The naked truth. Photo: Rachpoot/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Ye and Bianca Censori might be the most attention-thirsty couple in Hollywood, but these past few months have been a wild ride even for them. There was, of course, Censori’s nude appearance on the Grammys red carpet with her husband that prompted a mix of outcry and confusion. Meghan McCain commented that Ye was “a repugnant, vile piece of garbage … and his wife looks like a victim and a hostage,” which said aloud what a lot of people were thinking: Did Censori want to go naked, or was this something he was pushing for. The next day, Ye started selling a swastika T-shirt, and then defended this shirt in an antisemitic screed on X. On February 13, the Daily Mail reported the couple was “heading for divorce” amid this controversy; TMZ similarly reported that they were getting lawyers. “Page Six,” citing a source, reported that Censori was, unsurprisingly, over Ye’s bizarro antics.
At the time, the Mail also reported that Centori and Ye were staying apart and that she was supposed to get paid $5 million in the allegedly impending divorce — with that sum agreed to in some sort of verbal agreement. Meanwhile, West’s spokesperson, alt-right media personality Milo Yiannopoulos, slammed reports about an alleged split. “Ye and Bianca are in Los Angeles, about to enjoy Valentine’s Day together,” Yiannopoulos told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. “Announcements about their private life will come from them directly, not unsourced rumor in the tabloid press. Is this the fifth or is it the sixth time the press has wrongly reported that Ye and Bianca are separating? I’ve lost track.”
Well, Ye apparently found his own way to announce it on April 3: a new single where he raps, “Bianca, I want you to come back.” The announcement of a seeming split gets even messier, given that Ye reportedly will follow it up with a new album tonight, the cover art of which features a masked couple in Ku Klux Klan robes. This raises questions about who the couple is — and whether Ye’s allusion to a split was just some sort of weird performance art that will turn into a “gotcha.” As rumors continue to circulate, one thing is for certain: Everyone wants to know what a Censori-Ye divorce would look like.
Holly Davis, a lawyer who often reps celebrities and high-net-worth litigants in divorce and family-law cases, says she was “fascinated” to find out that Censori was rumored to be leaving West a few days after the Grammys spectacle. “Bianca actively participated in this exhibitionist demonstration of her vulnerability, and it was very clear, at least visually and in video clips, that Kanye was directing her to disrobe, and she did,” Davis says. “I would not be surprised to learn she regrets that decision, or wasn’t in control of that decision, or was somehow coerced.” Davis answered our most pressing questions about just how messy a potential Censori-Ye divorce could be.
If there were some type of $5 million agreement, is that actually valid? Is that all Censori would get in a divorce?
No. The agreements you can enforce are ones that are written. Once Bianca gets with a divorce attorney, that’s what that divorce attorney is going to do: help her evaluate whether or not that number is too high, too low, or just right. If there is a verbal agreement and it does benefit Kanye, he would be really wise to not rock the boat, not upset her, so that she doesn’t change her mind. Verbal agreements are not enforceable and problematic. People who are trying to control other people want to enter into these types of verbal agreements before that person can go double-check their math and see whether or not the deal is good for them. Bianca has a right to find out whether or not that number is artificially low. Is that the number she would deserve under the law?
Hypothetically, if there’s an unenforceable verbal agreement, and if there’s no prenup, what might each side get?
We have heard stories of her holed up in the $35 million house, and we heard Kanye come out recently, conveniently talking about having no money, being bankrupt. If people do not have a prenuptial agreement, then what gets divided when they get divorced is everything that has accumulated over their marriage. You have to go through a whole investigation, poring through thousands of pages of financial documents to figure out what there is to divide up. You have to categorize things as either pre-marriage or post-marriage, and the post-marriage stuff is sometimes not very easy to separate from the pre-marriage stuff. The number of $5 million, in a vacuum, has no meaning unless you throw it against the back of what they own in total and what kinds are pre-marriage and post-marriage. I don’t think it’s going to be a terribly easy calculation to make.
If, for example, Kanye knows for a fact that Bianca would be entitled to less than $5 million, then the introduction of the idea in the press — that they have an agreement for $5 million — might be a way to kind of entice Bianca to just settle and get this over with without dragging Kanye’s name through the mud in the press. Sometimes, people have done their homework and have already, with the help of a divorce lawyer, figured out what a reasonable settlement would be. Sometimes, they offer slightly more than what that reasonable settlement offer would be, to entice the person they’re divorcing to do it quickly.
If it turns out that Ye actually doesn’t have any money, would Censori get anything in a divorce settlement?
If there is nothing to divide, then you get 50 percent of that nothing. If Kanye really has lost a lot of money, then they might not have much to divide up. We saw that in the Tori Spelling divorce. It’s usually very surprising for us to see that celebrities have nothing, but it’s the truth of the matter.
Would Censori get to keep gifts that Ye gave her during their marriage? Yes. When you give a gift to somebody, that’s not a community asset that gets divided in divorce. If you give someone a $20 million ring, or if you buy them a really big car and there’s a bow on it, then that is yours to keep in the divorce in most states. The exception we see people use sometimes is, for example, buying a bunch of art as an investment.
If you’ve love-bombed your spouse with a bunch of expensive gifts, then they get to keep them in the divorce. If you had a puppy that you gave somebody during the marriage, as a gift, then that puppy is separate property. I’ve had celebrities and very high-profile people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on whether or not the puppy given at Christmas was a gift, or whether or not it was something that they acquired during the marriage.
Would Kim Kardashian’s divorce from Ye have any impact on the case?
The only impact from the divorce with Kim in this case would be that it will be very clear what assets he had going into this marriage, because Kanye got divorced from Kim a month or so before he and Bianca got married.
What about Ye’s issues with lawyers?
Kanye follows no one’s legal advice, ever. And because of his exhibitionist behavior and his expression, he is a very difficult client for a lawyer to have. I expect him to have several lawyers who get hired and then fired and, ultimately, Kanye will be his own representation at the end of the day. Kanye will always follow his impulsivity in his expression over legal advice. He’s calling the shots even if he has the most expensive lawyers in the world.
