Kris Humphries, the former NBA player whose 72-day marriage to Kim Kardashian made headlines in 2011, has built a quiet life back home in Minnesota focused on restaurant businesses and staying out of the spotlight.
The 6-foot-9 forward retired from professional basketball in 2019 after 13 seasons in the league. He’s now 40 years old and operates multiple restaurant franchises across the Midwest.
From Swimming Star to NBA Player
Humphries grew up on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota as a competitive swimmer who once beat Michael Phelps in childhood races. He switched to basketball at age 12.
After setting records at the University of Minnesota, Humphries entered the NBA Draft following his freshman year. The Utah Jazz selected him in 2004.
“My whole identity, my whole life, was basketball,” Humphries wrote for the Players’ Tribune in 2019. “I didn’t really have other interests. I didn’t do anything else. I was a gym rat.”
His 13-year NBA career took him through six teams. He played for Utah (2004-2006), Toronto (2006-2009), Dallas (2009-2010), New Jersey/Brooklyn (2010-2013), Boston (2013-2014), Washington (2014-2016), Phoenix (2016), and Atlanta (2016-2017).
The Kardashian Marriage That Changed Everything
Humphries started dating Kardashian in October 2010 while playing for the New Jersey Nets. The relationship thrust him into mainstream celebrity culture he wasn’t prepared for.
They got engaged in May 2011 in front of Keeping Up With the Kardashians cameras.
The couple married on August 20, 2011, in an extravagant Montecito ceremony filmed for E!’s two-part special Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event.
Kardashian filed for divorce just 72 days later on October 31, 2011. Humphries requested an annulment claiming fraud, leading to a nearly two-year legal battle that ended in June 2013.
“I was definitely naive about how much my life was going to change,” Humphries wrote. “But the one thing that really bothers me is whenever people say that my marriage was fake. There’s definitely a lot about that world that is not entirely real. But our actual relationship was 100% real.”
Dealing With the Aftermath
The public scrutiny took a serious toll on Humphries during his remaining basketball years. Fans would boo him at games across the country.
“I was playing at Madison Square Garden for the first time after my marriage ended, and I was getting booed so loud that it was crazy,” he recalled. “I wasn’t Kris Humphries any more. I wasn’t a real person. I was That Guy.”
The experience led to anxiety and depression.
“I didn’t want to leave my home,” he wrote. “You feel like the whole world hates you, but they don’t even know why. They don’t even know you at all.”
Building a Restaurant Empire
Since retiring, Humphries has focused on restaurant ventures in his home state and across the Midwest.
He operates 10 Five Guys franchises and opened seven Crisp & Green locations. In 2022, Humphries partnered with his parents and cousin Alex to bring Dave’s Hot Chicken to Minnesota.
The family plans to open 18 Dave’s Hot Chicken locations throughout the state, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
“Since I’ve stepped away from the game, I’m trying to stay under the radar and work on a new phase of my life,” Humphries wrote in 2019.
Life at Lake Minnetonka
Humphries lives near Lake Minnetonka outside Minneapolis, where he grew up. His social media shows travels to places like Miami and Yellowstone National Park, but he keeps a low profile.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he discovered pickleball. Humphries competed in the Celebrity Pickleball Showdown in November 2024.
“Pickleball’s a lot of fun, just competitive and exciting once I got past the fact that it’s a wiffle ball,” he told Pickleballtv.
Humphries hasn’t been publicly linked to anyone romantically since his relationship with Kardashian ended.
“I hope that true fans of basketball remember me as a grinder, as a guy who transformed into a heck of a rebounder,” he wrote. “I was never a person who wanted to be famous. I’m a guy from Minnesota who loves the game of basketball.”
