Kim Kardashian and husband US rapper Kanye West attend the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party. AFP

Kim Kardashian has broken her silence on her husband Kanye West’s mental health following a series of troubling social media posts from the rapper.

West, who says he is running for US president, recently tweeted then deleted a series of concerning posts, including one that claimed Kardashian had called a doctor to come and “lock [him] up”. He then stated he is divorcing Kardashian, whom he referred to as a “white supremacist”.

The controversial artist also recently took part in a rally in South Carolina, at which he made a number of outlandish comments and a tearful anti-abortion speech.

Posting on her Instagram Stories on Wednesday (22 July), Kardashian wrote: “As many of you know, Kanye has bipolar disorder. Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand.

She said she has never spoken publicly about how this has affected her family at home because she is "very protective of my children and Kanye’s right to privacy when it comes to his health".

“But today," she wrote, "I feel like I should comment on it because of the stigma and misconceptions about mental health.”

Kardashian went on to explain that those who understand mental illness “know that the family is powerless unless the person is a minor”, adding: “The individuals themselves have to engage in the process of getting help no matter how hard family and friends try.”

She added that West is a “brilliant but complicated person” and said “his words sometimes do not align with his intentions”.

“Living with bipolar disorder does not diminish or invalidate his dreams or creative ideas,” she wrote.

 Kim Kardashian West and husband US rapper Kanye West attend the WSJ Magazine 2019 Innovator Awards.

Kardashian concluded the post with a plea for “compassion and empathy” from the media and the public.

West has spoken before about his recent history of mental illness, acknowledging in 2018 that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He described the condition as a “superpower” in a song on his album Ye, and said the condition could make him “hyper-paranoid” at times.

While it is unclear how serious West’s presidential campaign is, he has filed to get on the November ballot in Oklahoma and Illinois. Some, however, have speculated that the campaign is a ruse designed to promote his upcoming album.