In a move that has left fans confused, Kanye West completely wiped his Instagram account.
On Monday, fans noticed that Kanye — now legally known as Ye — erased every post from his page, which has over 9.5 million followers.
As of right now, it appears that his account is still active. However, we aren’t quite sure if this means that he’s planning to return to the site.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time that Kanye has taken a hiatus from Instagram. The rapper has been known to sometimes delete his account before making a swift return to his fans. For example, he deleted his account a few times earlier this year before returning in time to tease the release of his 10th studio album, Donda.
However, if you’ve been following Kanye recently, you’ll know that the complete wipe of his Instagram page follows quite a turbulent few weeks for the artist.
For the first time since they parted ways in February, Kanye has been speaking out about his current relationship with his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian West.
In fact, just a few days prior to his Instagram wipe, he publicly spoke about his hopes of reuniting with his family and detailed the “mistakes” he made during his marriage in a five-minute video he shared on Thanksgiving.
Reciting what he called his “Thanksgiving Prayer,” Kanye said: “All I think about every day is how I get my family back together and how I heal the pain that I've caused.”
“I take accountability for my actions,” he added. “New word alert: misactions. The one thing that all my successes and failures have in common is me.”
Speaking candidly about his bipolar disorder — which he was diagnosed with in 2016 — Kanye said that his family had had to “endure” his “episodes,” and shared that his “hair-trigger temper” was being heightened by alcohol.
“I went into a manic episode in 2016 and I was placed under heavy medication,” he explained. “Since then, I went on and off the medication which left me susceptible to other episodes, which my wife and family and fans have had to endure.”
The since-deleted video also offered new insight into the repercussions of Kanye’s Republican image, which was perhaps one of the most prominent contributors to Kim’s decision to file for divorce back in February.
Kanye first established himself as a supporter of Donald Trump back in 2016, when — during a wide-ranging speech given at his Saint Pablo tour — he revealed that if he had voted in the presidential election that year, he “would’ve voted for Trump.”
He took his support of Trump to the next level two years later in 2018 when he made a visit to the White House and debuted his now infamous “Make America Great Again” hat.
As you may remember, this led to a lot of backlash from fans. However, his wife at the time was quick to speak out in his defense.
In a series of tweets, Kim called out the media for "demonizing" Kanye’s behavior and portraying him as "erratic." She went on to blast the media for "labeling" Kanye's "mental health issues," which prompted criticism from the public.
To the media trying to demonize my husband let me just say this... your commentary on Kanye being erratic & his tweets being disturbing is actually scary. So quick to label him as having mental health issues for just being himself when he has always been expressive is not fair
Which brings us to July 2020 when Kanye announced his own presidential campaign. This was followed by his first (and last) political press rally speech, during which he revealed that he and Kim had considered an abortion when she was pregnant with their eldest daughter, North, who was 7 at the time of the speech.
Speaking on stage in South Carolina, Kanye revealed that his father had wanted to abort him, but said that his mother had “saved [his] life” by choosing not to. This prompted him to reflect on his own experience of considering an abortion during Kim’s first pregnancy. “I almost killed my daughter,” he said through tears.
Videos of his anti-abortion speech were widely circulated online and sparked a surge of backlash. It was later revealed during the final season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians that this had been “the final straw” in Kim’s decision to file for divorce.
And so, speaking during his “Thanksgiving Prayer” on Instagram last week, Kanye opened up about how he had “embarrassed” Kim and his family during his 2020 political campaign.
“Good Lord, my wife did not like me wearing the red hat,” he began, referring to the MAGA hat he wore in support of Trump.
“Being a good wife, she just wanted to protect me and our family,” he said of Kim, before going on to talk about how he put his family at risk with his political views.
“I made me and our family a target by not aligning with Hollywood's political stance, and that was hard for our marriage,” he revealed.
Kanye then went on to seemingly address his comments about North more specifically. “I embarrassed my wife in the way that I presented information about our family, during the one — and thank God only — press conference,” he shared.
And this isn’t the first time that Kanye has spoken out about his “mistakes” in the past few days. In fact, he published his “Thanksgiving Prayer” on Instagram the day after he publicly admitted that he did things “that were not acceptable” during his marriage.
Talking onstage at the Los Angeles Mission’s Annual Thanksgiving event last Wednesday, Kanye seemingly pleaded to be reunited with Kim and their four children, telling the audience that he needs “to be back at home.”
“I have to be next to my children as much as possible,” he said of his kids. “I’m doing everything to be right next to the situation.”
He concluded the short speech by claiming that, despite being “separated” by the “enemy,” he believes God has plans to bring him and Kim back together.
“When God brings Kimye together, there's going to be millions of families that are going to be influenced to see that they can overcome the work of the separation, of trauma the devil has used to capitalize to keep people in misery,” he said.
Shortly after this, he doubled down on his statements by sharing a throwback photograph of himself and Kim kissing to his Instagram story, along with a TMZ headline which read “Kanye West Says God Will Bring Kim and Him Back Together, Inspire Millions.”
What’s more, Kanye emphasized his thoughts by tagging Kim, who is supposedly dating Pete Davidson.
And this takes us back to today, and all traces of his Instagram posts have been totally wiped from the site.
And while many are confused by the move, it has also prompted some fans to worry about Kanye’s mental health — especially in light of the recent death of Virgil Abloh.
It was announced on Sunday that Virgil, who was best known for his roles as the founder of Off-White and the creative director at Louis Vuitton, had died from cancer aged 41.
In the wake of his tragic death, many fans of the designer were quick to express concern for Kanye, who was a very close friend of Virgil's.
I hope Kanye is processing this Virgil news as best as possible. Lord knows he loved that man like a brother.
Kanye and Virgil, who are both from Chicago, were longtime friends and collaborators, having first worked together nearly two decades ago in 2002.
After teaming up as interns at Fendi in 2009, Kanye named Virgil as the creative director of his creative agency, Donda. The pair went on to collaborate on some of Kanye’s most iconic albums including My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Yeezus, and Watch the Throne — the latter earning the creative duo a Grammy nomination in 2011.
In the time since Virgil’s death, celebrities from a wide range of industries have paid tribute to the designer. But as it currently stands, Kanye is yet to issue a formal statement.
Although, he did appear to acknowledge the news on Sunday by dedicating his Sunday Service to Virgil with a brief message which read: “In loving memory of Virgil Abloh, the creative director of Donda.”
“In Loving Memory Of Virgil Abloh” c/o DONDA 🕊🚧
So, with all this in mind, fans are speculating that Kanye’s Instagram wipe might be a response as he processes the death of his close friend. However, this still remains unclear.
