Who Has Kanye West Dated? A Complete Timeline of the Rapper's Relationships

Kanye West is no stranger to making a headline, particularly about his love life.

The rapper, now known as Ye, was previously married to Kim Kardashian for seven years before his ex-wife filed for divorce in 2021. Throughout their relationship the pair welcomed four children together and made numerous headlines about their roller coaster marriage. Prior to his relationship with Kardashian, Ye had been linked to a slew of models, designers, and actresses, including Amber Rose. But it’s perhaps his most recent relationship with architect Bianca Censori that has fans questioning who exactly the rapper has dated. 

Censori and West have been at the forefront of several viral moments over the past year, famously getting married in secret and having a moment they probably wish they’d kept secret in Italy this summer. Most recently, the rapper hasn’t shied away from public displays of affection for his new muse, posting a slew of heart-eyed captions and pictures of her on Instagram. 

From his high school sweetheart to his current wife, here’s a list of all of Kanye West’s confirmed flings throughout the years.

Sumeke Rainey

When: Pre-2002

While little is known about when Sumeke and Kanye started dating or why they broke up, the pair were high school sweethearts and were together for the early start of West’s career. In “Never Let Me Down” off The College Dropout, West raps about the promise he made to Rainey’s father on his deathbed. “Nothing sad as that day my girl’s father passed away/So I promised to Mr. Rainey I’m gonna marry your daughter.”

Their relationship didn’t last, and there’s been ample speculation as to why including adultery and the pressures of Ye’s budding career, but nothing was ever confirmed.

When: 2002–2008 

Following his breakup with Sumeke, Ye had an on-and-off relationship with designer Alexis Phifer for six years. The pair began dating in 2002, but broke things off in 2004 after the release of The College Dropout catapulted West into newfound fame. They then reunited sometime in 2006, when West even proposed to Phifer in August of that year.

Their 18-month engagement was cut short after the unexpected passing of West’s mother, Donda, and they eventually called things off in April 2008. “It’s always sad when things like this end, and we remain friends,” Alexis told People at the time. “I wish him the best in his future and all of his endeavors. He’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever met.” It’s rumored that their breakup inspired a slew of songs on Ye’s 808s & Heartbreak album.

When: 2004–2006

During his brief split with Phifer in 2004, West and Brooke Crittendon began dating after meeting each other while Crittendon was working as an executive assistant at MTV News. The pair went on to date for over a year, and even attended the 2006 Grammy Awards together. Things eventually fizzled out, and they broke up that same year. 

In a conversation with Essence in 2009, the Harlem Heights star reflected on her relationship with West. “[I] had to live in the shadow of that’s ‘Kanye’s ex-girl.’ I’m so much bigger than that,” Crittendon began. “Mr. West and I are amicable,” she added. “I wish him the best, and he wishes me likewise. As far as I’m concerned, if he ever needed anything, I’d be there and [he would do] the same for me.”

When: 2008–2010

Following his split from Alexis Phifer, West began dating Amber Rose in 2008 before calling it off two years later in 2010. Their breakup was far from amicable with the two exchanging some pretty nasty words about each other over the years that followed. In 2012, Rose alleged that West cheated on her with Kim Kardashian and called the reality star a “home-wrecker” in an interview with Star magazine.

Kanye’s fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, also included an ample amount of songs inspired by his breakup with Rose that gave fans a taste of what went down between them. In “Blame Game,” Ye raps, “You always said/‘Yeezy, I ain’t your right girl’/‘You’ll probably find one of them I like art-type girls’/All of the lights, she-was-caught-in-the-hype girl/And I was satisfied being in love with the lie.”

In 2015, Ye took another jab at Rose during a radio interview where he implied that her one-time profession as a stripper made it harder for him to date Kim Kardashian. “It’s very hard for a woman to want to be with someone that was with Amber Rose…I had to take 30 showers before I got with Kim.” Off-color remarks between the two continued to be thrown over the years, until things bubbled over in 2016, when Kanye had a full-blown Twitter feud with Wiz Khalifa (Rose’s partner at the time) and Rose herself. Ye was in the process of releasing what we now know as The Life of Pablo, but at the time was briefly called Waves. The term “wavy” was popularized by rapper Max B, and Wiz was upset that Kanye hadn’t given him his due credit (which he later did).

What followed was a long-forgotten feud of the ages, where West took repeated jabs against Wiz for being with Rose. “You let a stripper trap you,” West tweeted. “I know you mad every time you look at your child that this girl got you for 18 years,” he said in reference to Wiz and Rose’s child together, Sebastian Taylor. In response, Rose tweeted, “Awww @/kanyewest are u mad I’m not around to play in ur asshole anymore? #FingersInTheBootyAssBitch.” And the rest was, quite literally, history.

In a 2017 interview with Complex’s Everyday Struggle, Rose reflected on her relationship with West and the onslaught of drama that followed it. “I still have never said anything mean about Kanye,” she explained. “This is after six, seven years of constant bullying from him…I was quiet for so long. I could have got a reality show just off the fact that I was his girlfriend. I could have wrote a book just off the fact that I was his girlfriend. I said, you know what? I’m a real ass bitch. I’mma take the high road and work my ass off, and I’m going to get everything I get on my own, so nobody can be like, ‘Yo I gave her that.’”

Rose also opened up about the impact of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, saying, “It’s a great part of history, and it’s a great part of hip-hop, and I’m happy to be a part of it, but that time was not a great time for me.” She continued, “I can’t say anything on the Internet because Kanye has such a voice. If I was going to kill myself, I would have done it during those times.” Since then, things seemed to have calmed down between the two.

When: 2012–2021

Although Kimye first met in 2004, and West famously pined after her for nine years, the pair never actually got together until 2012 following Kim’s split from Kris Humphries. By 2013, the couple were engaged after Ye proposed in a vacant baseball stadium with an accompanying orchestra (you can find the full proposal in Season 9, Episode 4 of Keeping Up With the Kardashians by the way). The power duo then got married in a lavish ceremony in Italy in 2014 (Kim’s self-proclaimed “wedding country”).

The pair also welcomed four children together during their relationship, North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm. But by February 2021, Kim officially filed for divorce from the rapper. Their 10-year relationship was nothing short of a roller coaster, with the couple regularly making headlines every other month over new drama. The decline of their relationship arguably began in 2016, when Kanye openly supported Donald Trump’s presidency campaign. Kim was reportedly upset over her husband’s actions, as she was openly pro-Clinton. Kanye continued to make headlines over the next few years for brazen comments like slavery being a choice, addressing his wife’s reaction to his infamous 2018 rant in the song “Wouldn’t Leave.”

He rapped, “They said ‘Build your own’—I said, ‘How, Sway?’/I said, ‘Slavery a choice’— hey said, ‘How, Ye?’/Just imagine if they caught me on a wild day/Now I’m on fifty blogs gettin’ fifty calls/My wife callin’, screamin’, say we ‘bout to lose it all/Had to calm her down ‘cause she couldn’t breathe/Told her she could leave me now, but she wouldn’t leave.”

In late 2020, the couple arguably reached their biggest breaking point when Ye announced his intent to run for presidency and publicly shared intimate details about their relationship during a campaign rally in North Charleston on July 18. While speaking on his pro-life stance, Kanye claimed that he and Kim once considered an abortion when they got pregnant with North. “My mom saved my life,” he began through tears. “My dad wanted to abort me…there would have been no Kanye West because my dad was too busy.” Adding, “I almost killed my daughter.” Fans were evidently concerned over Ye’s mental health at the time, with Kim releasing a public statement asking for “compassion and empathy.” Following the rally, TMZ obtained photos of the two having a heated conversation in Wyoming where Kim was visibly crying.

A few days later, Kanye took to Twitter to reveal that he had been trying to end his marriage since November 2018, citing the moment his wife met rapper Meek Mill during a Criminal Justice Reform Summit as a reason. “I’ve been trying to get divorced since Kim met with Meet at the Warldolf (sic) for ‘prison reform,’” he wrote. “Meek is my man and was respectful. That’s my dog Kim was out of line. I’m worth 5 billion dollars and more than that through Christ, But y’all ain’t listen to MJ, and now y’all believe them???” He also took a dig at his mother-in-law, Kris Jenner, and called her “Kris Jong-Un,” tweeting, “Kriss and Kim put out a statement without my approval…that’s not what a wife should do.”

In the months following, the couple were reportedly attending marriage counseling sessions. But by January 2021, they had given up, with Kim filing for divorce a month later. While the couple seemed to be on amicable terms, Kim even showed up to support Kanye in several events for his project Donda; things turned sour toward the end of 2021 after Kim made a joke about their divorce in her opening monologue for Saturday Night Live. In the months that followed suit, Kanye repeatedly attacked Kim on social media for her then relationship with Pete Davidson, allowing North to have a TikTok, and allegedly hiring security to watch over as he played with his kids inside their house. By November 2022, the couple’s divorce finalized with a joint custody agreement.

When: 2021

Following his split from Kardashian, West briefly dated model Irina Shayk for around two months. The two were first spotted together in France for West’s 44th birthday in June 2021. They reportedly called it quits later in August. Shayk previously modeled for Yeezy, and appeared in West’s music video for “Power.”

When: 2022

Perhaps one of the most talked about short-lived romances, West and actress Julia Fox were first spotted together on a date at Carbone in Miami on Jan. 1 2022. For the next six weeks, the pair were practically everywhere, taking over Paris Fashion Week, launching a thousand tweets, and making headlines on a new micro-trend daily. But their whirlwind romance got cut short, with the duo ending things by February.

In an interview with ES magazine in Sept. 2022, Fox opened up about her brief relationship with West sharing that it seemed that he had “unresolved issues that he was dealing with.” She added, “It just seems like he had a lot to work on, and I just don’t have time for it or energy. I don’t have the bandwidth or emotional capacity for it.” As for whether or not the pair ever referred to each other as “boyfriend” and “girlfriend,” Fox said, “I don’t think those words ever came out of my mouth, actually. It definitely felt like I was his girlfriend. But it also felt like I was being cast in the role of his girlfriend—and he was casting me. He was the orchestrator of it all. It really did feel like a movie.”

When: 2022

Shortly after his relationship with Fox, West was seen with model Chaney Jones on a shopping date in Miami in February 2022. The rapper seemingly confirmed the relationship a month later, commenting a black heart emoji underneath an Instagram post of the two of them. They were also spotted sitting court-side together at a Los Angeles Lakers game in March, and Jones even congratulated Ye on his Grammy wins in April.

But the pair’s relationship was brief, as they reportedly ended things in June 2022 after taking a trip together to Japan.

When: 2022–

While it’s unclear when West met his latest muse, Bianca Censori, the Australian architect and entrepreneur had been working as an architectural designer for Yeezy since November 2020. We’re not sure when things turned romantic between the two, but West publicly displayed his first sign of affection in December 2022 after releasing a song seemingly named after her, “Censori Overload.”

On Jan. 9 2023, the couple were spotted dining together at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills. And by Jan. 13, TMZ reported that the couple had secretly wed in a private ceremony. While the legitimacy of their courtship was ambiguous for a while, and the couple reportedly hadn’t filed for an official marriage certificate, in October 2023 the Daily Mail obtained documents confirming that the couple had a “confidential marriage” license, filed on Dec. 20 2022. The ceremony reportedly took place in Palo Alto, California, with James Mayfield officiating. Ye and Censori tied the knot a month after the rapper’s divorce with Kardashian settled.

Things between the couple seem to be serious with an insider telling the Daily Mail that “Bianca and Ye have a totally different vibe… They are very private, very affectionate and totally devoted to each other. I think they both enjoy carving out time that’s just for them.” The couple made waves last summer after being caught in an intimate moment while on a boat in Venice, Italy. Censori has also met all of Ye’s kids, regularly joining the Wests for family day outs whether at Universal Studios or Dubai.

But the couple hit a rough patch in October 2023, when Page Six reported that Ye allegedly had a strict set of rules that Censori has to follow. “Kanye has a set of rules for Bianca, which includes never speak and wear what he wants her to wear,” a source told the outlet. “She is also required to eat certain food items and to work out even though Kanye doesn’t work out.” The insider also said that Censori “has no mind of her own anymore.”

A month later, reports hit that Censori and West were taking a break. Insiders cited that Censori’s family and friends were worried about their relationship, and reportedly held an intervention for her while she was in Australia. “Her friends let her know exactly how they feel, and they told her that she needs to wake the fuck up,” the source told the Daily Mail. “Her family has never been a fan of Ye, and those close to her have questioned whether marrying him was the right decision… He is a very difficult person to be around and work for, and Bianca has been one of the most patient people ever to deal with him. She’s been all about Ye.”

The intervention seems to have been moot as Censori and West reconciled in December 2023, attending Art Basel together in Miami as well as Ye’s listening party for his album Vultures. Their reconciled romance has only seemed to go up from there, with Ye recently posting a photo dump of his wife on Instagram, including pictures of her wearing little to no clothing. Some of the more risqué photos were met with controversy online with many calling out Ye’s hypocrisy for having issues with how Kardashian used to dress and what photos she’d share.

On Jan. 6 2024, Ye celebrated Censori’s birthday and posted a photo of her on Instagram captioned, “Happy birthday to the most beautiful super bad fun iconic muse inspirational talented artist masters degree in architecture 140 IQ loving by my side everyday when half the world turned their backs on me and the most amazing step mom to our children I love you so much thank you for sharing your life with me.” Ye then shared another photo of Censori captioned, “I miss you when I wake up before you.”