Kim Kardashian Answers Oprah’s “Is Kanye The New Fairytale” Question

Oprah has been asking the Kardashians some pretty hard-hitting questions in her two-part interview with the family on OWN’s Oprah’s Next Chapter. The talk-show guru has been teasing us with bits and pieces of the interview prior to its airing, one of which was a tough question directed to Kim: “Is Kanye West the new fairytale?”

According to Kim, it’s no fairytale. The two have a very real connection. It’s the real deal.

“I’ve known him—we met, maybe almost a decade ago,” Kim, 31, said. “We’ve been friends for like six or seven years. So it’s very comforting to have someone that knows everything about you, that respects you, understands [and] has gone through the similar things.”

Those similar things are the unfortunate passing of loved ones. Kanye’s mother Donda died in 2007 following complications from plastic surgery. Kim’s father Robert Kardashian lost his battle with cancer in 2003, reports E!. “He can really relate to my father passing. I mean, there’s so many similarities in our life that … I feel like I’m at a really happy, good space.”

Friends for years, it took the two a long time to find each other. Rumor has it, Kanye even pursued her during her failed marriage to Kris Humphries. “I don’t know why it took so long for us to kind of get together,” she admitted. Her highly-publicized and heavily criticized 72-day-marriage has cast doubts on her relationship with West, but Kim says her failed marriage was an age-difference thing. The fact that West is older (Humphries was about 5 years Kim’s junior) is a good thing and gives them a real chance, according to NBC New York.

“I feel like I’ve had an epiphany,” she said. “A lot of my friends, people that I love to just sit and talk to and spend time with, are wiser and a little bit older than me. Before, all my boyfriends were younger. I always dated five years younger. My whole thing was completely different.”

So is Kanye just a fairytale? We won’t know for sure until we see the rest of the interview. The second part of the Kardashian interview with Oprah Winfrey airs this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on OWN.