Kim Kardashian’s divorce has engulfed her family and network, literally.
Attorneys for her estranged husband sought detailed records Wednesday about her reality shows and details of depositions with her mother and current boyfriend Kanye West to prove her 72-day marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries was a fraud.
The legal bickering means it’s unlikely the couple will be granted a divorce, or annulment, as Humphries desires, before next year, attorneys and a judge said during a testy hearing.
Kardashian’s attorney Laura Wasser accused Humphries’ team of overreaching in the effort that has already resulted in $250,000 in legal fees for the model-actress. The acrimony over the breakup 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’ attorney 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.
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.
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,” Wasser said in the packed courtroom where 18 other cases were to be called. “I am at a loss to figure out what the holdup is. … It’s dragging on, it’s clogging resources.”
The couple was married last summer in a lavish, star-studded, televised ceremony, but Kardashian soon filed for divorce on Oct. 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 3 million viewers in its sixth season.
Superior Court Judge Stephen Moloney said he thinks the case can still be resolved by next May and ordered the attorneys to return for an update on Nov. 28.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.