Kim Kardashian

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are now legally single after their first divorce hearing, according to TMZ. The hearing took place via teleconference without the presence of Kanye West, who has objected to the proceedings all along, even going so far as to fire and hire his fourth and fifth attorneys, respectively, just a day before the hearing. Kanye had previously tried to delay their official divorce using a legal loophole and challenging their prenuptial agreement, but had already requested to have the court proceedings expedited after saying she had no desire to reconcile with her now ex-husband.

However, Kanye’s lawyers did have some conditions for agreeing to Kim Kardashian’s newly single status, although only one was granted. The right to any money that is supposed to be divided up will be preserved if either of them dies, but a request to prevent Kim from transferring assets she has in trust was denied, as was the final condition that Kim would waive her privilege to withhold any communications with a new spouse should she get remarried.

The two celebrities are now officially single, but it remains to be seen whether that stops Kanye from making overtures to reconcile via social media or haranguing Pete Davidson, Kim’s new beau.

Throughout Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s contentious divorce proceedings, Kanye has maintained that he does not want to split from his wife, cycling through a number of attorneys and strategies ahead of the court hearing that would declare the couple legally separated. Yesterday, just a day before that hearing, Kanye changed lawyers again according to Billboard, firing Chris Melcher and replacing him with Samantha Spector, who represented Dr. Dre’s ex-wife Michelle Young in their recent divorce.

The hearing today will focus on arguments from the two legal teams about whether to officially end Kanye and Kim’s marriage with assets and custody matters to be sorted in a future hearing. Kardashian requested the arrangement, hoping that accelerating their legal split could finally impress upon Kanye that their marriage is over so that they could focus on hashing out the custody of their four children. The couple already had a prenuptial agreement that kept their assets separate, although Kanye tried to argue that the agreement was invalid, hoping to exploit a loophole and delay their divorce.

However, through it all, Kim has maintained that she has no desire to reconcile with Kanye, who has lashed out at her new beau, Pete Davidson, in his music and on social media. It’s not clear what effect he thinks changing lawyers at the eleventh hour will have on the outcome, but come this afternoon, he could very well be single again.

It’s been more than a year since Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from Kanye West, but the two are still fighting. Earlier this week, Kardashian requested to have the divorce expedited by the court while Kanye himself is still putting up a fight to win her back. Now Kanye has reportedly filed legal documents to have his social media posts kept out of their upcoming hearing. According to TMZ, the rapper has argued that Kim does not know that he wrote the posts despite the fact that they’ve been shared on social media accounts like Instagram.

“Kim claims she read something online allegedly by Kanye and characterizes the posts in her declaration as misinformation,” Kanye’s lawyer says according to TMZ. “Kim needed to offer the social media posts into evidence, and show that the posts were written by Kanye.” For what it’s worth, Kanye’s team did not deny that he’s behind the posts in the documents. Their argument instead is that Kim hasn’t done enough to prove that Kanye wrote them.

On top of that, Kanye’s lawyer reportedly says that the prenup between Kanye and Kim can no longer be viewed as valid, claiming there’s a presumption in California that prenups signed after 2001 are invalid, and that the only way that they can be validated is through a trial or if both parties agree to uphold its terms. It seems that Kanye will not agree to the terms, which means that a full-blown trial will be required, thus stifling Kim’s attempts to expedite the divorce.

Kanye West may very well be hoping to reconcile with Kim Kardashian but his soon-to-be ex-wife’s latest appeal to the court strikes the odds of that happening down from “highly unlikely” to “probably impossible.” Rolling Stone reports that on Wednesday, Kardashian filed a request to have their divorce expedited, citing Kanye’s social media antics over the past few weeks and cutting down his insistence on delaying finalizing the divorce to protect his assets.

“I very much desire to be divorced,” the statement reads. “I have asked Kanye to keep our divorce private, but he has not done so. Kanye has been putting out a lot of misinformation regarding our private family matters and co-parenting on social media which has created emotional distress. I believe that the court terminating our marital status will help Kanye to accept that our marital relationship is over and to move forward on a better path which will assist us in peacefully co-parenting our children.”

She also says that his claims that he needs to protect his assets lack “a scintilla of evidence,” and that their finances are safely separate. Her lawyers added, “No additional conditions are necessary to ‘protect Mr. West’s property interests because there is nothing to protect. There is no community property. There are no jointly titled assets. Ms. Kardashian’s assets, all titled in her name or in the name of her revocable and irrevocable trusts and entities, are her separate property, as agreed by the parties in their prenuptial agreement. The same is true for Mr. West’s assets. Mr. West does not deny any of this in his responsive papers.”

“While I wish our marriage would have succeeded, I have come to the realization that there is no way to repair our marriage,” Kim’s statement concludes. “Kanye does not agree but at least it appears that he has come to the realization that I want to end our marriage, even if he does not. I ask that the court restore me to the status of a single person so that I can begin the healing process and so that our family can begin the healing process and move forward in this new chapter in our lives.”