Busted! Have Kanye West and Irina Shayk been dating longer than we think? Look away now, Kim Kardashian and Bradley Cooper …

Jun 16 , 2021

Kanye West and Irina Shayk have been friendly for months, if not longer. Photos: AP, Reuters

So this Kanye West-dating-Irina Shayk thing, with the birthday trip to France rolled in? Apparently it’s been going on for a while, if the Russian-born supermodel’s taste in pricey T-shirts is any indication.

Shayk was photographed in late April wearing a long-sleeve commemorative DMX shirt – with no pants, just thigh-high black boots – while she was walking in New York City with four-year-old daughter Lea, whom she shares with ex-beau Bradley Cooper. West was in town around that time for DMX’s memorial celebration.

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The limited edition clothes range commemorating rapper DMX, commissioned from Balenciaga by Kanye West’s fashion brand, Yeezy, that Irina Shayk was spotted wearing. Photo: Handout

The US$200 custom shirts were commissioned from Balenciaga by West’s fashion brand, Yeezy, TMZ reported. After going on sale online April 24, they sold out in less than 24 hours, raising big bucks for the late rapper’s family. The Shayk photo was taken April 26, suggesting her attire was a personal delivery rather than the product of speedy overnight shipping.

Irina Shayk watches a model wearing an outfit by designer Versus during the Spring/Summer 2016 show for London Fashion Week at Victoria House in central London, in September 2015. Photo: AP

The dating rumours apparently started flowing soon after. Then last week, British tabloids declared West and Shayk a couple, producing photos of them taken with the longest of long lenses during what it termed a “romantic getaway” in France.

The former presidential candidate (who once said of Covid-19 “we need to stop doing things to make God mad”), 44 and the model, 35, can be seen walking through a parklike landscape near the boutique hotel Villa La Coste in Provence. The two of them, who in most of the photos are with a small group, are not shown touching, holding hands, kissing or even looking directly at each other. So make of it what you will.

“It’s casual at the moment, but they are into each other,” an insider told Page Six. “It’s been going on for a few weeks now.”

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West, who is in the process of divorcing from Kim Kardashian, has known Shayk for years. She appeared in his Power music video, and her name popped up in the lyrics of Christian Dior Denim Flow. Both songs came out in 2010. Shayk and actor-director Cooper split in June 2019 after four years together.

Kim Kardashian with her then-fiancé, NBA basketball player Kris Humphries, at the Kardashian Kollection launch party in Los Angeles in 2011. Photo: AP Photo

Before Kardashian and West became Kimye, the rapper had relationships with the likes of high school girlfriend Sumeke Rainey, designer Alexis Phifer, aspiring actress Brooke Crittendon, stripper-turned-model Amber Rose and musician Selita Ebanks. He and Kardashian met in 2003 but didn’t start dating until 2012, when she was divorcing second husband Kris Humphries. West and Kardashian married, lavishly, in 2014.

Irina Shayk with her then-husband Bradley Cooper at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala in May 2018. Photo: Invision/AP

Meanwhile, back in California this week, Kanye’s estranged wife – who filed for divorce in February after a lot of rumours predicting just that – was posting a birthday wish to him on June 8 on Instagram.

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“Happy Birthday,” Kardashian wrote, captioning a photo of a then-happy couple with three of their four children on a private plane. “Love U for Life!”

Kim seems strangely relaxed and OK with everything, so far.

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Despite no pictures of the pair talking, touching, or even looking in the same direction, romance rumours abound after the pair were snapped together in France
Now netizens have noticed that Shayk was wearing a limited edition DMX top commissioned by West’s Yeezy brand back in April, further fuelling speculation