It’s been a long and rocky road for Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick. The two met back in 2006 in Mexico when they were both guests at the home of Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis. They began dating almost immediately, and shortly after that, Keeping up with the Kardashians premiered, so we've all been able to witness the couple's rocky on-again-off-again relationship unfold in front of us. With so much access to their lives, what could we possibly not already know? What could examining Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick’s body language reveal that years of watching them fight, make up, and even co-parent their three children together hasn't already? Between KUWTK, its various spinoffs, and their extremely active social media, isn't everything already out there for the world to see?
To answer that question and possibly get some more insight into the changing dynamic of Kourtney and Scott's relationship over the last decade, Elite Daily called in Patti Wood, a body language expert and author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma. Here's what she sees in the evolution of their relationship from partners to co-parents.
When Kourtney was pregnant with their first child Mason, the couple attended a pregnancy sex class to help assuage her fears about having sex while pregnant. In this video, Wood sees a genuine connection between the two of them. "Throughout this, he does a couple little tender things," Wood tells Elite Daily. She points out the moment where Scott casually kisses Kourtney on the head, and says that it was a real tender kiss.
"It wasn’t for show," she says. "She’s smiling sincerely when he does that little kiss. I also noticed how after that kiss she tilts all the way over into his space so that they are overlapping. So they have this little moment... she spontaneously leaned her body into his space and he spontaneously leaned more into her space so there is this big overlap."
In addition to being connected in this moment, Wood sees that Scott is feeling protective of Kourtney. "There is another tender moment right after that," she says. "He puts his hand around her knee in a comfort cue as she gets into more awkward positions and, in that little moment he's saying, ‘OK I’m here for you honey.’"
By 2011, the couple's dynamic has already begun to change. They had welcomed Mason and then split up. Even though the couple had reunited after time apart, Wood still sees that there is a distance — both emotionally and literally — between the two.
"I think the first and most obvious thing we need to go ahead and say is how far apart they are," says Wood. "They are really far apart here." Wood also notes that it looks like Scott wants to bridge the gap, but Kourtney is very guarded. "You see the elbow around the head... I call it the royal cape, so he’s doing a half of a royal cape but the other half is reaching towards her. In that moment he’s saying, 'I wanna stay in my power but I also want to reach for you.'"
Kourtney's body language, on the other hand, is putting up a wall between them. "She’s leaning away, she’s got her elbow and arm as a guard against him, she’s just sitting on the leg, again just protecting herself sexually," says Wood. "She does this very weird thing with her hands and her mouth which is beyond the normal comfort cue. It's back to babyhood, like childlike...she wants to self-comfort and she wants nurturing. What's interesting is he’s offering it to her and she’s not taking it from him."
When the two finally do bridge the gap and touch hands, Wood notes it's when Kourtney is requesting an anniversary gift. "She’s playing hard to get and telling him he has to pay a price for her to give him affection," explains Wood.
By 2017 the couple split seemingly for good, but they continue to co-parent and try to maintain a friendship. Despite their best efforts, Wood sees that there is an underlying tension bubbling below the surface. Scott's body language is remarkably different than in previous videos. Where in the the past he has always bridged the gap, he's much more withdrawn here.
"Now we see his left arm out taking up space and showing that he’s super man," says Wood. "He's taking up a great deal of space to show his strength. He’s inside the house and he’s got sunglasses on, and that's protection — not to be seen fully but to hide a little bit of what he’s really feeling."
The way that Kourtney relates to Scott has changed as well, says Wood. "She has this anger, but the way she expresses it is very mother-to-child. The timber in her voice and the way she looks at him is not an adult-to-adult."
While the couple ultimately ends the clip on a positive and friendly note, the dynamic of the two has shifted greatly from the first video where Scott had a protector and comforting role toward Kourtney, to one where Kourtney responds to Scott like he's a child. Both parties have since gone on to relationships with other people, but if past is prologue, who knows what the future holds for these two?
