Jonathan Van Meter’s new biography alleges a 2018 gunpoint incident in Uganda involving Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
Van Meter, a journalist, released “Citizen Kim: The Woman Who Created the Future” on Tuesday. The book recounts a chaotic October 2018 trip that the former couple took to Africa while filming “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”
Farnaz Farjam, the longtime executive producer of the reality series, spoke with Van Meter about what she witnessed. Farjam told him that she “first realized how bad things were for the couple during a 2018 trip to Africa,” according to the book.
“They were shooting at a remote location in Uganda when Kanye became paranoid and agitated,” Van Meter writes, relaying Farjam’s account.
West, 49, allegedly convinced local authorities that people were trying to drug him. “He basically got the local police to believe that there were people trying to drug him, and so they came and they had guns out,” Farjam said, per Van Meter’s book. “He had them raid everybody’s rooms.”
The situation escalated dramatically. At one point during the alleged incident, Van Meter writes, “one of the policemen had a gun to Kim’s head.” Farjam described the moment as “intense.”
The executive producer made an emergency decision to extract her team. “I ended up having to get a private jet and get my crew out of there,” she added, according to the biography.
Farjam later reconciled with West over the episode. Van Meter writes that she “forgave Kanye for the Africa fiasco ‘because he lives with bipolar disorder, and he was in a manic place.'”
Kardashian, 46, also spoke with Van Meter for the book about the ongoing challenges of sharing children with West. The couple married in 2014 and finalized their divorce in 2022. They have four children together: North, 13, Saint, 10, Chicago, 8, and Psalm, 7.
“Oh, I worry about [Kanye] all day. All the time. That’s the father of my kids, I’ll never not worry about him,” Kardashian told Van Meter. She connected this concern directly to their co-parenting arrangement.
“And that’s a big burden of having kids with someone who you don’t necessarily get along with. My kids would never know that,” she continued.
Kardashian explained that she works to shield their children from the friction while protecting her own peace. She tries to forget “all the negative things that happened” while maintaining boundaries with West, she told Van Meter.
Their current dynamic remains limited but cordial. “It’s been pretty smooth for a while. I guess because we don’t talk that much. But when we see each other, we give each other a hug,” Kardashian said.
The Uganda trip occurred while Kardashian and West were still married and actively filming their family’s flagship reality series. The show documented much of their relationship, including West’s public struggles with mental health and his eventual presidential run in 2020.
Van Meter’s book arrives as Kardashian continues to build her shapewear empire Skims and co-parents with West, who has faced sustained controversy over antisemitic remarks and other public behavior since their split.