was going to take
the end of his marriage lying down.
Kanye had always been really skilled at using the media
to advance the narrative, that he's kind of pushing at.
And at this moment in time, it was to win back Kim.
Kanye did everything in his power to get her back
in the most spectacular public fashions possible.
Whatever that man wants to do, he's gonna be put his soul in it.
♪ He's done miracles on me ♪
[Emily] There was actually a brief period where Kim was kind of playing along.
He was doing these Donda concerts.
She even came to the last show and appeared in a wedding dress
[Natalie] Kim agreeing to dress up in this, like, bridal outfit
at the Donda concert.
Doing almost like a wedding vow ceremony with Kanye
probably sent a lot of mixed messages to him.
[Albe] People ask me all the time, like, "Why doesn't he just forget about it?
He can have any woman in the world."
I've seen a lot of men give up.
And when you see a man fighting for his marriage,
that can be very inspirational.
[Zan] So, there was some sense of like, "Oh, maybe
this was all just a media spectacle
and they're gonna get back together."
Kim and Kanye were sort of in a good period
around when she did SNL, right?
I married the best rapper of all time.
[crowd cheering]
Yeah.
Not only that, he's the richest Black man in America.
A talented, legit genius who gave me four incredible kids.
[crowd cheering]
So, when I divorced him, you have to know it came down to just one thing,
his personality.
[crowd laughs]
[reporters clamoring]
[Zan] He actually was in the audience.
And apparently when she said, you know, "I divorced him because his personality,"
Kanye stormed out.
To see his now ex-wife on TV just poking jabs at it,
he kinda was like, "Okay, what's going on? Am I a joke to you?
And was our marriage just a joke?"
[Larry] This was a man who was in the midst of some serious mental issues.
He probably didn't want to get divorced and in his most lucid moments,
probably realized, "If I get divorced, I'm really losing the last thing that I need."
Kim met Pete Davidson on the set of SNL when she was hosting.
He's a notorious sort of bad boy and ladies' man.
He's dated a lot of very famous and beautiful women.
Kanye was concerned about how he influenced Kim, how he is around the kids
because Pete Davidson does have a history with drugs.
[August] Kanye, you know, famous, unfiltered truth teller, has never been shy
about using the media to advance his narratives.
Thus begins an incredibly vicious, pointed social media war of words
that spilled out over every tablet and podcast in the world.
The day, I had Sunday service, my kids were supposed to be there.
And my kids were nowhere to be found.
And I text Kim and said, "Where are my kids?"
We get into an argument.
And then I get a text from a number I don't know.
And it's Pete Davidson bragging about being in bed with my wife.
[Emily] Kanye was very provoked by Pete Davidson.
[August] Pete Davidson is goading Kanye in a very public, almost global way.
It's infantile or juvenile.
[reporters clamoring]
The beef between Pete Davidson aka Skete, and Kanye was so blown
out of proportion.
You can really see that when a Black man says anything,
it's automatic danger and panic.
Because I don't think that once he actually threatened Pete's life.
He'll say what he wants to say now, apologize later if he needs to.
[August] Kim drops the bombshell that she wants to be declared legally single,
even though the divorce is still pending.
It's very unusual for a divorce case to be bifurcated
or separated in two.
[Robert] Bifurcation means that you can get a divorce early in the process
and not have to wait until the money is split
or issues of custody are determined.
Some clients may not want to bifurcate the divorce
because bifurcating the divorces early make it harder to settle cases.
[Neama] Kanye objects to the bifurcation.
This tells me that Kanye was desperate to keep this marriage together all costs.
What does it tell about his character to fight for his marriage?
I thought that's what we're supposed to all do.
I thought love is as normal as breathing.
Are you sad that you're no longer together, that you're divorced?
We'll always be together.
[Neama] Divorce attorneys want to avoid trial at all costs.
It airs their clients' dirty laundry in a very public way.
And you're dealing with the risk of a judge doing something unpredictable.
[Nick] Before I substituted in on this case, a trial had already been set
for December 14, 2022.
As Ye's attorney, my goal was to enter into a settlement agreement
that Kanye was pleased with.
The alternative is to go to trial, which is very costly, it's unpredictable,
it's stressful, and ultimately someone in a black robe is deciding
what's going to be happening with your kids and support.
And It's completely out of your hands.
And so, that was to be avoided at all costs.
The biggest sticking point and dispute in the case was the children.
Both parties were seeking joint custody.
There's two types of custody, legal custody over important decisions
regarding the children and physical custody where they actually reside.
[Natalie] Kanye came from a broken family, so part of him was just like
I've experienced a broken home and divorce. I don't like it.
[reporters clamoring]
[Robert] Joint custody has really nothing to do with how much time
you spend with the kids.
Custody means decision making on important matters.
[Nick] In this case, Ye objected to the way that Kim was parenting the children.
♪ Baby ♪
[Natalie] So when they were married, Kim and Kanye consulted each other
on how much exposure they're going to do with their kids.
And it seemed like after they got divorced or separated,
that Kim kind of became more relaxed and flexible.
♪ I'm in love with An emo girl ♪
♪ I fell in love With an emo girl♪
♪ All I want is emo... ♪
[Natalie] North West TikTok account is your typical 9, 10-year-old account.
When North West started doing TikTok, Kanye was not happy about it.
He made it very clear online that he has told her mother Kim that their daughter
is not to be on TikTok.
He feels that that's exploitative and he wants this family of white people,
right, have taken my mixed race children and are raising them
to be celebrities and exploiting them.
[child] You guys are gonna make a child blond.
[Larry] Now, he's on the outside and he doesn't have that influence.
So, what does he do? He takes to social media to talk about it.
I am her father.
I know y'all don't respect fathers and the idea of family,
and media tries to promote something.
I said I'm not allowing my daughter...
to be used by TikTok, to be used by Disney,
I have a say so.
[Robert] The decision making with respect to children becomes 50-50.
Both parents have a major say.
[Albe] Family means everything to us.
And it won't be quantitized. It won't be for sale.
If something's happening in plain sight and no one's there to comment on it,
life could feel very Twilight Zone-ish.
And like, no one sees what's going on?
[Natalie] Social media can be a toxic place.
Specifically for children, maybe even protect your privacy a bit.
From Kanye's point of view, It's like there's too many people have
too many access to her.
She needs privacy. She's just a child.
[Emily] The way that he thinks the Kardashians are controlling and locking
down and manipulating him apply to his children.
I think that's his worst nightmare.
[Zan] Kanye bought the house across the street from her,
extensively so he can see the kids.
He has been extremely outspoken and very clear that he is not happy
about how any of this is being handled.
Anytime he was being interviewed, he would find himself saying,
like "No, no, it's more complicated..."
My solace comes from seeing my kids and getting a solid schedule,
that's why I even got the house, you know, they flipped it in...
you know, the media like there was something wrong with me getting a house
next to my kids.
I've seen nothing to suggest anything other than that Kanye West
still is devoted to his children and loves them dearly.
[Nick] October of 2022, there was no settlement.
November of 2022, there was no settlement.
Kanye is playing with fire. If he takes the case all the way to trial,
he could lose custody of his children entirely.
[Nick] Wasser's team had been keeping a consistent amount of pressure on our side
with Ye's deposition being set.
We were going to basically, if it went forward, get a preview as to what
he was going to say at trial.
But I did not want to be put in that position.
[Neama] This case reached a stalemate when Kanye wouldn't sit for a deposition.
[Nick] Putting him on the stand and not knowing what he's gonna say,
how he's gonna say it.
I've had clients like that and they're certainly their own worst enemy.
As soon as Bob and I were retained,
it was clear that this case was a race against time.
Because we had this trial date in two months.
Therefore, I knew that the clock was ticking.
We had a very short period of time to accomplish anything, frankly.
[Larry] In the fall of 2022, Kanye began speaking some
very erratic conspiracy theories.
There are people that are the head of the New World Order
that are part of the CCP.
And are part of elite Zionist Jews.
There are people who are involved in creating
a fentanyl crisis in America.
He was pretty explicit that he had gone off his meds
and he did not like their impact upon him.
That they dulled what he perceived as his creative genius.
[Rwenshaun] When you look at Kanye you can't separate,
the man from the mental health condition.
It's a part of him.
[reporters] Kanye! Kanye!
[Rwenshaun] You think about what could've been a precursor
to his diagnosis was him losing his mother.
Now, you're losing your wife.
But then also, now you're seeing your wife with someone else.
And everybody and their mama got something to say about it.
[reporter] Kanye!
[August] This is somebody with a lot of first-hand experience,
kinda seeing your family disappear in a moment.
[Emily] Kanye seems to be very scared that he's gonna
lose his children or lose access to them.
[Larry] Trauma and stress is bad for people undergoing
mental health episodes.
And this, a divorce, can be the greatest kind of stress.
I mean, all of this manifests itself on Twitter.
[keyboard clacking]
[news anchor] Kanye West's Twitter and Instagram accounts
have been locked over what
many are calling anti-Semitic posts.
The rapper now known as Ye, offended many
Twitter users on Saturday,
after he threatened the Jewish community
in a late-night tweet.
[Rwenshaun] I feel like the media, again, they play it more so for clickbait,
and understanding that they can utilize whatever he does for capital gain.
I don't know how you separate his behavior from his illness.
He has all the attention that he got
from being in the Kardashian clan,
and he has no support staff and support family
looking out for him.
It's kind of the worst of both worlds right now.
[Emily] There's absolutely a lack of understanding
about his condition in the general media.
But we don't want to like, have to mitigate
how we cover him because of his mental health.
[Natalie] Because he's not filtered and because
he doesn't really know how to edit himself,
that's when he kinda gets himself in trouble.
[Kanye] I feel like I caused hurt and confusion.
And I'm sorry for the families of the people
that had nothing to do with the trauma
that I had been through.
[Emily] The ramifications of what Kanye said
were swift and almost immediate.
He seemed to lose all of his brand partnerships almost overnight.
Banks severed ties with him.
Sponsors severed ties with him.
[Neama] Because of Kanye's anti-Semitic comments,
Cohen has to get off the case,
because he is one of the most prominent
Jewish lawyers in New York.
[Robert] I had very close relationships with many
of my former clients.
But sometimes, a relationship breaks down
and I can no longer be their lawyer.
[Neama] When Cohen gets off the case,
Salick is left to handle it by himself
against the Wasser legal machine.
[Nick] He doesn't know that I was born and raised Jewish.
And so, he never found that out.
It's extremely offensive, et cetera,
Um, to hear those types of comments,
uh, come from a client.
On the other hand, the case needed to be finished.
And so, someone had to do it.
The trial day was still in calendar.
And I believe the next day was the day for Ye's deposition.
So, the pressure was on, to get it settled on.
The fall of 2022 cost Kanye West
every single thing that was left in his life.
They calling me.
[August] It cost his reputation in a way that he had never lost it before.
And I think it cost his ability to make money
in any real capacity from here on out.
[Kanye] Somehow, Adidas was able to
legally go in and freeze my money.
And when I see this, I think,
"Well if this could happen to me, this could happen to other Americans."
And for what?
For expressing yourself.
For expressing frustration.
[Rwenshaun] My immediate reaction from what I saw via the media was...
he's spiraling.
And I was wondering like, where is his people?
Where is his support?
[reporters clamoring]
[Larry] You have to imagine that the people around Kanye,
either have no influence
or it's a very thin cadre of people.
And there aren't a real team around him.
[Neama] No one has fallen so far, so fast as Kanye West,
in large part because of this divorce
and how he responded during the course of the case.
[Larry] You got the sense that he didn't want it to happen,
because he knew and we knew what was gonna come next.
And that, the next several months or years were gonna be dangerous.
And I think that's come to pass.
[August] Pretty much everybody in Kanye West's
personal and professional life has abandoned him.
In 2023, I'd say Kanye is completely,
utterly alone in the world.
Alone and adrift.
[woman] She had to walk through the fire,
so that she could be free.
[man] I could see in her eyes
how much pain this woman is going through.
[Zan] Something shows up on Keeping Up with the Kardashians,
it's a safe bet
that that's something that they want us to see.
If people knew what my relationship really was like,
I think they would be like,
- "How did this last this long?" - Yeah.
I think she was suffering for years and years behind the scenes.
♪ I tell my soul ♪
- ♪ Fall in love, forgive ♪ - ♪ Fall in love and forgive ♪
♪ I tell my soul ♪
- ♪ Fall in love, forgive ♪ - ♪ Fall in love and forgive ♪
♪ I've been dreaming fire ♪
♪ It's got me On the devil's list ♪
♪ I tell my soul... ♪