Pete Davidson is looking back fondly on his past romance with Kim Kardashian.
“I’m one of the survivors — the few and the proud. We’re like the Marines,” Davidson, 22, joked to Variety in an interview published on Wednesday, September 30, about the men who’ve dated Kardashians. “Look, man, that’s a really tough atmosphere if you’re not game. One of the things I love about Kim and that whole family is they’re like, ‘This is what we do.’ I found that very attractive and mature.”
Davidson met the Kardashians star in October 2021 while working together on Saturday Night Live.
After sharing a kiss as Aladdin and Jasmine in a sketch, the pair began dating before breaking things off in August 2022.
“I was never subjected to anything I didn’t want to be a part of. She was super respectful of all of it, but the craze of that lifestyle — being followed everywhere, having security and looking over your shoulder — for a guy with mental stuff and at the time drug problems was a little too much for me,” Davidson shared in his candid interview. “But we’re cool, and I have a lot of love for her, and I knew what I was getting into.”
Davidson found himself dating Kardashian, 45, as she was going through a challenging divorce from rapper Kanye West. (The pair share children North, 13, Saint, 10, Chicago, 8, and Psalm, 7.)
West infamously reacted to his then-estranged wife dating Davidson by posting threats on Instagram and depicting a Claymation Davidson getting kidnapped and beheaded in the music video for his song “Eazy.”
In his latest interview, Davidson acknowledged that the chatter had an impact on him.
“What tripped me out is I was super open about mental stuff — everyone knows this about me — and it’s like he was [saying], ‘Kill yourself.’ And he did push me,” he told the outlet.
To this day, Davidson has empathy for West, 49, and pointed out that the Grammy-winning rapper also lost a parent “and has mental stuff.” (The comedian’s firefighter dad, Scott, was killed in the September 11 attacks in 2001 while West’s mom, Donda, died after undergoing plastic surgery in 2007.)
“I don’t know how he deals with it or who he has around him. Probably a lot of people who want to be his friend. I’ve had that,” Davidson shared. “When people are so far up your ass and constantly pushing and provoking you and not showing you love, you want to burn it all. I think it got to a certain point where he was like, ‘Leave me the f*** alone. I’m just going to say crazy s***.’”
Davidson showcased his sense of humor when trying to find the bright side in the sometimes difficult situation.
“I like to think I got that one out of the way for [Kardashian] because whoever that guy was going to be was gonna get it,” he joked. “I cleared the path for her to get back into the dating pool.”
