Still together but living 'separate lives': The demise of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's relationship.

The marriage breakdown rumours of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West have been endless this year.

This week, a source told People magazine the married couple "very much live separate lives" but nevertheless are still together.

"Kim has work and projects that are important to her, and Kanye has his," the source told the publication. "Their lives don't overlap much." 

It comes after a tumultuous year for the Hollywood couple that has been at the centre of tabloids. 

In July, West publicly shared he tried to convince Kardashian to get an abortion while pregnant with their first child.

He later apologised to his wife in a tweet, thanked her for her support and asked for forgiveness for sharing "something that was a private matter".

"I did not cover her like she has covered me... I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me."

I would like to apologize to my wife Kim for going public with something that was a private matter.
I did not cover her like she has covered https://t.co/A2FwdMu0YU Kim I want to say I know I hurt you. Please forgive me. Thank you for always being there for me.

— ye (@kanyewest) July 25, 2020

The couple reunited in Wyoming weeks later, although paparazzi pictures emerged of Kardashian crying during an evidently intense conversation between the pair. 

According to People, Kardashian "feels that she has tried everything" and "she isn't getting back what she needs from Kanye." 

"She was to the point that she flew to Cody [Wyoming] to basically tell him their marriage is over and to say goodbye," a source told the publication.

"Kim is very torn," the source added. "The last thing she wants is to be divorced with four kids. She knows that she will be fine financially, but her concerns are the kids and the partnership. She is moving towards a divorce, but who knows if she will actually sign papers."

It has since emerged that West has been living in their Wyoming ranch for the past year, while Kardashian and their four children have been at their family home in Los Angeles, California.

"Kanye has been in Wyoming for the last year. Kim goes about once every five weeks and brings the kids," a source told Us Weekly.

"They haven't been spending time together because he moved his life completely to Wyoming and that's not where their life is, their family is, their kids are in school or where the larger family is," the source added.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jun 21, 2020 at 7:08am PDT

In July, Kardashian addressed her husband's erratic behaviour, explaining to her followers that he suffers from bipolar. She asked for compassion and empathy for her husband's mental health struggles, after a series of public remarks on subjects ranging from politics to his marriage. 

Kanye West speaks about his mental health with David Letterman. Post continues below video.

Long before Kardashian and West became one of Hollywood's power couples with four children, they were close friends who met almost two decades ago.

Here's everything we know about their relationship.

Kim and Kanye's friendship and the early years.

"I met him I think in 2002 or 2003," Kardashian told Ryan Seacrest during the Keeping Up With The Kardashians 10th anniversary special.

"He was recording a song with Brandy, and I was her friend. I vividly remember hanging out with him and then they did a video together, so I'd see him a few times. He was asking his friends: 'Who is this Kim Kardajan?' He didn’t know what my name was."

West said similar in his own interview with Seacrest. In 2013, he recalled having a crush on Kardashian, even when she was primarily known as Paris Hilton's assistant.

Both dated different people throughout the 2000s but remained friends. In 2008, they worked together in a pilot for a show called Alligator Boots, where they dressed as Star Wars characters.

In 2011, West briefly appeared on Kourtney & Kim Take New York, a spin-off of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, when he visited their NYC DASH store. 

That same year, Kardashian married former NBA player Kris Humphries. She, and West's ex-girlfriend Amber Rose, have said West was messaging her before the wedding, after which she filed for divorce after only 72 days.

Six months later, she and West finally began dating.

Kim and Kanye at a Paris Fashion Week 2012 show, after they just began dating. Image: Getty. 

"After my breakup, I was feeling really low and down and [West] said, 'Just come to Paris and see my fashion show,' he jokes that he put on this whole fashion show just to get a date with me.

"So, I went there and I stayed with him, and that's where we started dating. I swear from the moment I landed, I fell madly in love with him and I thought, 'Oh my god, why didn't I do this sooner?' Like, this is what real life is like - love and fun and real support."

West referenced Kardashian and Humphries in his 2012 song 'Cold'.

"And I'll admit, I had fell in love with Kim / Around the same time she had fell in love with him / Well that's cool, baby girl, do ya thang / Lucky I ain't had Jay drop him from the team."

Kim and Kanye's marriage and children.

West became more and more a part of the Kardashian clan in 2012 - he attended Kourtney Kardashian's baby shower and appeared on KUWTK.

On New Year's Eve in 2012, West announced at a concert that Kardashian was pregnant with their first child.

"It's true!! Kanye and I are expecting a baby. We feel so blessed and lucky and wish that in addition to both of our families, his mum and my dad could be here to celebrate this special time with us," she confirmed in a blog post.

On June 15, 2013, their first daughter North West was born.

Three months later, West proposed in front of Kardashian's friends and family - and cameras, of course.

View this post on Instagram

5 years and 4 kids ✨ life couldn’t be better! *anniversary coming so soon*

A post shared by  Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on May 16, 2019 at 11:29am PDT

In May 2014, they married in a lavish ceremony in Florence, Italy.

Their son Saint West was born on December 5, 2015. Following Saint's birth, Kardashian required five surgeries to "fix the damage that all of that did from the inside".

Kardashian has been open about her difficult pregnancies. She suffered pre-eclampsia during her first pregnancy with North, which forced her to deliver at 34 weeks. She also suffered placenta accreta after delivery, eventually having to have surgery to remove the placenta and subsequent scar tissue. After her second pregnancy, her doctors advised against trying to become pregnant again.

View this post on Instagram

My whole heart

A post shared by  Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Jun 10, 2020 at 1:06pm PDT

The couple's youngest children, Chicago and Psalm West, were born via surrogate in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Kim and Kanye's trying times.

Kim and Kanye in 2015. Image: Getty. 

In October 2016, Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint during Paris Fashion Week.

West was performing in New York at the time, and had to cut his show short citing a family emergency.

The incident rocked the family. Kardashian scaled back her public appearances, stopped wearing jewellery in public and live-posting on social media, to not give away her location.

About six weeks later, West completed a nine-day stay at UCLA Medical Center’s Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital for what his physician Michael Farzam dubbed an episode of "temporary psychosis".

There were divorce rumours circulating around this time, but the couple stayed together.

West acknowledged the breakdown in a 2018 interview. 

"I think I'm in a stronger place than I ever was, after the breakdown - or I like to say the breakthrough," he explained.

Throughout 2018 West made headlines for controversial interviews and Twitter rants, which saw him describe slavery as "a choice" in a TMZ interview, and he was vocal in his support of United States President Donald Trump.

Image: Getty. 

This brought another rumoured rough patch to his relationship with Kardashian, but Kris Jenner said in August that year the couple were strong as ever following the "hiccups".

"I think they’re just so solid. They're so connected, and they love each other very much, and they have a family that they’re committed to. They're committed to one another, and people, you're not always going to agree with each other forever. You're going to have differences. You're going to have things that pop up. You're going to have hiccups," she told US Weekly. 

In 2019, West appeared on David Letterman's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction series where he said he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

He described manic episodes, saying when experiencing mania he is "hyper-paranoid about everything". 

"Everyone - this is my experience, other people have different experiences - everyone now is an actor," he said. 

"Everything's a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things."

He said he did not take medication, because he feels it "stifles [his] creativity".

Kardashian said in an April 2019 Vogue interview West had accepted his diagnosis and they can "definitely feel episodes coming, and we know how to handle them".

She said West's mission was to show people it is possible to live a "normal life" with mental illness.

2020 and Kanye's presidential bid.

Kim and Kanye in February. Image: Getty. 

In July 2020, West announced his intention to run for president in the US 2020 presidential election.

To kick off his campaign, West conducted an interview with Forbes. According to the publication, the 43-year-old "rambled" for four hours, confirming he's running for president in 2020 under the banner 'The Birthday Party', "because when we win, it’s everybody’s birthday". 

🇺🇸 https://t.co/i0DIcEE4Jm

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) July 5, 2020

In the interview, West discussed his political ideas, gave legitimacy to conspiracy theories, explained his previous support for current President Donald Trump and announced he had COVID-19 in February. 

Then came his first ever presidential rally over the weekend. He spoke for more than an hour, and at times his speech was incoherent. 

Kanye West breaks down on stage saying “I almost killed my daughter” during his first Presidential "campaign rally." pic.twitter.com/oCmW4pKSwh

— Disclose.tv 🚨 (@disclosetv) July 19, 2020

West shared personal information about his relationship with Kardashian and their children. 

He had no microphone. He wore a bullet-proof vest, yelled, cried, argued with people, reprimanded the audience for clapping and had 2020 shaved into the back of his head. (Needless to say, West lost his presidential bid in November.)

On July 20, West published a number of tweets to his 30 million followers. Broadly, they are difficult to follow and many have now been deleted. One tweet suggested that the film Get Out, where a black man is trapped by a white family, is about him. Another indicated that the Kardashian family had attempted to bring a doctor to him to "lock [him] up". 

In a second rant on July 22, West claimed he and Kardashian were getting a divorce. He also described his mother-in-law Kris Jenner as "Kris Jong-Un" and took a dig at her, writing "Kris, I'm in Cody [Wyoming], "if you're not planning another one of your children's Playboy shoots".

West said his family were trying to get him sectioned and told someone, though it is not known who, to "come and get me".

As mentioned above, Kardashian shared a statement to Instagram, saying: "Those that understand mental illness or even compulsive behaviour know that the family is powerless unless the member is a minor."

Image: Instagram. 

Indeed, it's been a year filled with divorce rumours for the couple, but it seems they remain together for now, and are staying strong as the parents of their four children. 

Read more:

• 'Superpowers' and a presidency bid: The uncomfortable conversation about Kanye West.
• "He is walled off from reality by illness." The exploitation and vulnerability of Kanye West.

Feature image: Instagram.