Kris Humphries Files For Legal Separation From Kim Kardashian—but Why Annulment Instead of Divorce?

Kim Kardashian's ex hubby lodges paperwork to wipe 72-day marriage from their records—why the drastic measure?

And just like that, Kris Humphries is looking to wipe away his 72-day marriage to Kim Kardashian as if it never existed.

E! News has confirmed that the basketballer made good on his promise yesterday to file for a legal separation and nullity of marriage from the reality star, rather than the more traditional divorce. The papers were filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court yesterday.

So that answers the question of what he was going to do. Now, as for the why behind it...

"An annulment essentially legally restates you back to the position of a single person, as if the marriage never happened," Century City Family law attorney Peter Lauzon tells E! News. "Whereas in a divorce, the marriage is recognized and terminated by the divorce proceeding."

And while no one knows just yet on what basis Humphries will be seeking an annulment, there are a number of reasons he could cite.

Among the claims frequently cited in annulment attempts are impotency, bigamy, marriage to a blood relative, marriage without consent, and fraud. And while dramatic-sounding, that last option wouldn't be without precedent.

Back in 2005, Kenny Chesney and Renée Zellweger had their marriage declared a fraud in after just four months of marriage, which they explained as "miscommunication of the objective of their marriage."

As for Humphries, should he choose to go that route, proving that his marriage to Kim was fraudulent will not be an easy task.

"The annulment on fraud is very difficult to prove," said Lauzon. "He would argue that his consent was obtained by fraud because she never intended to be married in the first place, that this was always a sham to get the money from the TV rights, etc."

A tough argument to make, since Kim herself has already decried those allegations.

So if Kim has filed for divorce and Kris has filed for an annulment, what happens next?

"There's going to be some court skirmishes," said Lauzon. "Often times in these particular celebrity-type cases, you retain a private judge and it's kept out of the limelight."

Yeah, good luck with that one.