On 24 May 2014, Kim Kardashian walked down an aisle inside a sixteenth-century fortress overlooking Florence, while the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli sang. It was her third wedding, and by far her most famous. Here is the story of all three.
Two marriages before Kanye
Kim Kardashian’s first husband was Damon Thomas, a music producer. The couple married in 2000, when she was 19, in a small ceremony that was kept out of the public eye. They divorced in 2004, before she became famous.
Her second wedding was the opposite: a televised spectacle. On 20 August 2011 she married basketball player Kris Humphries in Montecito, California, in a ceremony filmed for a two-part television special.
Just 72 days later, on 31 October 2011, she filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. The short marriage became one of the most mocked celebrity relationships of the decade, and the divorce took until 2013 to finalise.
The Florence wedding: Kanye West
Kim Kardashian married rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, on 24 May 2014 at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence, Italy. The couple rented the Renaissance fortress for the occasion, and the wedding and reception took place there.
The celebrations began in Paris, where the couple hosted guests before flying to Italy. In Florence, Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn Jenner, walked the bride down the aisle, and Andrea Bocelli sang during the ceremony, including his song Con te partirò. Kim wore a custom Givenchy gown designed by Riccardo Tisci. The cost of the wedding was widely reported to run into millions of dollars, though exact figures were never confirmed.
The couple had four children together: North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm. Kim Kardashian filed for divorce in February 2021, and the divorce was finalised in 2022.
Why Kim’s weddings still matter
Kim Kardashian’s weddings are a record of how celebrity weddings changed in the 2000s and 2010s. Her first was private; her second was a reality TV production; her third was a high-fashion destination wedding that shaped wedding trends for years, from the all-white floral wall at the reception to the fashion-house gown.
For couples planning their own weddings, Kim’s story carries a simple lesson. The Montecito wedding was among the most expensive and publicised of its year, and the marriage lasted 72 days. The size of the wedding has nothing to do with the strength of the marriage.
