Pete Davidson, 28, is trying to “stay away” from Kanye West, 44, after the rapper took to social media to publicly declare his desire to get back with his estranged wife Kim Kardashian, 41, and shade her new romance with the comedian. In a series of now-deleted Instagram posts he published this past week, Ye revealed he’s hoping to get his “family back” and shared various posts that trolled Pete, including one that asked his followers to scream “Kimye,” his couple nickname with Kim, at the Saturday Night Live star if they ever saw him in person.
“Pete has obviously never been in a situation like this before so understandably, he’s still trying to figure out how to navigate this whole thing,” one source EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife about Pete’s feelings about the public drama. “Pete isn’t afraid of Kanye, but he does wish that all of this drama was behind Kim. The best thing Pete knows how to do is just be there for Kim and try to be as supportive a boyfriend as possible.”
“When he initially started dating Kim, he knew there was some drama surrounding her divorce, but it didn’t bother him because he felt that Kim was handling her own business,” the source continued. “But now that Kanye has dragged Pete into this, of course he has some type of feelings. But he feels like the best thing to do is stay away from Kanye and not poke the bear, so to speak. He is focused on doing his own thing, and he won’t let Kanye get in the way of their relationship.”
Kim filed for divorce from Kanye in Feb. 2021 and although they seemed to be getting along and co-parenting their four children, including North, 8, Saint, 6, Chicago, 4, and Psalm, 2, in a friendly way throughout the rest of 2021, things seemed to change over the past month when Kanye began criticizing the way Kim and Pete were acting in front of him and called out the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star for letting their oldest daughter film videos on TikTok. He also recently shared a photo of Pete, who started dating Kim around Oct. 2021, with a caption that said he would never meet his kids, clearly letting his disapproval of him be known.
“Pete is between a rock and a hard place when it comes to navigating Kim and Kanye’s issues,” a second source EXCLUSIVELY explained. “He is trying to stay out of it, he is trying to focus on Kim’s feelings on it and be there for her, but at the same time he is human and when someone is attacking you, you can only take the high road for so long before it starts to affect everyday life and the relationship he has with Kim. They are both trying to separate it and are still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, so a lot of these things are being thrown on the wayside.”
“Pete is just trying to live his life, be there for Kim and just make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible,” the second insider added. “He doesn’t want to poke the bear even though it is very, very difficult. It is a process that Pete is trying to figure out all on the fly with Kim. It is certainly a mix of emotions of trying not to care, not caring at all and caring too much. Pete is very aware that anything can change in a heartbeat, and he hopes he is at a place in which he knows totally how to handle it. Big time learning and maturity experience.”
On Feb. 15, Kanye deleted all his past Instagram posts and shared a new one that included a statement in which he took responsibility for his actions on the social media platform and seemingly apologized for certain content he was sharing, including screenshots of text messages between him and Kim.
“I’ve learned that using all caps makes people feel like I’m screaming at them. I’m working on my communication,” he wrote. “I can benefit from a team of creative professionals, organizers, mobilizers and community leaders. Thank everybody for supporting me. I know sharing screen shots was jarring and came off as harassing Kim. I take accountability. I’m still learning in real time. I don’t have all the answers. To be good leader is to be a good listener.”