Kanye West and his wife Bianca Censori certainly do not have the most conventional relationship. When they’re not walking barefoot through a shopping centre, being pictured in compromising positions in a Venetian water taxi or making headlines for their ‘twisted sex parties’, it’s difficult to get a sense of what goes on behind closed doors. Their marriage, in other words, continues to elude us all.

Undeterred by the rumours, the speculation and the naysayers, last week the couple rang in Censori’s 30th birthday with a lavish party in the Maldives. Apparently, they were spotted ‘passionately kissing’ and ‘straddling’ each other on the dancefloor – a dancefloor they shared with none other than Penelope Cruz, randomly.

West took to Instagram to mark the occasion. True to form he did so by sharing a slow motion black and white video of his wife sitting naked in a bathtub, captioned ‘Happy birthday baby’.

However, his original caption read, ‘Happy birthday to the most beautiful super bad iconic muse inspirational talented artist masters degree in architecture 140 IQ loving by my side everyday when half the world turned their backs on me.’ West went on to call his wife ‘the most amazing step mom to our children’ and said ‘I love you so much thank you for sharing your life with me’.

He also shared a now-deleted video from Censori’s party where his wife was seen dancing with Cruz in a black, backless jumpsuit. The party featured live music and festive decorations with fans commenting on the unlikely partnership between Cruz and Censori, joking that it was ‘not on their Bingo card’.

The posts were typically haphazard but they, alongside Censori’s birthday celebrations, firmly put October’s divorce rumours to bed.

Towards the end of last year, various ‘sources’ revealed that the couple were experiencing ‘ups and downs’ and said ‘their relationship is definitely rocky’. ‘They have had many disagreements over Kanye having high expectations of her and the marriage,’ the insider told Us magazine. ‘She had a change of heart and voiced that to him recently. It was not well-received by Kanye, but they are working through it. They are OK right now and there are no plans for divorce at this time.’

There’s every chance their rumoured marriage troubles were also to do with the mounting lawsuits West is currently facing from his former employees. One of which was filed by his former personal assistant, Lauren Pisciotta, who accused him of sexual assault, using his wife as his ‘sex party coordinator’ and alleges that the rapper asked to sleep with his mother-in-law in front of his wife shortly after their wedding. West called Pisciotta’s original filing ‘baseless’ and accused her of blackmail.

Elsewhere, West faces lawsuits over his Yeezy business practices, sexual harassment claims and alleged use of racist and antisemitic language.

The insider, however, maintains that none of this is a complete surprise to Censori who ‘knew what she was getting herself into when marrying Kanye’. Nevertheless, they say ‘the lifestyle took a toll on her’.

Her marriage to West – whose reputation has come under fire in recent years following his behaviour after his divorce from Kim Kardashian, his offensive public rants and the long list of legal allegations he faces – has certainly thrust her into the spotlight.

It’s worth remembering that Censori was 27 when she married West in December 2022. She had previously worked as an architectural designer at Yeezy and as a model in her native Australia but was not widely known to the public. Since dating West, she has been called a ‘Kardashian clone’, mocked for the outfits West has styled her in in public (which include having a pillow taped to her chest in an otherwise all nude outfit) and been accused of participating in West’s alleged ‘twisted sexual fantasies’ by Pisciotta.

She has certainly had a whirlwind few years. Censori might be celebrating her milestone birthday in style, but there are plenty of obstacles ahead of the couple when they return home. West may find himself in and out of court this year, with an order to appear for a deposition on 11 February from one of his former employees accusing him of racial discrimination, and the trial regarding his failed private Christian school, Donda Academy, due to begin in April.

Censori, for her part, is reportedly thinking about starting a family in the future and is hoping to build a more stable life at home in Beverly Hills. At present, the couple spends most of their time travelling and living between hotels, their Hollywood apartment, their Beverly Hills mansion and their rumoured apartment in Japan.

What 2025 has in store for West and Censori, both as individuals and as a couple, remains unclear, but partying in the Maldives with Penelope Cruz is a definite reminder to expect the unexpected.