Kim Kardashian Explains Kanye West’s Absence From the Met Gala

Fans may have noticed that Kim Kardashian was without husband Kanye West at the 2018 Met Gala Monday night, but the 37-year-old reality TV personality made sure to make clear why the rapper wasn’t by her side.

After Kardashian shared several sultry photos and videos of her golden Versace look, West shared one of the images with several fire emojis.

Kardashian retweeted West’s adoring tweet, explaining that he was off putting the finishing touches on five of the hip-hop albums he’s working on for this summer.

“Love you babe wish you were here with meeeeee but you’re only finishing up 5 albums,” Kardashian wrote, using laughing, fire and heart emojis.

The 40-year-old rapper has reportedly secluded himself from Los Angeles to Wyoming, where he plans to work on his albums in peace. He has reportedly sequestered itself to a rented mountaintop home, where he’s spent much of his time over the past few months, flying in various rappers and producers like Kid Cudi, Travis Scott and Nas to help with his music.

He’ll reportedly stay for “at least several weeks,” according to TMZ, to put finishing touches on his solo album, his album with Kid Cudi, and three other records he’s preparing behind the scenes as a producer.

West’s solo albums due out June 1 and will consist of seven songs, according to a tweet from The Life of Pablo rapper. A week later, his album with Kid Cudi, called Kids See Ghost, will hit shelves on June 8.

The album announcements were the first of Wests’s tweets that have since set off a storm of controversy in recent weeks, with many wondering if he’s suffering from the same symptoms akin to his mental breakdown and hospitalization in 2016.

But he argued in an interview with Charlemagne tha God on iHeartRadio’s The Breakfast Club show last week that he’s nowhere near that mental state today.

“I think I’m in a stronger place than I ever was after the breakdown, or I like to say the breakthrough,” he said Tuesday, May 1.

He claimed the 2016 breakdown was caused by “fear, stress, being controlled and manipulation,” but also said he was left to feel like “a pawn in a chess piece of life.”

“[I was] stressing things that create validation that I didn’t need to worry about as much. The concept of competition, and being in competition with so many elements at one time,” he said.

At the time of his hospitalization in 2016, West was forced to cancel a large number of shows on his The Life of Pablo tour.

“I’m happy it happened. I’m happy to have gone to the other side and back,” West said about being hospitalized. “I can’t express to you how traumatizing that moment is [when your friends and family leave the hospital] and then you wake up drugged the f— out.”

After West made headlines for his controversial tweets about slavery, President Donald Trump and more, his mother-in-law Kris Jenner appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and told the comedian that West has “good intentions” despite the controversy surrounding his tweets.

“You know, Kanye has a lot of love for all of you, all of his fans, and everybody who’s been there to support him forever,” Jenner said.

“And I know that he will explain himself in his own way,” she continued. “And I think that anything he does — and I just think this is important to say is — he always does things with really good intentions.”

“So I’m going to let him explain himself when the time is ready and… I just keep rolling on. Trying to keep up—” Jenner says, before DeGeneres jumps in, “—with the Kardashians.”