One Year Later: Reflecting On Blac Chyna's Post-Kardashian Life

In a few weeks, Dream Kardashian, daughter of Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna, will be 2 years old. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long since Blac Chyna gave birth to the first baby to carry on the Kardashian name, thanks to her very public and rocky relationship with Dream's father. Time flies when there is so much piping hot tea being spilled. As 2018 winds down, it’s been roughly a year since Chyna stopped dominating the headlines as one of the most volatile players in the Kardashian-Jenner universe. I’m not sure that there’s such a thing as a post-Kardashian life when the family is so famous that everything they touch becomes part of the news cycle — and when there are ongoing lawsuits being pursued. Nevertheless, Chyna’s 2018 is worth a look.

This year didn’t start on the best foot for her. In February, she filed a police report after a video of her performing oral sex on her ex-boyfriend, Meechie, leaked online. It was the second time she was a victim of revenge porn in under a year (more on that later). April brought about her participation in a huge brawl at a Six Flags. She turned a stroller into a weapon, swinging it wildly after someone tried to touch her daughter. The 30-year-old beauty mogul also found herself in a new relationship. She began dating rapper YBN Almighty Jay after they met on Christian Mingle. He’s only 18 years old, and according to reports, they’ve already split.

As for her relationship with the Kardashians, her defamation lawsuit against them is still ongoing. According to her most recent interview, Chyna hasn’t taken the possibility of reconciliation with Rob off the table, but she insists that she’s focusing on being a better mother. Compared to the rise that the influencer was on just over two years ago, it feels like Chyna is still rebuilding and regaining her footing. Sure, her platform ballooned when she became literal bedfellows with the Kardashians and let the world watch, but in terms of her own brand and legacy, it feels very much like Chyna is limbo.

Let me explain why this is so disappointing.

Once upon a time — it seriously feels like a lifetime ago — Chyna was friends with Kim Kardashian West and happily engaged to rapper Tyga. The couple was raising their son, King Cairo, together and on track to get married. Then BOOM! Tyga started dating Kim’s teenage sister, Kylie Jenner, and that was the end of Chyna's friendship with Kim and her relationship with Tyga.

It was tough time to be Blac Chyna, but it would not be the last that the Kardashian-Jenner clan would hear from her.

In January 2016, Chyna posted a picture of herself being embraced by an arm that was unmistakably Rob’s, marking the beginning of their romantic relationship. Ten weeks later they were engaged, and in May they announced Chyna’s pregnancy. With a baby on the way, Rob and Chyna began promos for their own reality show, and the cracks in their relationship, as well as the strain it put on his family, began to show.

After Baby Dream was born, things got considerably worse for the pair. 2017 had more than its fair share of social media meltdowns from the two of them — the worst of which being Rob posting nude photos of Chyna all over social media in a heinous act of revenge porn — before they finally split up for good in July. Then the lawsuits started. Rob and Kylie were suing Chyna for assault, battery, and vandalism. Chyna sued Kim, Kylie, Rob, Khloé, Kylie, Kendall, and Kris for defamation and other attempts to block the second season of her reality show.

This feels like a missed opportunity to me. To use the popular saying: We were all rooting for her. The optics of Kylie dating Tyga — the fiancé of her sister’s friend, and presumably while Chyna and Tyga were still together — were not well-received by onlookers. There were the obvious questions of legality given the age difference between them. But ethically, it was a fucked up thing to happen to Chyna. And the Kardashian media machine was fully prepared to normalize and gloss right over it, until Chyna nestled her way right into Rob’s heart.

I certainly wish no harm on the Kardashians, but Chyna’s relationship with their brother felt like a little dose of revenge. It was satisfying to watch them struggle to avoid speaking Chyna’s name on Keeping Up With The Kardashians only to ultimately having to include her on their show. When Chyna secured her own spin-off with Rob, it was a lesson for all women that you can not only get revenge on the man who broke your heart, but make it profitable for yourself when you bounce back. I had high hopes for Chyna to be happily married to Rob, raising their family, building a successful media franchise of her own, and peacefully co-existing with her in-laws by now.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. But perhaps there are even greater blessings in store for her the future. Here’s to Chyna rising from the ashes once again.