Kanye West apologises in Wall Street Journal ad, denies being a Nazi

Kanye West has taken out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal apologising for his antisemitic behaviour and saying 'I am not a Nazi or an antisemite' and 'I love Jewish people', the letter says. West — now legally known as Ye — titled the piece 'To Those I’ve Hurt'. He attributed inflammatory actions, including making profoundly offensive statements and selling T-shirts bearing swastikas, to bipolar type‑1 disorder that he said developed after medical oversight failed to diagnose a frontal‑lobe injury from a 2002 car crash.

He wrote that the brain injury 'wasn't properly diagnosed until 2023' and that the oversight 'caused serious damage' and 'led to my bipolar type‑1 diagnosis', which he said he received in 2016. The advert recalls a series of incidents: selling swastika T‑shirts in February 2025 that prompted Shopify to take down his webstore; a May song called Heil Hitler that sampled a speech by Hitler, was banned in Germany and went viral; engagement in Holocaust‑denial; and, the piece notes, last week rightwing influencers including Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes were filmed making Nazi salutes to the song in a Miami Beach nightclub.

West described a four‑month manic episode in early 2025 that he said involved 'psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior' and suicidal ideation, and wrote that his wife, Bianca Censori, encouraged him to get help.

Key Topics

Culture, Kanye West, Heil Hitler, Swastika T-shirts, Bianca Censori, Shopify