Bianca Censori testifies in husband Kanye West’s unpaid wages trial against handyman

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Bianca Censori, the wife of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, testified Monday as part of the civil trial that pits her husband against a handyman hired to help transform a Malibu beach house into an “off-the-grid” bunker with slides.

The 31-year-old Australian-born Censori, who has a Master’s degree in architecture, was not yet married to Ye in 2021 when she was hired to work on the dramatic remodeling of the so-called “Ando house,” a $57 million seaside home designed by renowned architect Tadao Ando. Censori was removed from the project by Ye, just as Tony Saxon, the plaintiff in the case, was being hired. Saxon is suing Ye for lost wages, including unpaid overtime, and medical expenses from what he says was a painful workplace injury to his back and neck.

Ye’s attorneys have argued Saxon was never a full-time employee and that Saxon was in effect working as a contractor without a license — which, in California, would mean Saxon is not entitled to compensation and can’t sue over unpaid wages. A key issue in the trial, then, is whether Saxon pretended to have such credentials. Censori said he did.

“When I stopped working at the house, I said, ‘Do you have a contractor’s license?’ And he said he did,” Censori said. Later, she explained Saxon had “interjected” himself into being at the center of the ambitious and ever-morphing project and said it wasn’t uncommon for people in Ye’s circle to oversell themselves.

“People will say yes to him just so they can stay in his orbit, for opportunities,” she said. “Once I was removed, there was an opportunity for someone else to step in, which he did.”

Throughout her testimony, she appeared sharp and alert, listening intently, answering quickly, smiling at the plaintiff’s attorneys. She was dressed all in black, as Ye and his coterie are wont to do, wearing a full-length leather skirt and a buttoned-up black cardigan sweater, her hair pulled back into a tight bun. She claimed not to remember many of the details she was quizzed over.

LA County Superior Court Judge Brock Hammond seemed to grow increasingly impatient with the pace of plaintiff’s attorney Roger Haag’s questioning. He repeatedly prodded the lawyer to “move on to the next question” or “next topic” and sustained numerous objections on relevance grounds — at times before the objection could even be voiced by defense attorneys.

But Haag did score some points during Censori’s daylong testimony. Defense attorneys have said Saxon quit the job on his own accord. But Censori confirmed Saxon’s account that he was fired, after a little more than a month on the job.

“He got fired,” Censori said, matter-of-factly. “It wasn’t unusual that he would be fired.” When asked by Haag why it was no surprise, Censori answered, “Some people gelled with his personality” — his meaning Ye’s — “and some people didn’t.”

In a series of text messages between Saxon and Censori shown in court, Saxon appeared to have kept Censori well informed of the progress being made at the Ando house, despite her claim that she was far removed from it. The texts also showed she was well informed of Saxon’s back problems.

“My back is so fucked,” he told Censori in one text. “Is his chiropractor there?” When asked if she passed on Saxon’s request to Ye, Censori said she never did because it was “not my business.”

Saxon was initially hired to take out the kitchen cabinets, but his remit quickly expanded and was soon tasked with making major changes to the property. The house had already been designed to be minimalist; Ye wanted it to be the mostminimalist. He wanted the windows removed, and the jacuzzi, the fireplaces, the chimneys, even the plumbing and the electricity. Even the toilets. He wanted an “off-the-grid” compound, a bomb shelter in one of the most expensive ZIP codes in the world.

Saxon says he soon became the supervisor or foreman of the project, but also the 24-hour security guard, sleeping on the concrete floor of the property for weeks. Defense attorneys, during their opening argument, said Saxon was never ordered to sleep at the house but took it upon himself to do so.

Censori added some weight to that claim, suggesting he was down-and-out when Ye hired him.

“He looked a bit rough around the edges,” Censori said, “like he hadn’t been taking care of himself.” Later, she added, “He had issues with his credit score. He had maybe mentioned living with his friend.”

But other text messages showed Saxon repeatedly telling Censori that he wanted to move out.

“I can’t live here anymore,” Saxon texted to her at one point. “We need security so I can leave.”

When asked about those texts, Censori said, “I didn’t really know what was going on. I just responded as if he was venting.” When questioned by Ye’s own attorney, she later added, “I’m not sure why he was living there.”

Saxon claims he was promised $20,000 a week, and though he did receive around $260,000, much of that went to pay for materials and other workers. He developed something of a bond with Ye, at one point putting him up in an expensive Malibu hotel, Nobu, and personally running him a bath. Saxon says that at one point, Ye had him work in a downtown LA warehouse to prepare for “Sunday Service,” a sort of quasi-church service run by Ye. Censori did not recall ever seeing Saxon working at the service but did see him attend it.

This is the first of roughly a dozen lawsuits filed against Ye by former employees, many of whom worked at Ye’s short-lived private school, Donda Academy. In one lawsuit, students and employees say they were forbidden to go onto the second floor because Ye “was reportedly afraid of stairs.”

“His vision always went through rules,” Censori said from the witness stand. “He didn’t like stairs, he didn’t like glazing glass.”

Ye is scheduled to testify all day on Friday, a highly anticipated event. Ye is known for making wild and controversial statements, many of them involving Adolf Hitler. This will be one of his first major public appearances — if you can call a downtown LA courtroom with fewer than 40 seats public — since his published apology in The Wall Street Journal, in which he blamed his many antisemitic comments on his bipolar condition.

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