Kim Kardashian has recently reflected on her three marriages and is realizing each served its own purpose in her life.
During the reunion show following the series finale of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kim opened up about what it's like standing on the other side of three marriages now. You can tell it's an emotional subject for Kim.
For those who aren't well-versed in Kim's life, her first marriage came at a young age and was over pretty quickly. It didn't end as quickly as her 72-day marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries in 2011. That relationship's end paved the way for her greatest love story to date.
Kim and Kanye West truly seemed like a match made in celebrity heaven. Two enormous egos came together thanks to love and hyped each other to be their best selves. That relationship has now run its course, but it's left its impression on Kim. Four kids and many years later, she's learned what real love is and isn't like.
Kim Kardashian's first marriage came when she was just a kid. At 19 years old, Kim married music producer Damon Thomas, who is 10 years her senior, in 2000. Kim has since admitted she was on ecstasy at the time they got married.
Kim and Damon were married for four years before calling it quits, but it was clear to those close to her that the relationship was troubled early on in the marriage. He allegedly had Kim drop out of college and quit her job at a clothing store.
"Damon decided what we would do and when we would do it. He was very much the king of the castle," she said, per The Mirror.
"He said he did not want me to have contact with my old boyfriends who would be able to reach me at the clothing store."
Damon also pressured Kim to change her look, reportedly paying for her to get liposuction for the first time. His controlling ways grew more aggressive during this time.
"Damon told me not to leave the house unless I first told him when and where I was going," she said.
"If Damon were not home, I was required to call him and ask permission to leave the house. For example, he would not allow me to go to the mall alone, or with friends. He told me that he did not want men to have an opportunity to hit on me."
Physical abuse and alienation from her family came later. In their 2003 divorce paperwork, Kim details the abuse.
"He came at me and slammed me against the closet wall," she said of an incident after their separation.
"He held me up against the wall with his hands around my neck and threatened to choke me. He then took one hand and punched the wall right next to my head. He then grabbed me by my hair and told me to get out. He put one hand against my back and pushed me up the stairs (the front door is on the ground level and the bedroom is one level below ground).
"At the top of the stairs, he threw me across the room and I hit my head against the front door. I got up and ran out of the house. I was frightened."
Kim would stay away from weddings for quite some time. But seeing her sisters happy and in love made Kim pursue her own love story, especially after her difficult split from longtime love Reggie Bush. In October 2010, she began dating Kris Humphries.
Kris asked Kim to marry him in May 2011 with a $2 million 20.5-carat engagement ring. The two tied the knot on August 20, 2011. The marriage lasted just 72 days before the couple split. Kim has since explained the pressure she felt and the doubts she had leading up to the nuptials.
"What you said to me is: 'I'm going to put you in a car, no one will find you, just leave and I'll handle it,'" Kim said her mother told her before the wedding.
"And I thought, 'Okay, we're filming this for a TV show. If I leave, I'm going to be known as the runaway bride forever and it's going to be a huge joke, and I think I just have cold feet,'" Kim recalled.
"So I was like, 'Okay guys, it's just cold feet, I got this, it's cold feet, we're filming the show.'"
Kim has also since slammed rumors that she only married Kris for publicity. "The show paid us, obviously, a fee to film the show. I took my entire fee and probably Kris' because I wanted a bigger wedding than what they were going to pay for," she said.
"So I used all of our production money on the wedding, right. So, if that was fake, I would have saved my money."
Kris has shared his own thoughts on the union as part of an essay for The Player's Tribune.
"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," he wrote.
"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," he continued.
"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."
Kim's divorce from Kris wouldn't be finalized until 2013, and that's another situation she regrets how she handled.
"I was so nervous to break up with someone, I handled it totally the wrong way," she said.
"I fully broke up with him in the worst way, and I couldn't, I just didn't know how to deal, I learned so much from it."
Kim went on to explain she wishes she'd granted Kris the annulment he wanted instead of the divorce she insisted on and owed him an apology. She tried to reach out at the time, but the two never spoke substantially again.
By the time of her 2013 divorce, Kim had become mom to daughter North West with new love Kanye West. Months later, Kanye proposed. The couple would go on to get married on May 24, 2014.
Kim and Kanye would go on to have four children together: North, Saint, Chicago, and Psalm. They would go through many ups and downs as Kanye struggled with his mental health and Kim navigated the different areas of her career.
Kim recently revealed that she was forced to look at the things that weren't working in her and Kanye's relationship after turning 40 in October 2020.
"I never thought I was lonely," she shared on the Keeping Up With the Kardashians finale.
"I thought it was totally fine to just have my kids, that my husband could just move from state to state, and I'm just on this ride with him. I was okay with that, but after turning 40 this year, I was like no, I don't want a husband who lives in a completely different state."
In the reunion, Kim is clear on how hard she tried to make the marriage work.
"In no way would I want someone to think that I didn't give it my all, or not really try. You know, we have four kids. There's nothing that I think parents would want more than to see, or even kids want more, than to see their parents together. I grew up and I lived that myself," she shared.
"I respect him so much and you know, that was my friend first, first and foremost, for a long time, so I can't see that going away. I will forever be Kanye's biggest fan. He's the father of my kids, Kanye will always be family."
