After some long months of legal battle and constant public bashing (coming from her former husband), Kim Kardashian is finally and legally a single woman. This was determined by a court in Los Angeles that approved her motion of bifurcation in her divorce process. Kim filed for divorce in January 2021, and though at times it seemed they were going to settle things amicably, the moment it was reported Kim was dating SNL comedian Pete Davidson, Kanye lost it and started a mediatic campaign and has acted quite toxic making things more complicated and pitiful.
Some of these toxic traits Kanye has had involve buying a house right across the street from Kim, constantly shaming her and her parenting style, publicly threatening Pete Davidson (quite serious, to be honest), blaming her for breaking the family, declaring that the Kardashians were kidnapping their children because he wasn’t invited to Chicago’s birthday party (when they had agreed that each one was going to celebrate her separately), and several things in which Kim has mostly decided to deal with privately. However, in the past weeks, it became public that the Kardashian’s legal team, led by Laura Wasser, filed a bifurcation petition so Kim could change her relationship/marital status to single. Today it was finally granted, not without a fight from Kanye.
What’s a bifurcation, and is it different from a divorce?
Theoretically, a bifurcation isn’t the same as a divorce but a vehicle to achieve it. That is, though she’s now legally single, many issues will have to be settled in court to officially consider the couple as fully divorced. For Kanye and Kim there are still more issues to be dealt with, and probably more complicated, involving their four kids North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm. Those are custody, visitation agreements, child support, property division.
Divorces take time if not even years and being such a mediatic couple, with one of the parties making it even more complicated, their divorce will likely take many years to be finally settled. For that reason, Kim’s legal team opted for the bifurcation approach which allows her to be legally separated from Kanye while the other issues are dealt with.
The bifurcation filing that was dealt with this March 2, requested the termination of Kim’s marital status; however, the process wasn’t as easy as it might sound since the other party has the right to put some conditions to the court’s consideration, and Kanye’s were kind of twisted if you think about it.
Kanye’s conditions to agree on the bifurcation
Kanye’s legal team answered the bifurcation request claiming that they would agree to it if three main conditions were granted.
1. Kanye wanted to keep his right to reimbursement to be preserved should either party dies before the conclusion of the case.
2. Kim is not to get money from her own trust or it should be limited.
3. If Kim remarries, both she and her future husband (whoever that is) have to wave their marital privileges, which protect spouses from testifying against one another at any trial and disclose private information at court.
What was settled at the hearing?
Right before the hearing on March 2, Kanye was quoted in the now-questioned media Hollywood Unlocked (they falsely reported Queen Elizabeth had died), that he had asked his legal team to expedite the dissolution of the marriage so he could focus on resolving the issues revolving his kids. He also fired his main lawyer and hired another one. It’s speculated that they had foreseen that the court was not going to grant the conditions and they decided to make a public stunt to control the narrative and keep his image as intact as possible.
At 10 am approximate, a judge granted Kim Kardashian’s request for bifurcation, terminating her marital status and restoring her maiden name, so no Kardashian-West anymore. Of the three conditions Kanye’s team had pushed, the judge only granted him one, being able to preserve his right for reimbursement. Kim’s team protested claiming that the couple had signed a prenup, but Kanye’s lawyers argued that said prenup was not ratified nor validated by the court.
Now, what exactly does he want to be reimbursed for? According to the law, both parties are reimbursed for their separate property contributions to their community property, that is, everything earned and accumulated from the date of the marriage till the date of separation. Now, so far, what the court agreed to is to preserve the right which doesn’t really mean he’s going to be reimbursed anything yet. That will probably be a battle they will have to face in the upcoming months, together with custody and everything related to their children.