Kim Kardashian has said she wanted to completely heal and work on herself following her divorce from Kanye West.

The reality star and businesswoman, 45, was married to the rapper, 49, from 2014 until 2021.

Although she dated comedian Pete Davidson, 32, for nine months in 2022, she remained single until meeting her current partner, Sir Lewis Hamilton.

Speaking to The Times, Kardashian reflected on staying single following her divorce from West.

“I was really single for five years,” she said.

“And that felt great. I could focus on my kids and projects that I really wanted to be involved with. I really felt no rush. Like, I really didn’t feel empty. I felt like I needed my time.

“I wanted to completely heal and just work on myself. I wasn’t ready to open up. I really wasn’t even thinking about it. The universe works in your favour when you just allow it to.”

In June she went Instagram official with Hamilton, 41, after they were spotted at a hotel in the Cotswolds together four months earlier.

She and the British racing driver have posted a series of snaps together on holidays around the world but are yet to make a public statement on their relationship.

When asked by The Times if she wanted to make a comment, Kardashian said: “In the most respectful way, I’d probably rather not.”

However, in the interview Kardashian did speak about her four children she has with her ex-husband – North, 13, Saint, 10, Chicago, eight, and Psalm, seven.

While she is now worth £1.9 billion, Kardashian said she is passing on the same teachings her late father – lawyer Robert Kardashian – taught her.

Despite having a “picture-perfect upbringing” in Beverly Hills, Kardashian said: “My dad would always say to me, ‘You see this big life, you’re going to have to work extra hard to maintain the life that you have seen, because this isn’t your life’.”

She continued: “It’s something I talk to my kids about constantly, about hard work, never taking things for granted, always having gratitude. I lead by example. I’m really open with them about my work, all of the hard work that I put into my law studies, and they’re proud. I think that you can have a big life and still have that spirit in you. But it is more challenging.”

Kardashian was seen publicly supporting Sir Lewis at the Monaco Grand Prix earlier this year, and they were spotted together at the Super Bowl and Coachella music festival before he made their relationship Instagram official in August.

In a social media post captioned “outtakes”, Sir Lewis shared a carousel of photos, including him and Kardashian embracing on a beach, with paintball guns and wearing racing helmets.

The Skims founder posted a similar photo of them cuddled up on a beach and an intimate mirror selfie in a post captioned “somewhere over the rainbow”.

The couple have known each other since at least 2014, when they were photographed at the GQ Men of the Year awards with their partners at the time: West and singer Nicole Scherzinger – whom Sir Lewis split from the following year.