A New Star Couple Has Emerged From the Wreckage of Celebrity Divorce Summer, and Nobody Knows How to Handle It

Though celebrity divorce season may not be quite over yet—my condolences to Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner—we finally have a reason to momentarily turn our attention away from collapse and destruction and toward new beginnings. Nature is healing, and at least one novel couple has emerged: Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet were captured smooching on camera this week, confirming months of relationship rumors. It happened, appropriately enough for all this talk of rebirth and rejuvenation, at a stop on Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” world tour on Monday evening in Los Angeles.

Tabloids first reported that the reality TV star and actor were an item in April. Despite pretty ironclad evidence in the form of photos of Jenner’s car at Chalamet’s home, celebrity observers were slow to believe that the pairing was real. Even watching the smoking-gun footage, there’s something surreal and hard to trust about it: The two kiss multiple times, and he confidently palms her butt. But are they looking at the camera too much? They had to know that so many eyes would be on them—could it have been staged? When there’s a Kardashian-Jenner involved, this is always a question worth asking. One big reason for that is that Jenner’s mother, Kris Jenner, is known for being something of a public relations mastermind. Over the years she and her family have been in the spotlight, first as reality TV stars and eventually as an institution in their own right, she’s shown enormous savvy in keeping the Kardashian name in the headlines, and many people suspect that fake or at least exaggerated romances are a major tool in her arsenal.

Another reason people had trouble believing the rumors (and/or seem irked by the reality) is that Jenner and Chalamet, initially at least, scan as an unlikely couple. Some would even go so far as to say they’re mismatched. I don’t think that this is entirely fair, but that perception is out there. Chalamet holds the distinction of being arguably the most A-list male movie star under 30. Other performers may be as or more well known, but because he’s already been nominated for an Oscar and has worked with so many top directors, he’s one of the few actors his age that could reasonably claim to be on track to be a Clooney-, Pitt-, or DiCaprio-level star. People with this rarefied status have not historically dated reality talent. I am not saying that Chalamet is too good for Jenner—a recent online piece for Vogue stirred controversy and eventually appears to have been deleted because some fans perceived it as suggesting as much. Jenner, of course, has plenty going for her: In addition to being gorgeous, her net worth is certainly higher than Chalamet’s, even if the whole billionaire thing she was so proud of a few years ago was more than a little dubious. But there is a marked perceived difference in the couple’s standing in the celebrity hierarchy of prestige, and for better or worse, that makes this pairing and fans’ reaction to it particularly interesting.

Fans of major stars often react strongly after their faves begin dating someone new. We saw that with all the hatred heaped on Olivia Wilde when she was with Harry Styles, and we saw it again recently in the very parasocial reactions to some of John Mulaney’s and Taylor Swift’s respective romantic activities. And indeed, there are fans out there that seem disappointed that Chalamet is dating Jenner. (Her fans seem largely happy for her.) Some of this, although mixed with humor, has been over the top. One Chalamet fan account on Instagram, Club Chalamet, dramatically posted a message that began, “If you’re feeling distressed by the video, it’s OK. But please take care of yourself. Step away from social media for a couple of days.” But as fun as it would be to claim that there’s a large-scale meltdown going on, Club Chalamet seems to be taking the news harder than most. (I reached out to the proprietor of that account but hadn’t heard back as of press time.) The more common tone is one of slight disillusionment, with some (but not all) fans feeling let down that their artsy golden boy fell for someone as “vapid” as a Kardashian.

The “No one would be good enough for Timmy” piece is running parallel to the “We hate it when the Kardashians win” piece, making for a particularly potent mix—and the Kardashians are doing particularly well at this game right now, with Kylie’s sister Kendall also dating the widely beloved rapper Bad Bunny. There’s probably some conflation of a number of the roles Chalamet’s played with his actual personality going on too—it’s true that Elio from Call Me by Your Name would probably not date Jenner … mostly because he’s a fictional character in Italy in the 1980s. But it’s also true that fans can be willfully ignorant in what they choose to believe about their favorite stars. That point might be best illustrated by the other reaction some Chalamet-heads are having to this whole thing: In addition to being baffled at the pairing, some have expressed disbelief at the actor smoking in the videos—this despite him being French, a New Yorker, and someone who has been photographed with cigarettes several other times.

As for the semi-condescending question of what Chalamet might see in Jenner, anyone who’s seen videos of Chalamet rapping or photos of him hanging out with other celebrities can extrapolate that the two might have similar interests and run in similar circles. There’s always the argument that it’s “for PR,” but Chalamet is already so famous—does he really need the attention? I found this TikTok particularly convincing on the topic of how Jenner fits into his dating history: It pointed out that one of Chalamet’s first girlfriends was Lourdes Leon, a classmate at the famous LaGuardia High School, but more importantly, the daughter of Madonna. With her long dark hair, one could squint and mistake her for a member of the Kardashian family, and she’s got the nepo baby thing going for her as well. Another former Chalamet flame, Lily-Rose Depp, similarly hails from Hollywood royalty. Neither of them were reality stars, though, which is why this is still a bit of a novelty.

But again, the Kardashians aren’t just reality stars at this point. The more interesting question might be: What is Jenner getting out of this? As that TikTok goes on to posit, Chalamet is actually more of a departure from whom Jenner has dated in the past—a group that includes rappers Travis Scott (with whom she has two kids), Tyga, and Jaden Smith—than the other way around.

Longtime Kardashian watchers will recall that the “Why is he with her?” dynamic between Chalamet and Jenner mirrors a bit that of the one surrounding Kylie’s half-sister Kim Kardashian after she first started dating her future and now ex-husband Kanye West. This was before the worst of Kanye’s mental health struggles and descent into MAGA politics and antisemitism; circa 2012, he was the one with the prestige and credentials, and she was “just a reality star.” Their union granted her a legitimacy in the fashion world that finally allowed her to appear on the cover of major magazines and score an invitation to the Met Ball. They were in love, too, by all accounts, but this is just to say that this kind of strategic matchmaking has been a theme in the Kardashians’ love lives and the discussion surrounding them for years. This is a point Emily Kirkpatrick zeroed in on a few months ago in her celebrity newsletter, I <3 Mess:

As Kirkpatrick pointed out, Jenner’s most prominent previous romantic relationships have been with rappers, who were also, notably, Black men. Jenner also has a history of blackfishing and cultural appropriation, and these things lends credence to the idea that she may now be seeking more prestige and validation through dating an A-list white actor. As some on Reddit have commented, the Kardashians’ aesthetics are evolving at the same time, away from bronzer’ed skin and Brazilian butt lifts, and in some ways they have re-embraced their identities as white women. This isn’t to say that the Kardashians are done using proximity to Black culture to capture coolness: After all, the big reveal did happen at a Beyoncé concert.

I will grant Kris Jenner that all of this will make for a very interesting plotline if it makes its way into a future season of Hulu’s The Kardashians. Incidentally, the premiere of the third season is coming up in a few weeks—funny how that timing works out. But that’s also the one piece of this I’m having trouble grokking: I can see Chalamet not caring that Jenner is a reality star in her own private time, but I’m having trouble picturing him agreeing to appear on the show, or even to be discussed on the show. So is it just a fling? Then again, that’s what they said about Kanye West. That didn’t turn out too well in a lot of ways, but it’s proof, I suppose, that we have no idea where this could go.