Reality star Kim Kardashian married her basketball star boyfriend only to “benefit her show and make money”, a court was told.
The accusation came as lawyers for her estranged husband sought detailed records about her reality shows and details of depositions with her mother and current boyfriend, singer Kanye West, to prove her 72-day marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries was a fraud.
The legal bickering means it is unlikely the couple will be granted a divorce, or annulment, as Humphries desires, before next year, lawyers and a judge said during a hearing in Los Angeles.
The actress’s lawyer Laura Wasser accused Humphries’s team of overreaching in the effort that has already resulted in $250,000 (€203,600) in legal fees for the model-actress.
The acrimony over the break-up led lawyers for Humphries to recently try to serve West with a deposition subpoena – disguised in a Nordstrom’s box – at Kardashian’s home.
Humphries’s lawyer Marshall Waller said the lack of cooperation from West’s attorneys and companies that work on Kardashian’s reality show were delaying the case. He said it could take a two-week trial if Humphries keeps pursuing an annulment based on fraud.
Dr Waller said at the hearing that he wanted to prove Kardashian had “no intention of proceeding with this marriage. That it was basically a contrivance for the benefit of her show and to make money”, he said.
Dr Wasser said the tactic was slowing the legal process and she intended to bill Humphries for her legal fees.
“To say that I’m frustrated would be an understatement,” Dr Wasser said in the packed courtroom.
“I am at a loss to figure out what the hold-up is. ... It’s dragging on, it’s clogging resources.”
Several depositions have been taken, including one of Humphries in his home state of Minnesota, and his girlfriend is scheduled to undergo questioning next week.
Dr Wasser said many of Humphries’s requests for information were overly broad, including information on the finances of Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner.
The couple were married last summer in a lavish, star-studded, televised ceremony, but Kardashian soon filed for divorce on October 31. Humphries responded a month later asking for an annulment, claiming the couple’s nuptials were based on fraud. He did not lay out specific evidence.
Kardashian is the star of the E! Entertainment Television series Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the network’s top-rated show, averaging more than three million viewers in its sixth season.