They were first spotted together in Miami, and within a matter of days, details about their relationship were everywhere — with Julia even penning an essay for Interview magazine that gave fans insight into their extravagant “date night” less than a week after they met.
Of course, Ye and Julia’s relationship was ultimately short-lived, with the pair calling it quits in February 2022 after only about six weeks of dating.
And now, while promoting her new memoir, Down the Drain, Julia is reflecting on her highly publicized fling with the rapper, and letting fans know what was really going on behind closed doors.
Julia began the discussion by saying that when she and Ye started hanging out, she anticipated that it would stay between them.
“A lot of the time, you date these celebrities … they’re very hush-hush. They’re like, ‘Don’t post a picture in my bathroom,’ you know?” she explained to Drew. “So I kind of just thought it would be a secret.”
When their fling was “mysteriously leaked,” Julia admitted she wasn’t expecting the fanfare that came with it, but ultimately had no choice but to lean in.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Julia spilled the tea on the “overwhelming” nature of their relationship, comparing Ye’s needy tendencies with those of her 2-year-old son, Valentino.
“Ultimately, I think he needed a full-time person, and I just couldn’t be full time,” she said, giving some new insight into the demise of the romance. “I had my son, and then [Ye would] wanna talk on the phone a lot.”
Julia confessed that in the midst of their intense relationship, she even bought herself a pair of wireless headphones so that she could multitask while taking Ye’s frequent calls.
“Like, I’d have to change diapers, and so I bought a pair of AirPods so I could keep it in while I was doing mom stuff. Like, it was just — it was so overwhelming and so unsustainable,” she recalled.
“I think I just realized very quickly it just wasn’t gonna be sustainable because ultimately, I cannot put anybody else first,” she went on. “My son has to be first. It just became too much, like, I didn’t sign up to have two babies, you know?”
Prior to this, Julia surprised fans by candidly revealing that there “wasn’t any” sex in her relationship with Ye.
In a profile with the New York Times last month, an interviewer asked Julia why there isn’t any mention of her sexual experiences with Ye in the book, prompting her to reveal that there wasn’t really anything for her to say on the topic.
“Because there, like, wasn’t any,” Julia responded, confessing that their relationship “wasn’t really about that.”
In a later interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor confirmed that she “went lightly” on the sections about Ye in the book, but stressed that she didn’t sign an NDA, or nondisclosure agreement.
Speaking to the same outlet, she reflected on the end of the romance and recalled feeling as if she’d been used as a “pawn” in the midst of Ye’s divorce from Kim, which was finalized about a month before they started dating.
“I thought ultimately I’d be helping a precarious situation,” she said, referring to her previous claims that she dated Ye to “distract” him from harassing Kim in the midst of their highly publicized split and legal battle.
“But I learned very quickly that I was being weaponized,” she added. “I just felt like his little puppet.”
You can read more about Julia in her book, Down the Drain, which is available to purchase now.
