Anna Wintour denies she was strong-armed into Kimye Vogue cover

Putting Kim Kardashian and Kanye West on the cover of Vogue was all the magazine’s idea, says Anna Wintour.

Despite rumors that West, 36, pressured the editor in chief to put his fiancée on the fashion magazine’s cover, Wintour, 64, says she made the bold choice because of the couple’s influence on popular culture.

“Part of the pleasure of editing Vogue, one that lies in a long tradition of this magazine, is being able to feature those who define the culture at any given moment, who stir things up, whose presence in the world shapes the way it looks and influences the way we see it,” she explains in her editor’s letter in the April issue. “I think we can all agree on the fact that that role is currently being played by Kim and Kanye to a T. (Or perhaps that should be to a K?)”

She continues, “As for the cover, my opinion is that it is both charming and touching, and it was, I should add, entirely our idea to do it; you may have read that Kanye begged me to put his fiancée on Vogue’s cover. He did nothing of the sort,” she says. “The gossip might make better reading, but the simple fact of the matter is that it isn’t true.”

It was widely reported the “Yeezus” rapper was campaigning to land his daughter’s mother on the cover of the magazine for some time. West arranged seating for Wintour and Vogue’s creative director, Grace Coddington, next to Kardashian, 33, and her momager, Kris Jenner, at his Barclays Center show in November. Come January, West and Wintour were spotted lunching at the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where West appeared to be “very intense” during their conversation.

The couple graces the cover of Vogue’s annual shape issue in a wedding-inspired image snapped by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.