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There was once an era where musical powerhouses John Legend and Kanye West were the best of friends. Photos of the pair hugging and celebrating at awards shows were a common occurrence, and they had nothing but praise for each other. From 2018, however, that all changed.
Up until now, John Legend has remained quiet about his rift with Kanye West, but the artist opened up about their friendship on CNN podcast The Axe Files this week, explaining what exactly went down between them.
“Well, you know, we aren’t friends as much as we used to be because I honestly think because we publicly disagreed on his running for office, his supporting Trump, I think it became too much for us to sustain our friendship, honestly,” he told host David Axelrod, referencing the moment in 2018 when West tweeted screenshots of their text conversations about politics.
It seems, however, that the text-sharing scandal wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back when it came to their friendship. In fact, Legend implied that it was West who distanced himself, after his now-infamous bid to run for president.
“He was upset that I didn’t support his run for presidency of the United States of America for understandable reasons.”
Legend said they “really haven’t been close since then,” but was still diplomatic about West in general, saying that he doesn’t feel the rapper is hiding any part of himself. “I think there’s not a lot about him that people don’t get, like he’s been pretty upfront with his opinions, his struggles, all the things that he’s dealing with. I don’t feel like he’s a whole separate person in private than he is in public. I think you’re pretty much seeing the real Kanye publicly.”
The interview comes at an interesting time for Kanye West. After a very public meltdown, he’s remained fairly quiet, with reports that he has been focusing on fatherhood and had reached a good place with ex-wife Kim Kardashian, with sources telling E! News they “have a lot of love and respect for each other” and are “happily co-parenting”.
