Jonathan Cheban Shuts Down Kim Kardashian Feud Rumors

Jonathan Cheban wants everyone to relax. The reality personality — who legally goes by Foodgod — is tired of seeing headlines suggesting his decades-long friendship with Kim Kardashian has quietly fallen apart, and he’s making it very clear that nothing could be further from the truth.

“People post me in things and people say that Kim and I aren’t friends anymore and it’s so funny to watch this stuff ’cause we are friends and we talk all the time,” Cheban told Us Weekly back in March. “We’re going to be friends forever — and it’s fun.”

He doubled down on that at Vulture’s Inaugural Reality Masterminds Celebration in New York City on May 7, telling E! News that the two had literally just spoken. “I don’t really get in the group chats,” he said, “but I spoke to Kim literally two days ago.”

The explanation for why they’re not constantly photographed together is pretty simple: geography and four kids. Cheban splits his time between Miami and New York. Kim is based in LA, constantly shuttling between cities for her SKIMS empire and her children — North, 12, Saint, 10, Chicago, 8, and Psalm, 7, whom she shares with ex Kanye West.

“She’s like, ‘I’m back in LA.’ I’m like, ‘We just got to New York,’” Cheban explained. “She goes, ‘I went to LA for North and then I came right back.’ We speak all the time. I really don’t get to see them as much because I live in Miami and New York. They live in LA, and then she goes to Paris. It’s all those kids!”

Kim herself addressed the friendship earlier this year on her sister Khloé Kardashian’s Khloé in Wonder Land podcast. “I love Jonathan. We should call him,” she said, before getting candid about how motherhood reshapes everything — including close friendships. “Jonathan is not going to come and sit around Calabasas all day. He’s like always on the move.” Khloé agreed, noting how different lives can naturally create distance even between people who genuinely love each other.

On Kim and Lewis Hamilton: “They Fit Perfectly”

Of course, the bigger conversation right now isn’t about the friendship — it’s about Kim’s very public new romance with Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton. And Cheban, who was also speaking to the Daily Mail at the same NYC event, had thoughts.

Good ones, actually. “They fit perfectly. They’re like a good yin and yang,” he said, calling the pair “a gorgeous couple.” He added that he’d met Hamilton before and immediately clocked the similarities between them. “They’re both very cool. Very fashionable.”

Kim and Hamilton recently made their relationship unmistakably official — the two were photographed holding hands leaving the Broadway production of The Fear of 13, starring Adrien Brody. It was their first real public display of affection after months of careful near-sightings: New Year’s Eve in Aspen, trips through the Cotswolds and Paris, a VIP suite at the Super Bowl, a luxury getaway in Utah, a trip to Tokyo with Kim’s kids, Coachella, furniture shopping in LA, and paddleboarding in Malibu where they were spotted kissing.

The two have reportedly known each other for over a decade, but sources say the romance only turned romantic late last year.

When the inevitable marriage question came up, Cheban did what any good best friend does — laughed and immediately sidestepped it. “Oh God, I will not go there,” he joked. “I’ve been through two. This is it. I’m stopping while I’m ahead.”

Kim on Marriage — and the Kylie Complication

Marriage speculation around Kim is nothing new, but it’s gotten louder since she and Hamilton went public. Kim has been married three times before — most notably her 72-day marriage to Kris Humphries and her years-long relationship with Kanye West — and she’s been open about approaching the idea carefully now.

“There’ll be moods where I’m just like, ‘You know what? I understand my life is really big and I understand it takes a really, really, really special, unique person to want to deal with that,’” she said during a 2024 appearance on SiriusXM’s This Life of Mine with James Corden. “I think my life is really fun and whoever comes in my life will have a really good time, but it’s a lot.”

She also pushed back on any suggestion she’s lonely. “I’m not lonely, so I’m good. I have my kids, I have work, I have my family, but it would be nice to share your life with someone. But when you do, it’s such a big [commitment], I don’t take that lightly.”

Adding a layer of tabloid intrigue: Globe is reporting — via a source — that there’s some friendly (or not-so-friendly) competition between Kim and her sister Kylie Jenner, who has been linked to Timothée Chalamet since 2023. According to the insider, Kylie is “madly in love” with the Oscar-nominated actor and has been envisioning a future with him for the past year. The source claims Kim, meanwhile, is aware of the optics. “She hates the idea of Kylie getting married while she’s still on the shelf,” the insider allegedly said, adding that Kim has “openly joked” about Kylie not beating her to the altar. It’s the kind of claim that’s hard to verify and easy to be skeptical of — but it’s very on-brand for the family’s particular brand of competitive love.

As for Cheban, he’s keeping it simple. “Anything happens that I feel like we should discuss, we just send it right away,” he said of his dynamic with Kim. The friendship is intact. The group chat participation may be spotty. But the bond? According to both of them, that’s not going anywhere.