Kanye West’s Influence Over Bianca Censori: ‘She Might Be Afraid to Speak Out’

Once photographers had an unobstructed view, the rapper and his wife of two years, Bianca Censori, started their show. According to lip readers, the best rap song nominee told her, “You’re making a scene now,” before instructing the 30-year-old to “drop [your fur coat] behind you and then turn. I got you.”

She replied, “All right, let’s go,” and shrugged it off, displaying her nude body under a sheer garment his Yeezy brand calls the “invisible dress.” Flashes popped as she posed fully exposed while Kanye, covered up in an all-black outfit, leered.

The couple left without ever going inside the Crypto.​com Arena. But they couldn’t escape the outrage that swept social media in the wake of the stunt. Some online commenters questioned if it was a “humiliation ritual” and accused Ye of using his wife as a “marketing prop.” Others attacked the 47-year-old music star and fashion designer, with one Instagram user scolding, “You should be incredibly disappointed in yourself, the morals you do not have, and the masculinity you fail to embody. Bianca [of course] is also accountable for her own actions, but ultimately you failed to be a husband, and in turn failed to be a man.” It’s just more proof to worried friends and family that Bianca is trapped in a nightmare marriage. “He’s fixated on how she looks and behaves in public. It’s all a show staged by Kanye,” a source tells Star. “He controls her appearance, from her makeup and hair to her outfits — what there is of them. He tells her what to do and even how to walk.”

While mom Alexandra Censori didn’t want to comment on the Grammys debacle, one of Bianca’s sisters, Angelina, shared a video of the coat-drop moment on her Instagram.

He fueled speculation he’s controlling Bianca for clicks or clout when he took to Instagram after the awards to brag about his bride being Google’s top search, posting a screenshot revealing “Bianca Censori Grammys” was at 5 million queries — higher than the search for actual Grammy winners.

Unyielding Influence

The public hasn’t heard from Bianca. While Kanye’s had plenty to say since they got together following his 2021 split from first wife Kim Kardashian, 44, his second wife has largely been silent. Loved ones are worried. While her mother, Alexandra Censori, fended off reporters with a curt, “I have nothing to say,” on Feb. 5, the source says the incident rankled. “There’s growing concern among Bianca’s friends and family that she’s trapped” and “married to a monster,” adds the source. “That she might be afraid to leave and speak out for fear of making Kanye angry.” There’s also fear, the source adds, that “the longer she stays, the more tangled in his web she becomes.”

She’s tried to leave before. An October report claimed Bianca left the “Gold Digger” rapper after her family staged a “dramatic intervention.” But she’s clearly with Ye now.

Changed Diagnosis

Kanye spoke about his mental health on a Feb. 4 podcast. “The constant feeling of not being in control spun me out of control,” he said, revealing he’s learned he has autism, not bipolar disorder, and has stopped taking meds.

In fact, she seemed to be enjoying the attention at a Grammys afterparty, singing karaoke in a slightly less naked sheer bodysuit as gawkers captured the scene on their phones. Despite such moments, says the source, “the expression in her eyes tells a different story.” Psychologist Channa Bromley told Today Bianca’s behavior on the Grammys red carpet could indicate something sinister. “The lack of natural confidence, the robotic compliance, the vacant expression — it doesn’t read as a woman fully in charge of her choices,” the doc, who does not treat Bianca, observed.

At the same time, people who knew Bianca back in her native Australia, where she earned a master’s degree in architecture, have shared shocking details of her past that support Ye sources’ claims that she is a “willing participant” in his provocations. One insists she “has always been stylish and pushed boundaries in fashion.” Another revealed Bianca, who met Ye when she was hired as an architectural designer for his brand in 2020, flirted with public nudity long before she ever met the star: Eight years ago, she “boldly wore nipple pasties” under a sheer shirt at Australia’s Rainbow Serpent music festival. “She was up for a good time.”

New Worries

There are concerns for Kanye, too. Long before the latest Bianca drama, he sparked uproar with his antics — such as when he called slavery “a choice” in 2018; ran a failed campaign for president as a member of the Birthday Party in 2020; and declared,

“I’m going death con 3 [sic] on JEWISH PEOPLE” in 2022, among other anti-Semitic remarks. Six years ago, he rapped about having bipolar disorder and called it his “superpower.” Yet on the Feb. 4 episode of Justin Laboy’s The Download podcast, Ye said he was no longer taking medication for the condition because he’d recently learned he’d been misdiagnosed. “Come to find out it’s really a case of autism,” he claimed.

People who know him wonder what he’ll do and say next — including his exwife, who openly struggled with his violent mood swings and now claims she’s raising their four kids, North, 11, Saint, 9, Chicago, 7, and Psalm, 5, as all but a single mom. “Kim thought it was bad, but it’s worse now. She’s actually scared for Bianca,” says the source, explaining that the reality star understands how easy it is to allow Kanye — who memorably tossed Kim’s entire wardrobe on Keeping Up With the Kardashians — to take control. “She did what he asked of her, too, at least in the early years. It was humiliating. She finally found the strength to leave and hopes Bianca can also.”