Was Kim Kardashian & Kris Humphries’ Marriage A Sham?

Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries met just one year ago and were only married for 72 days, but was the NBA star Kim’s first pick to be her groom and was their relationship orchestrated?

Access Hollywood sat down with The Daily’s Los Angeles Bureau Chief Richard Johnson who claimed Kris was cast in the role of Kim’s husband and was not her first choice.

“This was a reality TV marriage which means that it’s unreal,” Johnson claimed. “I think they came together for the reasons of making money, making ratings and making programming and the season was over and so was the marriage.”

According to Johnson, Kris wasn’t even Kim’s first choice for her leading man.

“She went out and looked for an NBA player to sort of star in the next season of her show,” he continued. “Danilo Gallinari was a very handsome Italian player for the New York Knicks, now he’s on the Denver Nuggets, but she went after him first and he wasn’t interested and then [Kim] settled on Kris Humphries.”

But was Kris aware of the plan alleged by Johnson?

Johnson speculates the couple’s lucrative money train stopped due to the NBA owners locking the players out while they negotiate a new contract.

“Once they had the NBA lockout, he was suddenly hanging around the house. He was interfering with her activities and it was never supposed to be that way,” Johnson claimed. “If the NBA was playing now, he would be playing the New Jersey Nets’ 82 scheduled games.”

Despite Johnson’s claims, marriage counselor Stacy Kaiser – who appeared on Tuesday’s Access Hollywood Live — does not buy into the idea that the couple’s relationship was orchestrated.

“I don’t really believe that’s the case,” she said. “First of all, there has been way too much emotion behind what’s been going on between them. There’s been so much anger and sadness and resentment and it’s my belief that you just can’t fake that.”

On Tuesday, E! also released a statement slamming reports that the relationship was manufactured.

“Any insinuation that E! and producers orchestrated Kim’s wedding is completely false,” E! said in a statement to Access. “The Kardashians have authentically lived their lives on camera for a long time and Kim’s wedding is one of the many real-life events that the family has shared with viewers, from Mason’s birth to coping with their father’s death to Khloe and Lamar’s wedding.”

“The big question is whether Kris Humphries actually knew what the plan was or whether he was the unwitting adult,” Johnson continued. “I think he figured it out eventually because supposedly he began asking for demands and supposedly he asked for a raise from E!. And lately, he hired a publicist and I think however naive and innocent going in, he was no longer naive and innocent at the end.”