Kanye West apologized for “any stress” he’s recently caused ex-wife Kim Kardashian over the rearing of their four children in a sit-down interview with Good Morning America on Thursday morning (Sept. 22). The chat also touched on his still-bubbling White House ambitions, his controversial Donda Academy “gospel school” and the end of his deal with The Gap.
“This is the mother of my children, and I apologize for any stress that I have caused, even in my frustration, because God calls me to be stronger,” said West (who now goes by Ye) about his recent comments regarding children North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm. “I need this person to be less stressed and of the best, sound mind and as calm as possible to be able to raise those children at the end of the day.”
Ye said that as a dad and a Christian, he has the right to weigh in on what his kids are wearing, watching and eating. “I have a platform where I get to say what so many dads can’t say out loud,” he told interviewer Linsey Davis; more of the interview will air on ABC News at 7 p.m. ET tonight, as well as on Nightline and A Conversation With Ye: Linsey Davis Reporting, a half-hour special on ABC News Live slated to air at 8:30 p.m. ET Thursday.
West recently revealed that he doesn’t read any books, comparing the act to “eating Brussels sprouts,” this despite running a “gospel school” in Simi Valley, California. The private academy named for West’s late mother, an English professor, is mostly cloaked in secrecy when it comes to what goes on behind its doors; parents reportedly have to sign a kind of non-disclosure agreements before enrolling their kids. Though reading is not mentioned, the school’s site says it places a strong emphasis on writing as part of a daily schedule that begins with a “full school worship,” followed by language arts, math and science classes, lunch/recess and enrichment courses including world language, visual art, film, choir and parkour.
Ye told GMA that he “absolutely” wants his kids to attend the school — which was originally called “Yeezy Christian Academy” — adamantly stating that their education is a two-person decision. “I’m their dad. It has to be co-parenting. It’s not up to only the woman. Like, men have a choice also. Men’s voices matter,” he said. The rapper said the school, which is reportedly in its third year of operation, gives the 82 enrolled students “practical tools that they need in a world post the iPhone being created… So many schools are made to set kids up for industries that don’t even matter anymore.”
West said the academy focuses on “practical skills” including engineering, computer programming and farming, with tutors who focus on specific lessons that he claims could “actually turn your kids into, like, geniuses.” He also boasted that if your children are indeed brilliant “they’re three grade levels ahead.”
The interview — West’s first time speaking to a major news network on-camera since Kardashian filed for divorce in Feb. 2021 — also found Davis asking Ye if social media has done more help than harm for his reputation. “That’s one of my favorite questions of this interview,” Ye said. “We could use a car to rush somebody to the hospital, or we could use a car and accidentally hit somebody while we’re rushing somebody to the hospital. It all in how we use it.”
After an erratic 2020 presidential run during which he loaned $6.8 million to his presidential committee and netted just 60,000 votes, West said he “absolutely” plans to give the White House another shot at some point. “That time wasn’t in God’s time,” he said of the third party bid that drew many more headlines than votes.
The interview also touched on West’s decision to terminate his partnership with The Gap after his lawyers claimed that the retail chain breached their agreement to open Yeezy Gap brick-and-mortar stores. Now, Ye said, he plans to open his own fashion chain called “YZY.”
“It was all kind of a disregard for the voice of something that I co-created. I co-created the product at Adidas. I co-created the product at Gap,” Ye said. “That means that I was there for some specific agenda, not for Yeezy Gap to be everything that it could be, or this dream that I had about what the Gap could be,” he said. “It’s time for me to make my own thing.”
Following his recent public battles with the Gap and another brand partner, Adidas, Ye said he’s going to be way more involve din everyday decisions. “We had to level up,” Ye said. “Really show ’em who’s the new boss in town, that I’m the boss of me. I’m no longer just the man ridin’ atop the polo horse. I’m not just a mascot in the middle of the games, gettin’ the crowd hyped up sayin’, ‘Hey, wear this, do this,’ but you know, just learn financial engineering. Learn how to — learn how to really run a company.”
When Davis cued up one of the most legendary Ye clips of all time — a 2013 bit in which he famously yelled “you ain’t got the answers!” at SiriusXM host Sway Calloway after the hip-hop radio legend suggested West just “empower” himself and not rely on other brands to boost his own — Kanye did the unthinkable: he admitted Calloway was right. “I will go ahead and say Sway had the answer,” West said with a smile.
Watch portions of the interview below.
