One of my (many) unpopular gossip opinions is that Kim Kardashian’s 72-day marriage and divorce to Kris Humphries was funny and relatable, and it even made her slightly sympathetic. It was so obvious (to me) what happened there: Kim freaked out about turning 30 years old and decided to run off and marry the first guy she came across, then she tried to convince herself that she wanted Kris Humphries and everything he wanted, and then it all fell apart quickly after the wedding. Like, minus the reality show and the wedding special, I always thought a lot of women could relate to the birthday freakout and the “briefly convincing themselves that a douchebag they barely know was the One.” Well, Kim has one more regret about the Humphries marriage: she let him have the Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring, even though he only paid for a fifth of it.
Kim Kardashian might have one lingering regret from her swift divorce from Kris Humphries. The SKIMS founder was famously married to the former NBA player for just 72 days in 2011, and on the March 13 episode of The Kardashians, she reflected on the engagement ring he gave her — or, more accurately, she got herself.
As she mused to her sister Khloé Kardashian, Kim, 44, said, “I wonder what my next ring shape will be — on my last and final hoorah,” before taking a trip down memory lane to revisit each of her three engagement rings.
“Number one was a cushion cut, 14-karat,” she said, referring to her four-year marriage to Damon Thomas. Her second engagement ring, which Humphries proposed to her with, was an 18-karat emerald cut from Lorraine Schwartz, she said.
“I didn’t keep that,” she revealed. “I was pregnant with [daughter] North [West], still married to him and in order to divorce him, he said I had to give him the ring in my divorce,” she explained of Humphries. The demand was made worse when Kim noted that she was the one who bought the ring. “He contributed a fifth,” she clarified.
“Jesus,” her hairstylist and friend Chris Appleton said after hearing the story, which he called “savage.”
Schwartz — who was with Kim and Khloé as well on their trip to Mumbai for the July 2024 Ambani wedding, which the episode documented — told Kim it was for the “best” that she got rid of the ring. “But I would’ve loved a collection,” she admitted.
Like many jewelry lovers, Kim worships Elizabeth Taylor, who was famously married eight times (to seven men, Richard Burton got a repeat). Something I learned from Taylor’s My Love Affair with Jewelry is that Liz didn’t keep most of her engagement rings either, although she kept the biggest, the Krupp diamond (she sold the ring she got from Mike Todd though). While it would be nice to have a huge collection of rings for all of one’s husbands, it’s probably not that realistic, I’m just saying. As for Kris Humphries demanding the ring… what a loser. I mean, granted, Kim probably followed the “etiquette” around returning the ring (given she was the one who ended the marriage), but Kris really had some audacity to demand the ring in exchange for granting the divorce.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- -New York, NY – 08/29/2011Kim Kardashian and new husband Kris Humphries leaves a building in Chelsea -PICTURED: Kim Kardashian -PHOTO by: Humberto Carreno/startraksphoto.com -HOB_3461 Startraks Photo New York, NY For licensing please call 212-414-9464 or email sales@startraksphoto.com Featuring: Kim Kardashian Where: New York, New York, United States When: 29 Aug 2011 Credit: Humberto Carreno/startraksphoto.
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- August 30, 2011: Newlyweds Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries head to Kris’ apartment in Hoboken NJ which was flooded by Hurrican Irene this past weekend after a night out in New York City Credit: Pena/Hall/INFphoto.com Ref: infusny-131/155 Featuring: Kim Kardashian, Kris Humphries Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 31 Aug 2011 Credit: Pena/Hall/INFphoto.com
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- August 31, 2011: Kim Kardashian attending ‘A Night of Style & Glamour’ to welcome newlyweds Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries at Capitale in New York City. Credit:Roger Wong/INFphoto.com Ref.: infusny-146|sp| Featuring: Kim Kardashian Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 31 Aug 2011 Credit: Roger Wong/INFphoto.com
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- August 31, 2011: Kris Humphries, Kim Kardashian attending ‘A Night of Style & Glamour’ to welcome newlyweds Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries at Capitale in New York City. Credit: INFevents.com Ref: infusny-142|sp| Featuring: Kris Humphries, Kim Kardashian Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 31 Aug 2011 Credit: INFevents.com
Kim was such a cutie…
I miss face 1.0 and 2.0…
Aw remember her old face? Men are shameless toooo!!
I lived in D.C. when Kris Humphries played for the Wizards. I was out at a bar watching football one Sunday and there he was, sitting two seats down from me. A drunk girl who I didn’t know started screaming at me about KIM KARDASHIAN’S EX and he promptly paid his bill and left. I used to feel bad for him for that incident but having revisited how he treated Kim and now knowing he demanded the ring to grant the divorce, I’m glad for Random Drunk Girl embarrassing him out of the bar.
What purpose is a used engagement ring to an ex husband? Surely not to regift to a new lady? (Asking because all these years later I still wonder what became of my ring;, my fiance was breaking up with me and I was in shock and stunned and didn’t notice he was slipping the ring off my hand. )
He sold the ring.
They were married 72 days lol she put in 80% for the ring she wanted because her family had the money, but the dude still put in 200K. Im not a dude and i’m not rich, so in that situation I would want that 200K back, that’s a big loss for 72 days, unless it was presented to him as an investment…. Then I would understand why he asked he for that money back. There’s a some fine line stuff kim is not revealing in that marriage contract : rich people, they dont do and marry like us peasants…
There’s actually a new show called the The Kardashians – on Disney Star (?) or Prime (?) which features one of her fame creators (I dont have the will to go and look it up at this moment) thats basically a making of the Kardashians story and they specifically speak about all things they did to maintain the spotlight, and this marriage and divorce was one of them. It was all a publicity stunt.
At least Ms Swift hasn’t left behind a trail of ex-husbands and kids being raised on camera. I don’t think I’ve ever found her more relatable than having a long-term late-20s-early 30s relationship die a slow death when thinking you were on track for weddings and babies, then doing something really silly with an old flame afterwards. (Or at least according to the story we’ve been told…)
She seems happy enough with the large football bro – be interesting to see if they make it down the aisle. I suspect he’d have to sign the mother of all pre-nups.
And she married him anyway.
exactly! And how much money did the family and E make off the 2 part wedding special? But he’s the bad guy for going through with a wedding for a marriage that SHE didn’t want? And then she and the family spent how many “episodes” and an Oprah interview justifying the wedding money grab? That golden calf fed many, handsomely, so why are we revisiting this NOW? Sounds like the KUWTK vig is in jeopardy.
I’m on Kaiser’s side here. I totally understand why she married this dude. You know who else had an age-related freak-out and convinced herself a terrible human was the one? Taylor Swift. (oh, and also me.)
She married the guy for one reason — for the show and all that the wedding and the lead up brought to her. She made an incredible amount of money off of that little venture. She is tacky as anything to be talking about it now and saying a word about the ex that she conned into marrying her for some ratings and a storyline.
And the fact that she was pregnant with another man’s child while still being married is not the flex she thinks it is. She is just vile.
Etiquette says you give back the engagement ring if you call off the wedding. Once you are married, you’ve fulfilled the obligation of the ring and don’t need to give it back. But if it’s say your ex”s family heirloom, it would be polite to return it, unless you were married for decades/have kids.
Kim was in no way obligated by etiquette to give Kris H the ring back, especially since he didn’t 100% or even 50% pay for it. But, being such a short marriage, I can see why she’d do it to get rid of him.
Neither party comes out smelling like a rose in this story. He’s a putz for asking for the ring, and she was awful to marry someone as a plot point in her show.
This.
Also, if she was so put out over paying for it herself, why not just get a ring that he could afford on his own? He paid for a fifth of it – so why not get a ring that cost that same amount?
She wanted a certain ring, a certain size cut etc, and so she paid for it. I view that as entirely her choice.
During that time, the tv at my gym was persistently set to news about that wedding, and I was assaulted with scroll bar headlines like “American royalty.” And it fell apart in 72 days. I’m trying for the sympathy and not quite finding it.
She doesn’t say she paid the rest. I think E! footed the bill for most of that entire scene.
Ha! Good point. There’s a tv finance office that should probably get the ring back.
If the marriage was not legally dissolved when it was, her daughter North would legally be Humphries’ daughter. The ring was the price of her adultery.
This right here — she was PREGNANT with someone else’s child — and as Tuesday above said — I doubt that came out of her pocket.
Funny how we forgot how they manipulated the footage to make him look like an asshole and give Kim an out for turning his life upside down for ratings.
I’m glad he demanded the ring — it was his severance pay.
When it comes to normal people. I’m not gonna judge that a pregnancy occurred before a brief marriage was fully dissolved, but with this family who acts like having all their children by one father absolves them of their other crimes against our entire cultural framework, I say ring that bell.
She paid for her own ring and married him. Then cheated on him and got pregnant with another man’s baby. There are only losers here.
Personally I think Kayne was already in the mix and she saw she could do way better (Kayne then is not the same Kayne now and he had big connections).
I’m ok with him asking for it haha.
I’ve always felt her best face was around the time she was with Kris Humphries, wish she would have stopped there.
Kris Humphries lucked out in my opinion. That family is toxic.
It was staged anyway, they did 2 takes of the ‘surprise’ engagement with her coming in. My guess is E paid for the ring and Humphries has a NDA to not speak about it.
I always remember the year of their divorce because a lot of spectators at the marathons I did that year had made signs that read “Your training plan lasted longer than Kim Kardashian’s marriage!”😆
Why does Kim try to emulate these iconic women’s lives? (Taylor,Monroe,Diana) no offence but those women had an aura no one else can copy, especially a reality tv star.
Plenty of starlets try to be those incomparable women, but two of them died young and tragically. I think when you’re very young, it’s hard to imagine living past 36 anyway, so why not emulate them? I would hope that Kim in her mid-40s with 4 children is at least a bit more Taylor, live to a ripe old age with dozens of husbands.
He kept the ring because she was unfair to him. She knew he believed in marriage yet she was never serious with him. Some people don’t want to be married multiply times. I’m glad that he at least got this over in her. LOL. She kept the wedding gifts if I’m remembering correctly.
Kim’s a ****** for doing this. He paid for 20% and she paid for the rest? She didn’t pay retail if she paid anything at all. Might have been gifted or charged for cost and PR.
I’m glad he got something out of that PR stunt. A truly toxic band of harpies to get embroiled with.
Kris Humphries to me turned out to be the nice guy trope during the divorce proceedings
He could have come out as a victim but he was an absolute AH for no reason but laughs
Keeping it klassy, as usual, Kim, right?
She was married to Damon Thomas for four years before that though. Still a panic wedding?