A decade after Kanye West encouraged then-wife Kim Kardashian to “break the internet” by posing naked for Paper Magazine, he tried to do it again — this time by talking his wife Bianca Censori into strutting down the Grammys red carpet in a sheer minidress that showed her entire body.
Friends of the rapper told The Post that the 47-year-old West wanted to replicate the buzz that Kardashian got when she showed off her famous backside on Paper’s November 2014 cover — which ran with the line, “Break the internet with Kim Kardashian.”
“He wanted to go viral again,” said a pal, who speaks to him regularly and has talked to him since the latest stunt.
“And he knew the best way to do it was to have Bianca be naked. She didn’t love the idea at first, but it’s all about what he wants.”
It appeared that his wife was frightened to be naked in such a public venue; a body language expert told The Post that Censori — who has been married to West since 2022 — showed “fear” on the red carpet.
But Kardashian showed no fear when she posed naked in 2014 — although her decision shocked the producers at “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” at the time, who thought the nudity was unnecessary. Kardashian was already an A-lister and mom to North West by then.
“We were against the spread, because why did she need to do that?” said a producer of the hit reality show. “I know how she became famous, but there comes a point where A-listers don’t pose naked.”
“You don’t see Mariska Hargitay posing naked,” the producer continued, referring to the “Law & Order SVU” star who has been the highest-paid actress on television for the past decade.
“You don’t see Julia Roberts or Gwyneth Paltrow naked. Because they’re above that.”
“Getting naked for a magazine that — let’s face it, most people had never heard of — was not what a leading lady should do. No one wanted her to do it — but Kanye. She wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for him.”
After their split, Kardashian was candid about how he had micromanaged her wardrobe choices, often coercing into wearing outfits that she didn’t want to wear.
“I got to a point where I would ask him for advice for everything — down to what I wear,” she said on a 2022 episode of “KUWTK.”
“Even now I’m having panic attacks like, what do I wear?”
One time, when West disliked a dress that Kardashian had worn, he unleashed a tirade on her, she said.
“He called me afterwards,” Kardashian said.
“He told me my career is over and then he showed me a picture of Marge Simpson wearing something similar.”
Despite Kardashian’s immense wealth and strong family connections, she still often deferred to her then-husband, even on the set of her long-running show.
“He came in during season 7 and he was like a wrecking ball,” said another “KUWTK” producer.
“He was always telling Kim what she thought she should wear, or he’d be like ‘it would be funny if you did this or that.’”
“Kim tried very hard to listen to him when she could,” said the producer.
“I pulled her aside once and asked about it, and she said, ‘If I can say yes, I’ll say yes. But if I say no, that’s final.’ But she tried to say yes as much as possible.”
Managing his partners’ looks has been a pattern for West, who dated also Amber Rose from 2008 to 2010.
After their split, Rose said that she had to concede to his demands for when she should dress modestly and when she should bare all.
“It was a culture shock for somebody like me,” Rose said on the Drink Champs podcast in 2017.
“I was stripping at Sue’s Rendezvous a week before I met him.”
“All of a sudden, I was in Paris and London, wearing really expensive clothes,” she recalled.
“People don’t realize I was only 24 years old and he was 32. I was very immature. I didn’t understand needing stylists.”
“Kanye told me what to do and when to do it,” she added.
“And I did.”
While Censori may have been ambivalent about her outfit on Sunday night, West has been delighted by the reaction — and even bragged that he “beat the Grammys.”
“For clarity, February 4th 2025 my wife is the most Googled person on the planet called Earth,” he posted on Instagram.
“That’s what he wanted,” says his pal.
“This is the moment that everyone will remember from the 2025 Grammys. They won’t be talking about anything else. They’ll be talking about Kanye.”
Reps for West and Kardashian did not respond to a request for comment. It’s unclear if Censori has representation authorized to speak on her behalf.
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