Kim Kardashian and NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. are exclusively dating, according to insiders, who have claimed the pair have been striving to keep their romance a  secret out of respect for his son – and in a bid to avoid a reaction from Kanye West.

The reality star, 43, and the athlete, 31, have publicly been linked since September 2023 when speculation began to mount about a potential connection between the pair.

Now, the two have reportedly taken things to the next level and are only dating each other.

‘Kim has been romantically involved with Odell since last summer and thought she had managed to keep it under wraps,’ a source told DailyMail.com exclusively. ‘She is not seeing anyone else right now – at least not that her close friends know of.’

Explaining why Kim has been unusually coy about her love life, the source stated that the pair agreed to keep things private in order to avoid any false speculation that the Skims mogul is a ‘homewrecker.’

The pair started ‘hanging out’ following his split from longtime girlfriend Lauren ‘LoLo’ Wood – with whom he shares one-year-old son Zydn.

Their split was announced in September, but it is unclear when their relationship came to an end.

‘Kim really wanted to keep this romance private for two reasons,’ the source continued. ‘One is that he has a one-year-old son with his ex-Lauren Woods.

‘They both wanted to avoid any speculation that he left Lauren for Kim – branding Kim a homewrecker.’

The insider added that another key issue for the new couple is Kim’s outspoken ex-husband, Kanye with whom she has four children: North, 10, Saint, eight, Chicago, six, and Psalm, four.

‘The second reason is to avoid the backlash from Kanye,’ they continued. ‘After what Kanye put Pete Davidson through, Kim wants to avoid that at all costs.

‘It is only a matter of time now before Kanye says something publicly, but he has no solid proof.’

Kim and Kanye were married for seven years until their divorce was finalized in November 2022 – one month before he married his current wife Bianca.

Kim went on to publicly date Pete Davidson, during which time Kanye shocked fans with posts mocking the comedian’s looks and only referring to him by the nickname ‘Skete’.

When Kim split from Pete in August 2022, Kanye posted a picture on Instagram of a fake New York Times newspaper with the words ‘Skete Davidson dead at age 28.’

A separate source close to the star told DailyMail.com at the time: ‘Kim won’t stand for this. She is demanding that Kanye take the post down, but he won’t. She has been vigorously defending Pete.

‘She’ll never get back together with Kanye over the way he’s treated the people she loves and respects… She won’t stand for this type of behavior from him.’

It wasn’t the first time Kanye threatened Pete online, having regularly posted and then deleted attacks waged at his ex-wife’s former boyfriend.

He also shared a screengrab of Pete’s defunct Instagram account and took credit for driving him away from the social media platform.

‘Ran Skete off the gram,’ he wrote. ‘Tell your mother I changed your name for life.’

The rapper was also forced to acknowledge that his social media posts came off as harassing Kim, after he shared text messages with her saying that his previous torrent of posts were putting the comic in danger.

After Kim and Odell were linked in reports last September, she attended his 31st birthday party that following November.

Kim was spotted arriving with her younger sister, Khloe Kardashian, 39, at the party – who reportedly dated Odell briefly in 2016.

Odell is no stranger to the Kardashain-Jenner family as he worked with Kim’s half-sister Kendall Jenner, 28, for the Moon toothpaste campaign in 2021.

Kim and Odell were rumored to be at the same pre-Grammy party last week with TMZ claiming they put on an amorous display at the bash.

The star-studded pre-Grammy bash was thrown by Jay-Z at the exclusive Bird Streets club and also saw other celebrity attendees including Lil Uzi Vert as well as Kris Jenner’s boyfriend Corey Gamble.