Ye Says Wife Bianca Censori Helped Him Get Autism Spectrum Diagnosis
In an interview with Justin LaBoy’s The Download podcast his week Ye revealed that his wife, Bianca Censori, has helped him realize that he is on the autism spectrum. “My wife took me because she said, ‘Something about your personality doesn’t feel like it’s bipolar, I’ve seen bipolar before,’” Ye said of what he called the revelation that he does not suffer from bipolar disorder — as he’s previously shared — but that he has ASD (autism spectrum disorder).
“And come to find out, it’s really a case of autism that I have,” he said. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “autism is a spectrum in the sense that there’s a very wide range of personality traits, strengths and challenges you might have when you’re autistic – just as there is for any other person.” ASD is defined as a “difference in brain functioning that affects how a person communicates and interacts with others.”
More from Billboard
West was involuntarily hospitalized in 2016 after suffering what was described as a “psychiatric emergency” that manifested as “temporary psychosis due to sleep deprivation and dehydration.”
According to Ye, the new understanding of his ASD has helped him put some of his behavior into perspective. He noted that he went to an unnamed doctor that he claimed had worked with other famous people — including, according to Ye, Justin Bieber — which is when Censori told him that he might have the wrong mental health diagnosis; West’s former wife, Kim Kardashian, opened up in 2019 about what was them deemed Ye’s bipolar diagnosis.
“Autism takes you to a Rain Man thing where you’re like, ‘Oh man, I’m gonna wear this [Donald] Trump hat ‘cause I just like Trump in general,” he said of his support of former, and current President Donald Trump, noting that he has not taken “the medication” — he did not specify what medication — since he found out about the incorrect bipolar diagnosis. “And when people tell you to not do it you just get on that one point… and that’s my problem, when fans tell me to do my album a certain way, I’ll do it the opposite way, just because.”
West talked about how difficult it is for those in his orbit to help him because “this is like a grown man, you can’t tell him. You can’t take control of his bank account. You can’t control what I’m saying on Twitter. But a lot of what was sending me into the episodes… my dad and a bunch people said, ‘You can’t leave Adidas why would you leave all that money?,’” he added in reference to Adidas cutting off ties with Ye in 2022 after years of a lucrative partnership in the wake of the rapper’s string of hate-filled, antisemitic rants. “The constant feeling of not being in control, spun me out of control.”
As for not taking his medication, West said he’s trying to find “stuff that doesn’t block the creativity,” claiming that it’s “worth a ramp-up” if it results in creativity.
West is still working on rebuilding his formerly formidable fashion and music empire in the wake of the rapid meltdown in his fortunes following his 2022-2023 spree of provocative, antisemitic comments, which included a tweet announcing he was going “death con [sic] 3 on Jewish people, repeated praise for Holocaust mastermind Adolf Hitler and the parading of the white supremacist phrase “White Lives Matter” on shirts at Paris Fashion Week.
He was rapidly dropped by the Gap, Adidas, Balenciaga and his agents at CAA and has his social media accounts suspended or revoked in a fallout so complete that the former — and according to him, again — billionaire said in February of last year that he nearly went bankrupt.
West was in headlines again over the weekend with is latest headline-grabbing provocation, when he walked the red carpet at the 67th annual Grammy Awards fully clothed while Censori modeled a see-through nude dress that exposed her private parts.
Watch West discuss his ASD diagnosis below.
Best of Billboard
Sign up for Billboard's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
