'Love Island USA' Leah Kateb Dodges Question About Kanye West Dating Rumor

"Love Island USA" star Leah Kateb is being confronted with rumors she used to date Kanye West ... and she's doing little to dispel online speculation the two were once an item.

The reality star appears in the latest episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast and host Alex Cooper asks her about the scuttlebutt around her and Yeezy -- something that literally nobody had heard about (at least not publicly) until now.

Alex prefaces her question with this ... "Are you going to kill me if I ask you this?" ... and then she goes ahead and asks about rumors in L.A. that Leah and Ye used to bang.

Leah awkwardly pauses -- and Alex finally breaks the awkward silence by asking if they should just move on, and Leah readily agrees ... joking she'll happily talk about any other dating rumors, including her 'LI' romance with Rob Rausch.

So, Leah's neither confirming nor denying the rumors ... which apparently started with a since-deleted TikTok post about dating Kanye. No details on when exactly this alleged fling may have gone down -- but obviously, ya gotta figure it was post-Kim Kardashian.

Kanye's been with Bianca Censori since 2022, but he's been linked to a small handful of women before he officially linked up with her. On its face, it seems Leah was one of them.

It's worth noting ... Leah is from Calabasas -- the L.A.-area enclave where Kanye and the Kardashians own property. So it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility.