Kris Humphries is looking back on his short-lived marriage to Kim Kardashian, defending it as authentic while admitting its affect on his NBA career.
The 34-year-old athlete opened up about his 2011 marriage to the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star as he announced his retirement from NBA Tuesday in a blog post for The Player’s Tribute.
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“The irony of my career is that I finally figured out what kind of player I was when I got to the Nets. … I felt like I knew who I was, finally. And then I met a girl who happened to be really famous, and I got married, and … damn,” he recalled. “Look, I should have known what I was getting into. 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 that my marriage was fake.”
Humphries and Kardashian tied the knot in an elaborate ceremony that played out on the E! reality show in August 2011, but their marriage would last only 72 days before the reality personality filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. This was Humphries’ first marriage and Kardashian’s second, as she was married to Damon Thomas from 2000 to 2003 before filing for divorce. In 2014, she wed rapper Kanye West, with whom she has three children.
Kardashian’s relationship with the athlete has been rumored by some to have been faked in order to drum up interest in KUWTK, but Humphries denies that was the case.
“There’s definitely a lot about that world that is not entirely real. But our actual relationship was 100% real,” he wrote. “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.”
He continued, “I didn’t know how to handle it, because I never thought I was going to be famous in that way. I remember having this moment when I was getting booed so hard in Philly, and I thought to myself, ‘Why exactly are they booing me, though? Is it just because I’m That Guy from TV? Do they think I was trying to be famous? Is it because they think I disrespected the game of basketball?’ The last one killed me, because all I’ve ever wanted to be known for was basketball.”
The retired NBA player admitted he suffered from a lot of anxiety surrounding the marriage and high-profile divorce.
“There was about a year where I was in a dark place. I didn’t want to leave my home. You feel like … I don’t know … the whole world hates you, but they don’t even know why,” he admitted. “They don’t even know you at all. They just recognize your face, and they’re on you.”
He even copped to lying to people who asked if he was Kris Humphries when he was out and about.
“I’d say, ‘Ha! Nah, I just look like him.’ Or I’d say, ‘Nah, I’m Blake Griffin. People get us confused,” he wrote of a fellow NBA player. “I didn’t want to be Kris Humphries. It’s the craziest feeling in the world, not wanting to be yourself. And I didn’t even want to say anything to defend myself, because it felt like I couldn’t win. You can’t go up against the tabloids. You can’t go up against that machine. There’s no point. And even if I played that game, I felt like it would be disrespecting the game of basketball.”
Keeping Up With the Kardashians returns for an all-new season Sunday, March 31 at 9 p.m. ET on E!.
Photo credit: Kevin Mazur / Contributor, Getty
