Kanye West has confirmed his new romance with 24-year-old Instagram model Chaney Jones, who fans have dubbed a “lookalike” of his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian.
At the time, Kanye (now legally known as Ye) was seeing Uncut Gems actor Julia Fox — who also publicly branded herself as his muse — in what developed into a widely publicized, albeit short-lived, relationship. He’s been pictured out with Chaney on several occasions over the last month.
Most recently, Ye and Chaney were spotted out shopping in Bal Harbor, Miami, with several new paparazzi photos of the pair quickly flying across social media this week.
And with the speculation around the pair’s status reaching an all-time high as a result, both Ye and Chaney hopped onto Instagram last night to confirm that they are, in fact, romantically involved.
Reposting a screenshot of a headline that noted that “Ye and his new boo Chaney Jones are going strong” alongside paparazzi photos of the two out shopping, the Donda artist added a single black heart emoji.
Hours later, Chaney jumped into the comments and called Ye “my love” before taking to her Instagram story to share his post with two black hearts and a fingers-crossed emoji.
Days prior, Chaney also uploaded a selfie of the two to her page alongside a single black heart emoji once again.
Well, with Ye finally confirming the romance himself, fans have continued to draw comparisons between his new lover, Chaney, and his ex, Kim — who filed for divorce from him just over a year ago.
Some users have speculated that Ye purposefully orchestrated the new relationship to gain Kim's attention given that all of his outings with Chaney have coincided with his string of public pleas and gestures made toward his ex.
In fact, just after Ye called both Kim and her new boyfriend, Pete Davidson, out online with a series of since-deleted posts last month, he was spotted out with Chaney in Malibu. With her wearing a figure-hugging black bodysuit, gloves, black boots, and designer glasses, fans couldn’t help but notice that the model’s outfit bore striking similarities to many of Kim’s recent looks.
Chaney also joined Ye at his Donda 2 album listening event in Miami later in February, this time sporting a leather fit. Once again, she attracted tons of attention for her distinctive style, all while the term “Kim K lookalike” became a huge talking point on the internet.
What makes Ye’s apparent stunt all the more believable is the fact that his last highly publicized relationship was — according to sources, and to Julia herself — all part of a ploy to gain attention in the media, presumably to make Kim jealous.
Not only did Julia’s style appear to resemble Kim’s throughout her and Ye’s six-week-long romance, but fans also noticed that aspects of the respective relationships seemed eerily similar, too.
Early in January, for example, Julia gushed that Ye had gifted her a “hotel suite full of clothes” just days after they started seeing each other, reminding fans that he virtually reworked Kim’s entire wardrobe back in the day too.
These parallels, along with his repeated attempts to win Kim back, led to many accusing Ye of “recycling” his old relationship — though Julia denied that she was “chaneling” the Skims founder with her outfits.
“We’ve worn some similar looks,” she said of Kim on an episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast last month. “I thought it was cool that she had worn it. It is unfortunate, because women are always being pitted against each other, and there are 10 years of history that they have prior.”
On the same podcast episode, Julia directly addressed Ye’s long-running attempts to win Kim back, telling host Alex Cooper that it’s “human” to have “residual feelings” for an ex. “I also know that he’s with me now. And that's all that matters,” she said.
But weeks later, when the pair broke up, Julia claimed that Ye wanted her to glamorize the entire relationship in the press, further fueling — and seemingly confirming — rumors that the whole thing was a stunt to get under Kim’s skin.
Well, while Kim has yet to address the comparisons with both Julia and Chaney, she did briefly comment on the talk around her “lookalikes” in a recent interview with Vogue US as this month’s cover star.
“I don’t know if I would ever say, ‘Oh my God, this person looks like me.’ I think if someone has dark hair and tan skin people are going to say, ‘Oh, that looks like Kim.’ And that’s not fair, because there are so many people who are just themselves,” Kim said.
In spite of Kim’s nonchalant take, however, tons of social media users have continued to raise eyebrows at side-by-side comparisons of her and Chaney.
“Kanye West is obsessed with Kim Kardashian. I mean look at Chaney Jones his new girlfriend, she looks exactly like Kim,” one person tweeted alongside a paparazzi photo of Chaney on a beach.
“Not Kanye finding himself a Kim K lookalike lol,” another wrote.
Not Kanye finding himself a Kim K lookalike lol
As the conversation unfolded, fans noted that Ye dating a so-called “lookalike” of Kim amid their tumultuous legal split and his recent flurry of Instagram posts slamming both her and Pete seems “creepy.”
If you’ve followed the pair’s divorce proceedings over the past year, you’ll know that Ye has only been vocal about his disagreement with the split in the months since Kim and Pete started dating.
Not only did Ye claim to have “never even seen” the legal papers while still calling Kim his “wife” back in November — just after she and Pete shared a kiss during their joint Saturday Night Live appearance — but he also reportedly dismissed her request to move forward with the proceedings last month.
In light of Ye’s objection to finalizing the split, several users pointed out that choosing to publicly date someone who’s been widely perceived to resemble Kim — and just after apparently flaunting his relationship with Julia to make his ex jealous — appears even more strange.
“So is no one going to talk about how creepy and gross it is that Kanye is dating a Kim lookalike? On top of him emotionally abusing her,” one person questioned.
So is no one going to talk about how creepy and gross it is that Kanye is dating a Kim lookalike? On top of him emotionally abusing her 🤔 @kanyewest #kanyewest #kanye #ye
“Kanye is literally blocking Kim from making the divorce final, harassing her and Pete Davidson, AND dating a Kim lookalike?!” echoed another.
Kanye is literally blocking Kim from making the divorce final, harassing her and Pete Davidson, AND dating a Kim lookalike?! This man needs help https://t.co/BwFJZT1FQ2
Some fans even went on to accuse Ye of dating Chaney purely to perpetuate the “Kim Kardashian lookalike” narrative in the media and publicly keep his “name attached” to Kim’s.
“Kanye has no interest in this woman, he probably asks her to walk around with him so people can continue to spin the narrative that [he’s] with a ‘Kim K lookalike’ he only keeps her in the public eye so that he can have his name attached to Kim in that matter,” one person suggested.
Kanye has no interest in this woman, he probably asks her to walk around with him so people can continue to spin the narrative that his with a “Kim K lookalike” he only keeps her in the public eye so that he can have his name attached to Kim in that matter. #KanyeWest https://t.co/2gnvfOqPZg
Of course, there’s also the chance that Ye and Chaney’s romantic connection is completely genuine. But between the undeniable resemblance, his treatment toward Kim amid the divorce proceedings, and Julia’s recent claim around his public glamorization of their romance, fans’ skepticism is only growing more intense.
