Kanye West has met his match in Julia Fox — trust me

There are few things in life that I take seriously, but celebrity relationships is one of them. When I learned, along with the rest of the world, that Kanye West and Julia Fox were dating, it was like scratching a number off my celebrity pairing bingo card. I took the news with the gravity that it demanded.

Fox, 31, and West, 44, first made headlines at the beginning of the year, when TMZ shared photos of the two together at a restaurant in Miami, Florida. It was nothing serious, reports said at the time; the rapper was merely embracing the single life after separating from his wife Kim Kardashian. But then, Fox and West jet-setted to New York City, where they were spotted leaving a performance of Slave Play at the August Wilson Theatre. This time, no speculation was needed about the couple’s date night, because Julia Fox herself spared no details in a telephone conversation that was published to Interview magazine on January 15. It’s worth noting that in the world of celebrity dating, Fox recapping her second date with Kanye West to a magazine is actually very normal behavior. So far, so scandal-free.

Since then, the pair has been seen partying with the likes of Madonna, Floyd Mayweather and Antonio Brown. Fox has denied rumors that their relationship is a PR stunt, and instead referred to it as a “redemption story.” Most recently, Fox and West made a string of appearances at Paris Fashion Week, where they donned matching black leather outfits and denim-on-denim looks. Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake did it first.

Now, if you’re unlike me and don’t have a barrel of useless celebrity knowledge collecting dust in the corners of your brain, then you probably don’t know who Julia Fox is. Before meeting the man now known as Ye, Fox was most well-known for her acting debut in the 2019 thriller movie, Uncut Gems. However, the Italian-American actress has lived many lives, from mother, to artist, to director and even former dominatrix.

According to a 2020 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the New York native began a career as a dominatrix at a young age. “I had heard about another girl who was doing it and that there was no sex and no nudity,” she said. “It was all role-playing, and I was like, ‘I can do that. I can act. I can put on an outfit,’ you know?” After becoming renowned in that field, she launched a women’s clothing line called Franziska Fox. Turns out Kanye isn’t the only one who can add “fashion designer” to his resume.

That is, until 2017 when Fox staged her own death. Yes, you read that correctly. In 2017, Fox hosted an art exhibit called ‘R.I.P. Julia Fox,’ which dealt with her own experiences with drug use, mental illness, and dominatrix work. Fox even used some of her own blood for the paintings. Talk about separating the art from the artist.

So where does this leave the relationship between Fox and Ye? It was only a little over a month ago that Kanye was begging Kim Kardashian to “run right back” to him, after all. He then bought a house directly across the street from his estranged wife (probably to keep a close eye on Pete Davidson, if his latest lyrics are to be believed). In this context, people reacted with shock at the announcement of Ye and Fox’s seemingly sudden union. Yet Fox simply laughed off the outrage, saying that she could hardly be seen as pursuing Kanye for cash when she’s “dated billionaires [her] whole adult life”. They say opposites attract, but I think that Kanye and Julia’s wild behavior is a match made in heaven.

When signing on to live the Kardashian lifestyle, as Kanye did, there’s obviously a certain level of scrutiny one must be comfortable with — but there’s also a certain level of secrecy that must be adhered to. Kylie Jenner had every intention of keeping her second pregnancy with boyfriend Travis Scott under wraps; that is, until clever TikToker Emily Schwartz discovered Kylie was pregnant by comparing her nail art on Instagram. Kanye always struggled to walk that delicate Kardashian line between oversharing and obfuscating. His run for president in 2020 was cited as a particular moment of embarrassment for Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner, both people accustomed to controlling the narrative around themselves and their families.

But what about Julia Fox? Her entire career is built on being a spectacle, or perhaps a dramatized version of herself. She’s won acclaim for putting the most intimate parts of herself on display, including her own bodily fluids, so why would she stop now? Her shtick is messier, grittier, purposely melodramatic. She’s not the kind of person to blink an eye at an ill-advised presidential run, nor an insensitive over-share of personal stories onstage.

Kanye West has met his match in Julia Fox. In the now-memeified words of Suicide Squad: “She was fearless and crazier than him. She was his queen, and God help anyone who dared to disrespect his queen.”