Retired NBA star Kris Humphries, 34, defended his relationship with Kim Kardashian, 38, as “100% real” and wrote about their divorce for The Players’ Tribune, and all the emotions came as a shock to Kim after the essay’s publication on March 26. “After hearing about Kris’s essay, Kim is glad to hear that he felt their love was real because she agrees and feels the same way,” a source close to the KKW Beauty owner EXCLUSIVELY tells HollywoodLife. That wasn’t the only surprise, as our source adds, “She had no idea the divorce affected him so [much] and put him into that dark place. After reading the piece, Kim feels emotional as she thought back about the challenging time. She can totally relate too, she did a lot of crying over the breakup.”
With a 90-day engagement and 72-day marriage that ended with Kim filing for divorce in Oct. 2011, Kris confessed that the public “embarrassment” took a toll on him and led him to a “dark place” for a year. Although Kim was already trained for this level of scrutiny as a star on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, she can still empathize with her ex-husband eight years after their split. “Kim married for love, not for her TV show ratings and also suffered after the embarrassing divorce,” our source continues. “She dealt with a lot of fans questioning the validity of their quick romance and failed marriage too. Kim struggled with strangers who thought she did it all for the cameras, fame and money.”
It didn’t help that the timeline of Kris and Kim’s actual romance was shorter than the legal process that ensued afterwards, as they wouldn’t finalize the divorce until April 2013. Since Kim was on the other side of this legal battle, “it was all tough on her too, so she gets it,” our source adds. Now, they’re in much different places, as Kim is married to hip hop artist Kanye West, 41, and is expecting his fourth baby via surrogate, while Kris announced his retirement from the NBA in his personal essay. Time heals all wounds, and so our source continues, “She can relate to Kris’s sincere words about their time together. Ultimately, Kim is grateful for the time spent together and wishes him well.”
Kris and Kim can finally see eye-to-eye after their nasty split, which led Kris to respond to Kim’s divorce filing by seeking an annulment in Dec. 2011. That complicated the separation process, which Kim explained during a trip to the Late Show with David Letterman in Jan. 2013. “I don’t really know ‘cause even if we got an annulment — I would love to give him one but then that would make — the only legal way to get an annulment is if fraud were involved, so that’s what’s tricky,” the reality show star told host David Letterman, and claimed, “So he is suing me for an annulment based on the fact that I frauded him into marrying him for publicity.”
Despite the legal battle, Kris assured that the romance involved no scheming when it first blossomed in Dec. 2010. “I was definitely naive about how much my life was going to change. But the one thing that really bothers me is whenever people say my marriage was fake,” the former Atlanta Hawks player wrote in his essay. “There’s definitely a lot about that world that is not entirely real. But our actual relationship was 100% real. When it was clear that it wasn’t working…what can I say? It sucked. It’s never easy to go through the embarrassment of something like that — with your friends, with your family….but when it plays out so publicly, in front of the world, it’s a whole other level. It was brutal.”