If at first you don't succeed, try again. But make sure to have a prenup!
When Kim Kardashian first said "I do" to music producer Damon Thomas in 2000, she was only 19 years old. More than a decade later at her lavish nuptials to Kris Humphries this August, the 31-year-old thought she was truly ready for marriage a second time around.
In an interview with Marie Claire conducted shortly before her quickie divorce, she explained why she and Humphries, 26, tied the knot just 10 months after meeting. "We felt like, 'Why wait?'" she said. "It's fun to have a partner who understands your life and lets you be you."
She admitted that as a teenage bride married to Thomas she "didn't know myself" but "learned so much from [that relationship]: who I wanted to be, who I never wanted to be."
"I learned how to cook and do a lot of marital things," she added. "It definitely taught me what being a wife is all about. I think it means taking care of each other's needs and being there for someone unconditionally."
But Kardashian explained to the magazine why, despite her sisters' objections to Humphries, she defended the NBA hunk from the get-go. "I'm not worried about him at all," she said. "We have a lot of trust, and I don't think either of us would do anything to break that. It makes life so easy. He's such a good guy; he is so down-to-earth, and it's such a reality check."
When Kardashian filed for divorce after just 72 days of marriage on Oct. 31, Humphries claimed he was blindsided. But his future ex-wife explained herself in a blog post: "I felt like I was on a fast roller coaster and I couldn't get off when now I know I probably should have. I got caught up with the hoopla and the filming of the TV show that when I probably should have ended my relationship, I didn't know how to and didn't want to disappoint a lot of people." (The wedding was filmed for a two-part special on E!, Kim's Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event.)
But even before she walked down the aisle, she told Marie Claire she felt an obligation to let fans in on her experience. "I felt like if I didn't show the wedding, it would be upsetting for people who have taken this journey with me," she said.
She told the magazine she was well aware the public interest in her life wouldn't last forever. "It will all die down eventually," she said. "We get that. We've had so much fun, and hopefully the decisions we're making now will set us up so we have successful companies that are prospering long beyond the reality show."
Kim's full interview can be found in Marie Claire's December issue.
