Julia Fox opens up about relationship with Kanye West: ‘His words stick to me’

Julia Fox has reflected on her brief relationship with Kanye West, with the model revealing how he asked her out and claiming that he controlled what she wore.

The actor, 33, discussed how she first met the rapper – who she dated for two months in 2022 –  in her new memoir, Down the Drain, published on 10 October. In the memoir, she wrote that she and West, who she only described as “the artist,” received each other’s numbers through mutual friends, before having long conversations on the phone.

According to Fox, they then met in person on New Year’s Eve in 2021 and had dinner together the next day, which is when he asked her to make the relationship official.

“‘Would you want to be my girlfriend?’ He added: ‘How would you feel about taking the relationship public?’” the Uncut Gems star recalled in the book. She wrote that, while she initially turned West’s request down, the musician then said something that ultimately changed her mind.

“‘If you’re worried about me embarrassing you, I wouldn’t do that. You have a son, and my mom was a single mom,’” she recalled West telling her, referring to her two-year-old son, Valentino, who she shares with ex-husband Peter Artemiev.

In the memoir, Fox continued to open up about the relationship, with the actor claiming that her ex had sent a variety of clothes to her room after they first met. However, despite the amount of clothes, she said they were all variations of the same skintight, black jumpsuit. She claimed that, by their second date, West told her that he wanted to give her a styling team to help her with her wardrobe.

According to Fox, on her third date with the rapper, she met her stylist in the bathroom of a restaurant, before being offered different outfits to wear. Fox recalled that, after West hired the stylist, she wondered why he hadn’t just told her that he didn’t like her initial outfit on the date. She also expressed that she felt like “a show monkey” when the stylist gave her the clothes.

Fox added that, once she tried on a variety of pieces by notable designers for West, he allegedly told her: “I could get you a boob job if you want.” Although she wrote that she turned down the rapper’s offer, his comment still hurt her.

"His words stick to me like a piece of lint on my clothes. I can’t shake off the uncomfortable feeling,” she wrote.

While she only referred to West as “the artist”, Fox previously noted that he’d be featured in her memoir. During an interview with The Los Angeles Times earlier this month, she confirmed she touched on the relationship in Down the Drain, but said that it was only “lightly”.

“I’m not signing a f***ing NDA just on principle. I never have, and I never will,” she said. “Unless it’s a professional opportunity, then sure.”

She also reflected on the brief romance itself, noting that she first viewed the relationship with West as one that had potential and “could be something real”.

“I really understood him on a visceral level,” Fox said, adding that she “thought ultimately I’d be helping a precarious situation” when it came to his dynamic with his ex, Kim Kardashian. “But I learned very quickly that I was being weaponised,” she continued. “I just felt like his little puppet.”

Fox also spoke to Rolling Stone about her time with West, saying the “weaponising” aspect is “why the relationship only lasted a month”.

“It really wasn’t that big of a deal, but other people made it such a big deal,” she said of their time together, before adding that she suspects she’s been blacklisted at times since the end of the relationship. “I know for a fact I’ve been up for certain things and couldn’t do it because of dating Kanye. It’s kind of wild.

Since the breakup, the PVT Chat star has spoken candidly about why she and West didn’t work together. During an interview with ES Magazine in September 2022, she said that while there was a “good amount” of chemistry between the two of them, their relationship “wasn’t sustainable”.

“I was just going day by day and seeing where it went,” she explained. “It was just like, he still wants to hang out with me today, let’s do it. And then real life set in and the lifestyle wasn’t sustainable.”

“I couldn’t fly away once a week. And I tapped out at the first sign of a red flag,” she said, adding that she was “proud” of her decision. When asked what that red flag was, Fox responded: “The unresolved issues that he was dealing with.”

She also claimed that it seemed like West “had a lot to work on” while they were together, and she just didn’t “have time for it, or energy”.

“I don’t have the bandwidth or emotional capacity for it. I’m proud of myself for that. Pre-Valentino Julia would have definitely stuck it out and been there for longer,” Fox added.