Kanye West, 43, looked cool, calm, and collected when he went for a shopping trip at a Wyoming Walmart on the afternoon of July 22, less than 24 hours after he took to Twitter for a tweeting spree that included one tweet admitting he tried to divorce Kim Kardashian, 39, in the past. The rapper was joined by record executive Damon Dash, 49, for the outing and after strolling around the shopping establishment for essentials in white face masks, they both took the masks off while sitting and chatting on an outside bench. The two friends were dressed casually, with Kanye in a blue hoodie and jeans, and Damon in a white T-shirt and red shorts, and at one point, Kanye could be seen holding his phone, which had a green case.
The non-eventful public sighting comes as a bit of a surprise considering the fact that Kanye has been making many headlines for his bizarre and random tweets over the past few days. After the “Jesus Walks” creator wrote that he was “trying to get divorced since Kim met with Meek [Mill] at the Waldorf for ‘prison reform'” in 2018 on the night of July 21, the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star came to his defense in her own social media statement just hours later.
“As many of you know, Kanye has bi-polar disorder,” Kim wrote in a message she posted to her Instagram story. “Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand. I’ve never spoken publicly about how this has affected us at home because I am very protective of our children and Kanye’s right to privacy when it comes to his health. But today, I feel like I should comment on it because of the stigma and misconceptions about mental health.”
Kim went on to explain that family is “powerless” when it comes to “compulsive behavior” unless the person with the disorder is ” a minor” and pointed out that the “individual” going through it has “to engage in the process of getting help no matter how hard family and friends try.” She added that she understands Kanye is under criticism because he’s a “public figure” and called him a “brilliant but complicated person” who has faced the “pressures of being an artist and a black man” and the “painful loss of his mother.” While concluding her lengthy, supportive message, she said her husband’s bipolar disorder does not “invalidate” his “dreams and creative ideas” and asked the media and public for “compassion and empathy” during this time.
Before Kim’s latest statement, Kanye opened up about his bipolar disorder during a tell-all interview on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman in May 2019. He told the host that it “could take you to a point to where you start acting erratic, as TMZ would put it.” He also spoke about the disorder during an Oct. 2018 visit with President Donald Trump, 74, in the White House’s Oval Office.
“I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I was connected with a neuropsychologist that worked with athletes in the NBA and the NFL,” he said during the visit. “So, he said that I actually wasn’t bipolar, [but] I had sleep deprivation, which could cause dementia 10 to 20 years from now where I wouldn’t even remember my son’s name. So all this power that I got, and I’m taking my son to the Sox game and all that, I wouldn’t be able to remember his name, from a misdiagnosis.”